Reform led Worcestershire County inherited a tight budget with rising spending for 2025-6 from the outgoing Council when it took over at the beginning of the new financial year. Councillors rightly argued for lower spending to get elected.
Instead of making early spending reductions which were clearly needed in its first year in office it has allowed spending to rise more, well above its income growth. It inherited a maximum increase in Council tax bringing in considerable extra revenue. The Council has also drawn down more reserves to pay some of the bills over and above the tax rise.
It has now asked for a Capitalisation Directive from the government. This is an emergency device which allows a Council to borrow to pay the running bills, where under the rules they are only usually allowed to borrow for capital investment. They are meant then to take action to control future costs to avoid further overspending in later years. If the Council carries on borrowing to cover running costs of services it can get into an unaffordable debt spiral, with interest costs taking up more and more of the income.
For 2025-6 its first year the new Council will use £23 million from inherited reserves for current spending, and will borrow a further £33.6m under this special permission from government. This borrowing will need to be repaid with interest over the following 20 years. This has happened despite receiving the extra tax from a full 5% Council Tax rise this year imposed by the outgoing Council.
The Council is now consulting on its 2026-7 budget. It says it wants an additional £98 m to spend on a net revenue budget of around £500 m. It asks for views on Council tax rises below the 5% maximum, at the 5% maximum and at the higher levels of 7.5% and 10% where they would need government permission. Assuming the 5% rise, they say they will still have a gap of £66m between their wish to spend and their income. From the look of the document they think their tax choice rests between 5% and higher.They are consulting on another Capitalisation Directive, to borrow an additional £43.6 m to cover current spending.
The document mentions the possibility of reducing the growth in spending, but sets out no options on how to do this. It argues that corporate overheads have been cut in previous years and are under good control. They are stated as just 3% of the budget total, whilst soaring debt costs as they borrow more are now 5% of the budget. It is unlikely the public will write in with a costed schedule of spending cuts. This surely should be the job of the Councillors to set them out with the officers, and to consult the public on them.
I urge the Council to identify the savings necessary to avoid more emergency borrowing and to keep the Council tax rise down . The government back up of allowing emergency borrowing for cost over runs must not become a regular event as that is the route to the public sector equivalent of bankruptcy.
November 17, 2025
Good morning.
So what are the reasons the council needs to increase its spending ? Usually it is adult services that take up a large chunk of the councils budget. Bringing large numbers of people and allowing them to access public services withoiut paying in does not help. We need more information.
And Worcestershire Council are not alone. Croydon Council have gone bust many times in the past.
Reply Spending is rising too fast across the whole budget, not just social care. Social care departments often waste a lot of money.
November 17, 2025
At least 25 percent of every council tax bill is to pay staff pensions. So people who may not be able to afford pensions for themselves pay out for superior pensions for council staff. Same for National government as well. Why? They are no longer poorly paid, many much better than the private sector which pays for all the bills.
November 17, 2025
You can point out council waste – or civil service waste. Both are valid examples and more evidence could be supplied.
The problem is getting anybody in power to address this.
Labour will not upset those who are paid via the public purse, as they don’t wish to upset more voters. Conservatives have done little about this either. Reform are new to the game and the quality of their elected party members is not fully known.
November 17, 2025
Once the the children get into the sweet shop whatever the party they will find things to waste the money on. The Tories over 14 years borrowed an extra £1.9 trillion this largely spend doing huge net harms net zero, net have Covid Vaccines, lockdowns, over regulation, HS2…
Annunziata Rees-Mogg said the BBC was the only think we had to pay for ever if we did not use it. Hardly 90% of government too.
So even the invariably deluded fake Tory but occasionally amusing Matthew Parris is coming round to reality – “It’s time to derail the benefit gravy train” in the TImes today.
Indeed it is also ditch net zero, scrap Chagos and HS2, get a sensible energy policy, halve the size of the state, scrap DEI…
So the UK government, through Active Travel England (ATE) guidance, has advised limiting road widths to specific ranges to improve safety for cyclists and pedestrians. The guidance is not legally binding, but councils are expected to follow it.
The recommended lane widths are based on the principle of encouraging safer driving behaviour, either by making it clear that overtaking is unsafe or by providing enough room to pass safely:
So more people cycling and holding up cars delaying people getting to and from work etc. what a great plan. Cycling is about 10 times more dangerous per mile than a car also it is fuelled by human food a very inefficient fuel. Perhaps we need to design car that are most efficient at 20 mph max if this is the mad plan.
