
Harry Fone: If Slough Council wants action on the cost of living, it should start by raising its game
Plus: Welsh council reserves increase during the pandemic. The complex Council Tax rebate is an utter shambles, with widespread delays.
Plus: Welsh council reserves increase during the pandemic. The complex Council Tax rebate is an utter shambles, with widespread delays.
Plus: Pet projects in Durham, with a £50 million new HQ. Councillors in Wolverhampton increase their allowances by 17 per cent.
Shetland, Wandsworth, Southampton, and Harlow are among the few local authorities bucking the trend.
Takes from the Centre for Policy Studies, the Adam Smith Institute, the TaxPayers’ Alliance, the Centre for Social Justice, and more.
Through its “efficiency dividend” residents will receive a reduction of up to £50 this year, without any cuts to frontline services.
How can it be fair that local residents are hit financially, yet councillors’ allowances and executive remuneration have both increased?
Figures released by the TaxPayers’ Alliance show that average household can already expect to pay over £1.1 million in tax over their lifetimes.
Plus: Gwynedd Council should not take the day off for St David’s Day. In Warrington, the nightmare that is council energy companies returns.
Ministers will be on much surer ground if they justify change on the basis of social habits.
From failing energy companies, to white elephant projects, many local authorities have continued to pour public money down the drain.
How have think-tanks and campaign groups responded to the Chancellor’s fiscal and economic initiatives?
Most obviously, this complicates their Net Zero strategy; you would have expected fiscal policy increasingly to have rebalanced towards green taxes.
Croydon has a “Cultural Transformation Engagement Programme” – and there’s more elsewhere.
Hospitals across England are reportedly accommodating patients on the basis of gender rather than sex.
2018-19’s accounts are still unaudited. Who knew about the massive black hole in the council’s finances?