Birmingham council tax increase 10%

Most councils are incompetent thieves, who work in new plush offices, with gold plated pensions. Part funded by our CT payments.
The year on year increase in CT is bad enough, but 10% is just taking the Mick. As is the Government for allowing it to happen & not funding the councils properly. On top of which you have the useless Police & Crime Commissioners increasing their precept year on year & delivering nothing for it.
I really fear for the financial future of our young people & those residents on low incomes.
 
585 = never give up said:
Most councils are incompetent thieves, who work in new plush offices, with gold plated pensions. Part funded by our CT payments.
The year on year increase in CT is bad enough, but 10% is just taking the Mick. As is the Government for allowing it to happen & not funding the councils properly. On top of which you have the useless Police & Crime Commissioners increasing their precept year on year & delivering nothing for it.
I really fear for the financial future of our young people & those residents on low incomes.
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Not sure the vast majority of council workers, such as bin men , vermin exterminators, and sewage cleaners actually work in new plush offices . If you wanted a gold plated pension maybe you should apply for one of those jobs . I know Blackpool council need more sewage workers at the moment .
 
As usual, the truth is more complicated. There is no doubt that this council has been indifferently managed at best for a long time, going back to its rating as "weak" in the first Comprehensive Performance Assessment at the turn of the century - they were lucky that it wasn't worse.

They didn't learn though, and they are also the most badly affected council in the country when it comes to financial exposure to equal pay claims in blue-collar services going back a couple of decades. That is partly a product of having the largest workforce and budget of any council in England, I think.

They are in the eye of a perfect storm, and now in the hands of the emergency Commissioners since they effectively declared themselves bankrupt last year. They (the Commissioners) are calling the shots now and I'm not surprised that they have gone for 10% ; I doubt it will be the last such increase as they have to get the Council back to a position of technical solvency as soon as possible.

All this talk of thieving and gold-plated pensions is nonsense. There is a debate to be had about executive pay in local government ; in my day it was substantially higher than that in central Government. I also think that for a very long time local government has cried wolf about money and damaged their own credibility as a result.

However, they have had savage cuts in recent times under this Government and councils like Birmingham that were already in a fragile state do not have the resilience to stand up to this. The reality is that over a long period a lot of low paid staff (mainly women) have been discriminated against in terms of pay and conditions and some have or will also lose their jobs now. And Birmingham won't be the only place where this happens.
 
ansdellmafia said:
Not sure the vast majority of council workers, such as bin men , vermin exterminators, and sewage cleaners actually work in new plush offices . If you wanted a gold plated pension maybe you should apply for one of those jobs . I know Blackpool council need more sewage workers at the moment .
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Very constructive criticism from the village idiot (and maybe a shiney ar*ed council employee).
Firstly you know nothing about my background or my service record.
Secondly, you know the point I was making, & that is councils waste money hand over fist and don't manage their budgets like they do their family budget.
You're insults are why decent people have stopped posting.
 
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I saw an article a while ago about a taxi firm who had the contract to get disabled kids and able bodied kids to school and they were charging £200 a day to take one child 3 miles. They were paid 11 million over the year with one of the runs costing out at £65 a mile, maybe this has contributed to their problems...?
 
Bennys_was_a_mob said:
And the government agree with this.


Barn door opened

Wait for the stampede from other councils, they've been waiting for something like this. The 5% cap is now all but done with, thieves the lot of them.
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Birmingham have gone bankrupt so are an exception to the rule, I would think.

Plus it gives the Tories an excuse to blame somebody else.
 
Bennys_was_a_mob said:
And the government agree with this.


Barn door opened

Wait for the stampede from other councils, they've been waiting for something like this. The 5% cap is now all but done with, thieves the lot of them.
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Birmingham have been a badly run council for years and financially mismanaged, including the spend on the commonwealth games, central library / arts centre , central station and other vanity projects they couldn't afford, with unaffordable borrowing. They a monolith, being too big to be managed easily and massively overstaffed and many day to day services underperformed or inadequate. And they have ignored these problems for years, resulting in them being essentially broke now. The additional council tax increase is only being allowed because they are in such a dire position. It will be accompanied by both cuts in service budgets and sale of assets.
 
I guess you spin this whichever way your beliefs run.

Reality is the central grant diminishing since 2010, with the statutory services councils have to supply increasing. Most have now sold off most / all their disposable assets. None of this is to excuse those who have spent profligately, or got caught up in dodgy get rich quick schemes, but is certainly more complicated than Councils shxt, Government good.
 
They do empty my bins on time every week
bfcpete said:
Birmingham have been a badly run council for years and financially mismanaged, including the spend on the commonwealth games, central library / arts centre , central station and other vanity projects they couldn't afford, with unaffordable borrowing. They a monolith, being too big to be managed easily and massively overstaffed and many day to day services underperformed or inadequate. And they have ignored these problems for years, resulting in them being essentially broke now. The additional council tax increase is only being allowed because they are in such a dire position. It will be accompanied by both cuts in service budgets and sale of assets.
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Yep agree with all that. They empty my bins on time every week but I won't be recycling anymore. For a 10% increase they can do it themselves.
 
bfcpete said:
Birmingham have been a badly run council for years and financially mismanaged, including the spend on the commonwealth games, central library / arts centre , central station and other vanity projects they couldn't afford, with unaffordable borrowing. They a monolith, being too big to be managed easily and massively overstaffed and many day to day services underperformed or inadequate. And they have ignored these problems for years, resulting in them being essentially broke now. The additional council tax increase is only being allowed because they are in such a dire position. It will be accompanied by both cuts in service budgets and sale of assets.
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That's all correct Pete but why should the common hard working tax payer have to pay for all this "extravagance".

Nobody seems to have been pulled up about all this over spending for years on end yet the people who have to pay for this are your typical tax payer, who have probably never benifited in any way, but now it is their problem and pay they will.

It is an absolute shameful disgrace, and by this time next year, you me and probably the majority in this country will be suffering the same kind of council tax hikes.

That will not be any fault of any new government, because as we all know these god damn Tories will not be in power.

I will not be voting Labour by the way as I just do not trust any of the big parties, they all read from the same book and eventually shaft everyone the same way.
 
Council have had their fire funding cut but this government for a long time. It's political, they don't like local authorities.

Councils have also spent money they don't have, doing things they don't need to do and some things they are patently incapable of doing.

But we've shat had a huge increase in old people, people who aren't paying council tax (unemployed etc) and a massive rise in children being looked after.

The private equity types are now running the show for looked after children and they are having our eyes out.

Thousands of pounds per week, whilst paying not much more than NMW.

It needs dealing with.
 
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