November 17, 2025
But today’s problem is overspending in Reform led Councils which were elected on a promise to rein in the Council blob.
If they can’t control those (comparatively) tiny budgets and second rank bureaucrats, how do you think they will fare against the top rank? And some of the current Reform Councillors have experience, the would-be Boss has no experience.
Indeed he is already saying the more Nationalisation would be a good thing. Not only is he going to run the Government into the ground, but aspires to run the railways etc and the British people into the ground too.
November 17, 2025
Most costs are previously contracted ones which increase year on year …thought you’d know that. Others are social benefits recruitment and benefit cheating. The problem is not so much people who need and deserve help, more the massive increase in people claiming and getting benefits who should not be entitled. Across the board reductions are difficult as they hit the deserving too!
November 17, 2025
You don’t have to cut ‘most’ costs, you just have to target the ones easily trashed. Original” Richard came up with two in minutes, that would at least, not have increased costs.
November 17, 2025
Milliband promised 300 quid off our energy bills to get elected as well, so where is that promise? In the bin like all the others, smashing the gangs, growth etc. Politicians in the main are useless and many are dangerous. I have always said that PM’s have too much power in what is in effect an elective dictatorship, where the paying public come last every time. Are any of them any better? At least reform have some new ideas, rather than keeping on pulling the same old levers and getting the same old result just as Einstein said.
November 17, 2025
The PM should not be have access Royal Prerogative, which should be scrapped. Parliament is there to ensure it’s NOT an elected dictatorship.
What new ideas do Reform have?
November 17, 2025
Well they are unproven I agree, but the others are tested, proven liars and have serially failed!
So the UK health and security Agency are refusing to release proper raw data to show how much damage the Covid Vaccines actually did lest it upsets some people who died as a result. Rather like admitting they were hugely damaging.
Rather like Wes Streeting wanting to keep Lucy Letby in Jail with no appeal, this so as not to upset the families of her “victims” who were clearly not her victims at all or certainly were not remotely proved to be.
November 17, 2025
Simon Briggs in today’s Telegraph (in the style of Lifelogic):-
Wembley stadium v Twickenham
“Value for money
Wembley
My seat cost £121.50. It seemed a bit steep for a World Cup qualifier, at twice as much as a lot of Premier League matches. The stadium wasn’t full, with just over 74,000 of 90,000 seats occupied. Add around £20 for food and drink.
6/10
Twickenham
It was £163 for the ticket, and another £17.50 for fish, chips and mushy peas. But then you have to factor in the demand: the RFU could probably have sold out this stadium twice over.,”
The cost of live entertainment is ridiculous. I remember it was ten bob for a 1966 world cup final ticket, plus half a crown to a tout outside Wembley Hill station.
If England match was showing on screen somewhere I probably would not watch it now. They often disappoint and they had already qualified before this match.
I pay less for premier league football, match by match,than Simon Briggs paid for his food at Wembley. Away tickets at Arsenal are £12:75 for pensioners.
If I was asked to pay Briggs prices I would pack it in.
Test matches are a complete no go. I remember turning down free England Australia tickets at The Oval from work decades ago.
November 17, 2025
World cup quarter final ticket not Final ticket !
We had tickets for semi final (Portugal) and third place ( Portugal v Soviet Union) no touts involved.
Even so still modest prices.
November 17, 2025
I assume it was mainly drafted by the council’s senior employees!
November 17, 2025
Yes, I’m sure the new budget has been purposely inflated by the council senior staff. I think a team of forensic accountants should be drafted in to identify major spending cuts. I assume the council still employ climate scam specialist and probably an EU liason office. I’m sure the last thing identified was staff cuts.
Reply The proposals for the budget should be supervised by Councillors, who will be asked to vote for the result of the consultation on the proposals. Good Councillors can mould the consultation and decide on the final budget.
November 17, 2025
Good Councillors indeed – and how many of these do we see. They need to be bright and honest but it is rarely a job that appeals to the bright and honest. Plus even if they are and get elected they often weill no win support from other councillors or council staff by being bright and honest! Usually the reverse they will fight to preserve the currently staff first system and all their power and money!
November 17, 2025
Plus our local county council took advantage of the ‘reorganisation’ now going on to get 3 more years in office without bothering the voters.
