Press Release

RESPONSE TO TAXPAYERS ALLIANCE REPORT ON COUNCIL FUNDING FROM LGA

28th April 2008

Responding to the latest report on local authority pay by The Taxpayers' Alliance, John Ransford, the Deputy Chief Executive of the Local Government Association, which represents more than 400 councils in England and Wales, said:

“Saving ten percent on what councils spend would lead to savage cuts in vital local services. The elderly and vulnerable would receive worse care and leave millions of people without the necessary information to know where to get services that they have paid for through their council tax. Hard working front line staff such as lollipop ladies and bin men would be condemned to a paltry retirement.

Responding to the Taxpayers' Alliance call for a ten percent cut in pensions for council workers local government pensions, John Ransford, said:

“The Taxpayers' Alliance appears to be condemning lollipop ladies, bin men, street cleaners and librarians for getting a pension worthy of the years of service they have given helping local people. Councils provide more than 800 different services for local residents and these cannot be delivered by robots or machines.

“The Local Government Pension Scheme recently underwent a radical overhaul, which provides greater value for money to the taxpayer while at the same time recognising the invaluable work that council staff do to make the lives of local people better.

“According to the Treasury, councils are the most efficient and effective part of the public sector and the independent Audit Commission has recently said that councils are delivering better services than ever before.”

Responding to the reports analysis of council workers earning over £50,000 a year, John Ransford, said:

"These figures represent 0.0005 per cent of the total workforce in local government. Councils are responsible for ensuring that more than £100billion of taxpayers’ money is spent wisely and provides more than 700 services local people want and need. Many councils have bigger budgets than FTSE100 companies and to get the brightest people to deliver the best services for local people they need to pay a competitive wage.

"When senior salaries in the private sector are compared to senior salaries in the public sector, the taxpayer gets very good value for money.

"Councils' commitment to driving up standards is going from strength to strength and performance continues to improve albeit with strained resources. The Audit Commission has reported that councils are delivering an ever better deal for taxpayers and local authorities already have the best track record on efficiency savings in the public sector.”

Responding to the call for a ten percent cut in expenditure on informing people what services they can get from their council, John Ransford, said:

“People would be furious if they had no idea of what services their cash was paying for and how they could get to use them."

"Without information people will fail to understand the relevance of their council or why they should bother to turn out and vote. Unless information is given to people to explain why their council matters then local democracy will be threatened with extinction."