November 17, 2025
Perhaps we should not allow candidates for Westminster unless they have been a Councillor? That would provide us with a track record and the individual would have tested themselves to see if they actually want to be elected politicians.
I know JR was a councillor, so was Alfred Sherman, who would have been a great MP had his voice not let him down. He chose to have his ideas and words presented by others – K Joseph, M Thatcher.
November 17, 2025
reply to reply…last comment hit the nail on the head, the country is drowning in politicised Councillors.
November 17, 2025
I remember when the Poll Tax came was mooted. New buildings ordered by our council, more staff and computers and remain to this day. Councils used to have direct staff, but now just employ others to do the work. Result – no money, nothing gets done, everything just deteriorates
November 17, 2025
Yup.
November 17, 2025
The other Parties will be enjoying this. I would want my Council to publish an analysis of the costs which identified what they had to provide by law and what they didn’t. For the former they would also estimate the cost of a bare bones provision (no bells & whistles).
Most of us ratepayers don’t know much about local authority finance so this would be a start. For services that are mandatory, which we all use (waste collection…?) they could propose options for consultation.
All the costs and proposed savings would also be shown as a single £ figure for how much they would be in the average Council Tax bill. We could then see if we wanted to spend £10 on libraries or £200 on weekly bin collection etc.
November 17, 2025
How much of their spending is on statutory duties, which they have no discretion over?
Pass a law that says local councils decide whether to pay care home bills for people who spent all they ever had and didn’t put by for their old age.
Reply All Council spending is on items that are defined in statute law. Councils can decide how much of each to provide and how much it costs. Highways, environment, education, social services, trading standards, planning, waste disposal etc all statutory, all very varied in quantity, quality and cost by different Councils. That is the challenge for Councillors and their officers.
November 17, 2025
So John you’re saying that councils can refuse to pay care home fees for the feckless. My mother had to sell her home after we could no longer keep her at home, we’re mid 70s. In her lovely care home of only 40 residents, 5 were self funded. Now with the influx of immigrants this is set to worsen.
Reply No I am saying no such thing. They have a duty to provide care to young, old and disabled. The cost and quality of care they provide is up to them, and they have decisions to make on who is eligible or who needs it. I helped my parents sell their home to pay for fees at a good high fees home. I had no right to inherit money they needed to live well in their final years.
November 17, 2025
We believe the same John but it’s getting very difficult to justify losing all assets for a few of the population when those who made no provision get everything free.
November 17, 2025
The system often encourages people not to work and to spend or dispose of assets well before old age otherwise the state will grab it all in care costs, IHT or other taxes. Then they will spend it on pointless or damaging things. It says you might as well be feckless so why bother not to be! Either that or leave the country for one that has a rather more sensible tax and benefit system, energy system, lower crime levels, better border controls and no two Tier Kier justice…
Good to hear Tice going on about the hiding of the health statistice properly broken down by Covid vaccine status. If they showed the Covid vaccines were indeed “safe and effective” they clearly would not be hiding them would they?
Reform have promist a real inquiry into this not the sick joke of one we currently have running.
November 17, 2025
Agreed Ian.
Imagine this: Bill spent all his money on smoking, drinking, sex, drugs, rock n’ roll and gambling.
At age 40 he was £180,000 in debt and needing nursing care for the rest of his life. He received it free.
Sally, a spinster, lived frugally. She spent on buying her own home and saved all she could. Then at 66 she needed residential care, and had to spend £5,200 each month from her life assets to pay for it until she died.
This is a fictitious example of people, yet Sir John opines by inference that Sally ought not be allowed to pass her savings to her niece. If that is fair, why are those who live moderate sensible lives forced to pay for Bill’s recklessness?
November 17, 2025
Another very large nail hit on the head. Other situations are very costly home ownership over decades in mortgages, repairs, adaptations. Why should I not expect to pass on what is left of my estate after ‘reasonable’ care costs, when outnumbered often 5 to1 by free care residents?
Council ‘Reasonable’ usually means inflated way above the cost per ‘free’ resident.
Precisely our experience with my Father-in-law some years ago.
November 17, 2025
R to R
In the world you Westminster politicians have created the feckless and unavoidably poor get end of life care free. Everybody should. Then perhaps the grandchildren of our generation might be able to buy their own homes.
November 17, 2025
Not all ‘care’ is equal.
November 17, 2025
But there are ways of allowing them to stay at home.Remember It is not always only the the desire of the children who are to inherit,but also the desire of the house owner who has tried a lifetime to provide for the children and a final act in their life to empower them as any parent would like.
November 17, 2025
Would be interesting to see what % of their total council tax revenue goes on pension payments and contributions to employees (this varies but is 17-25% is typical but for some councils it’s 50%) and what % goes on servicing past debt (varies but 18% is average). These two items are inflexible and not under their control (the pension money goes into the Local Government pension Scheme) so it leaves a much smaller percentage of spending to find reductions in, and some of that is in things like adult social care which is very difficult to cut immediately. So it is not really surprising they have found that no savings are possible – beyond a few councils dabbling in property development there is not much low hanging fruit left.
Reply There is plenty of scope to cut and reduce Council spending. People should not stand in an election promising cuts and lower taxes if they do not know how to do it and then do the opposite.These Councils have always had to meet social care needs.
November 17, 2025
A special state sector pension tax is needed. It would not be easy to avoid as simply deducted at source. Pehaps 85% of everything above the average private penison in the private sector! After all it was the private sector who are paying for them! This would also have the advantage that many would stop working and perhaps move to the productive sector saving more tax payers money.
November 17, 2025
After all they have mugged farmers and small business owners with IHT so why not mug huge state pension holder. I suppose MPs would have to be exempt to get it through though!
November 17, 2025
That is the critical point. Before you state in an election that you will do something if elected you need to know how you will implement that promise and you need to hit the ground running. No start thinking about it from your new office.
It’s possible we are going to have to demand exact details of how promises will be implemented and that those manifesto pledges will be obligatory on pain of reversing the election.
November 17, 2025
Exactly. Labour had 14 years in opposition and came into power with not one plan, even though they lied by saying they had a fully costed programme.
November 17, 2025
@Lynn A. That would be ideal. I can imagine though that the bureaucrats and vested interests would fight tooth and nail to deny you the information you need in order to formulate a realistic policy, or lead you astray.
November 17, 2025
Opposition get all the information.
November 17, 2025
R to R
Wise up, you cannot fulfill any promises when in a minority postion. Check the figures. Reform face a collective opposition of all other parties led by a green chairman. Conservatives holding hands with labour and lib dems led by a green. You could not make it up. It is a comment on the collective uselessness of Westminster and most who sail in her and a fear for what Reform might do to their complacency.
Reply The Chair of a Council when presiding has to be neutral. It is the Leader who signs off budgets and policies and needs to secure the backing of Council. If the Leader cannot get her budget or policies through then she needs to resign from the Leader role.No evidence of any Councillor led list of spending cuts for current or next year budget to avoid emergency borrowing for revenue spend.
November 17, 2025
reply to reply …it should have been obvious that the spending direction of travel was going to exceed any sources of income. That existing Council was not dealing with the crisis arriving – plenty of examples around the country. Crazy levels of borrowing being accepted.
November 17, 2025
Agricola no need to lash out because you don’t like the facts.
Worcestershire County Council’s cabinet is composed of ten Reform UK councillors and the Leader of the council. Cabinet members work closely with the directors and professional officers of the council to ensure the successful implementation of the decisions they make.
November 17, 2025
Well Lynn as you want to trade only facts that suit your bias – how many and what Parties are the other Councillors? You are really terrified of Reform aren ‘t you!
November 18, 2025
@Mickey Taking.
There are no other councillors in the cabinet which takes a lot of decisions without referral to the full council.
The statement was taken fr9m Worcestershire CC website.
Yes I am terrified of Reform. If you had any wit you would be too.
November 17, 2025
Resign? Just like they do in Westminster? They have to be caught with thier fingers in the till for that to happen.
November 17, 2025
For many years Wokingham had no Council Care Home, so we all had to find a decent private home.
November 17, 2025
Although Reform talk a lot about cutting spending, in the DOGE manner, they are not really a “right wing” party economically – Farage for example supports scrapping the two child benefit cap (at huge cost) and not reducing taxes until some point in the future (so possibly never). This is partly positioning to shore up their Labour red wall vote by avoiding the “austerity” charge. Rather than being a Thatcherite party they are really more like the UK version of Le Pen’s party with socially conservative policies on immigration and so on more left-wing economic policies. This is causing them some problems at local level given they seem not to want to cut spending at all, luckily at national level there are some big tickets items they can cut immediately without impacting low-wage voters (eg. Net Zero subsidies).
November 17, 2025
They will not have the wherewithall to do any of it.
November 17, 2025
Pass the crystal ball. I need to know the lottery numbers.
November 17, 2025
No foresight required. Farage has run a few parties into the ground. 30 year track record. Earned a lot and was skint himself, as he declared on the front pages. So could not even budget for a family.
November 17, 2025
When the electorate vote for whoever tells them they can have more stuff budgets will come under pressure.
Reform are showing that they are no different to any other party in a democracy where the have nots and more importantly the will nots outweigh the haves and wills.
Perhaps it is time that only those paying in get to vote.
November 17, 2025
Logically they governent are choosing how to spend tax payer money so tax payers should have more say in this.
“We are asking those with the broadest shoulders should pay their fair share” The socialist do like to say. But they are not ASKING they are “demanding with menaces” and the fair share for richer people is rationally no more than for people on normal wages. Perhaps rather less really as they are far less likely to use state healthcare, state schools or claim state benefits! It should certainly not be higher than a flat rate of say 20% which already makes them pay far more for less in return.
November 17, 2025
Typing “Net Zero” into the Worcestershire Council search box shows that this council declared a climate emergency in 2021 and is still pursuing policies to net zero its CO2 emissions by 2050 such as their ‘Zero Emission Bus regional Area Scheme’. I would suggest the councillors scrap this declaration and all associated schemes and employees and thus save money on a huge project that is pointless, unnecessary and unaffordable. There is no climate emergency and adding more CO2 to the atmosphere does not make the planet warmer. I would also suggest they also cancel their translation services for Arabic, Bengali and Chinese (Simplified & Traditional).
November 17, 2025
So you have done more work in 5 minutes (?) than the whole newly elected Chamber.
Wow, imagine if you devoted a full day!
Having the right people is critical and Farage does NOT attract and hold the right people.
November 17, 2025
Get the Right people? Who does?
November 17, 2025
Well Mrs Thatcher did to a large extent. She would have hung onto Rupert Lowe who has exposed another scam today. His output alone dwarfs Reforms.
November 18, 2025
Er 40 years ago? What about since? We live in the present not the past, at least some of us do.
November 17, 2025
Reform ….blah blah blah.
November 18, 2025
We are speaking today about the measurable performance of a Party which might form the next Government. bla bla.
November 19, 2025
We should be looking at comparitive measurable performance – so what was the performance of the bunch who were in control there before, the ones that ran up the debt and established the various get poor quick schemes (aka climate emergency, solar power generation company etc). What was their performance in comparison?
November 17, 2025
All good ideas Richard.
I will contact Reform friends in Worcestershire and pass your ideas on to them.
November 17, 2025
Well if everything else is the same a bit more CO2 will perhaps make it very, very slightly warmer – but even a doubling of atmos. CO2 is not a problem and a bit warmer and a bit more CO2 plant, tree and crop food are both net positive. Atmospheric CO2 percentages are certainly not some world thermostat! We currently have rather a dearth of CO2 in historical terms we have had far far higher levels.
November 17, 2025
Much of this so-called CO2 saving in transport is counterproductive. Sending cars round convoluted routes, 20mph zones, congestion charges, digging up roads all just inconveniences people and costs more in driver time and CO2 emissions. Just garbage.
November 17, 2025
Wokingham LibDem run Council declared a Climate Crisis years ago and now it is an excuse for anything they want to do.
November 18, 2025
So you suggest that is repealed if you elected someone else? Why do you object therefore to those criticisms of the Reform led Worcestershire CC NOT scrapping the same balderdash and as a result NOT increasing the Council tax?
November 17, 2025
Reform may have not yet proved themselves but the Labour Party, Conservatives and Lib-Dems have proved themselves to BE untrustworthy.
November 17, 2025
Sir John, what you have outlined s happening up and down the country. Councils everywhere are technically bankrupt or just one meeting away from declaring 114 which is the code for council bankruptcy. Why the Public Sector try to hide their status with code words rather than stating the obvious I do not know?
Labour have form when it comes to dealing with unaffordable debt.
Back in the Gordon Brown era of Labour policy they just wrote the debt’s off. They decided to claim a virtue signalling brownie point for cancelling third world countries debt. A move that simply confirmed what we all knew bad decisions had been taken and lending to those who can never pay it back is a bad idea. The state tax payers thus picked up the outstanding debt of the failed third world mostly African countries and we increased our national debt as a result.
Now we have our own councils in a similar boat to those failed African states. They are spending more than they can afford and want to lump the ever increasing spending onto the tax payers. They will also borrow from government at a fixed interest rate and slowly sink yet further into debt and 114 territory.
Labour will then claim to be the white Knight ridding to the rescue. They will cancel initially the Labour council’s debts and then possibly the LibDem councils, by which time a full on financial/economic crisis will be upon us.
The unaffordable costs are all state driven due to adult care costs special needs costs for ever more statemented children, care i the community costs and other state mandated expenditures.
We simply can’t carry on like this and the sooner councils up and down the country declare 114 the better. The reality of the situation needs to be opened up and seen for what it is.
The councils are bust…. and it is due to mandated government expenditures.
November 17, 2025
The problem is almost endemic. I am working with a Labour council in financial distress where some senior officers, and most elected members, are actively seeking to block essential asset sales and income improving measures which would solve the financial problems. It’s as if members think ‘ this is central government’s problem, I’m carrying on as before’.
November 17, 2025
Early opinion can be helpful, yet quality of performance is known only after the event.
November 17, 2025
dangerous times for Reform. Mr Farage said quite rightly that Reform must be judged on its record in office, now they have 10 or so councils. If these turn out to be Labour-LibDem style incompetent big spenders Reform will not be able to pose at the next election as the answer to Labour’s uselessness and socialism – the effects of which by then will be desperate. The answer for those on the centre right, as ever, will be to vote in such a way as to ensure a Conservative govt.
November 17, 2025
Controlling Councils is Reform’s first real-life test. If they can’t save money at the local level, what chance of them being able to do it at the national level? Surely the last thing they should be doing is borrowing money to cover daily operating costs, rather than capital expenditures. If they can’t live within their income, they should cut costs until they can.
I wonder how much this council is spending on Net Zero, DEI, and all the other woke nonsense.
November 17, 2025
An old politicians selective use of the facts. Reform has 27 seats in worcestershire cc , two short of a majority. The leader is a green, chosen by an unholy alliance of conservatives, lib dems, labour , greens, and independents. A mirror on the coniving duplicity of politicians. The only policy of these has been politicians is to let Reform carry the can and make life as difficult as possible whatever policies they may wish to implement. Denegrating Reform will not bring the conservatives back whoever they choose to bed with.
Reply The Leader and Deputy Leader are both Reform. I have not denigrated Reform. I am just pointing out Worcestershire is spending far too much under their Leader.
November 17, 2025
If the Reform Party doesn’t have a majority they can’t push through drastic cuts to policies that the other parties support.
Additionally, the Local Government Act from the Blair government ties the hands of any councillors who wish to cut staff and spending on rubbish which is part of agendas followed by the deep state. Any argumentative councillors can be dismissed or sanctioned. Overpaid officers and councillors receiving allowance which are more than salaries can prevent reductions. The Act should be repealed and national maximum salaries made law. Maximum staff numbers based on the best possible. Expense on environmental schemes stopped. Woke education cut out with political teachers sacked.
Reply The Conservatives in Worcestershire did put through some cuts last year and would support sensible Reform measures to do more.
November 17, 2025
The lead on controlling spending comes from the top, the UK Parliament. If Parliament wont get or refuse to get a grip why should anyone else.
Its the same with work, you either take the handouts or your earn your way the reward is the same. Likewise pensions if you saved hard to secure your furture, you finish up the same as those that didn’t bother.
Councils that manage their budgets also come end up in a situation that is similar to those that don’t, again the lead comes from a parliament that demonstrates spending what isn’t earned is the future.
Its not a Political Party thing, they are all at it, the highest tax and borrowing in 70years and those empoweredwith getting a grip just cant be bothered.
November 17, 2025
Then voting Reform is not the solution?
Voting Labour/Lib Dems/Green will do no more damage than voting any other way?
November 17, 2025
Worcestershire CC are proposing splitting the single council into two ‘which will save money’. 😂🤣
‘Two authorities would also mean an extra 19 councillors in Worcestershire, with a total of 133 across the county, compared to 114 under the unitary model.’
This reorganisation might be a shield for the disastrous Reform led Council until the GE so it can’t be blamed for the loss of said GE by Reform. I can’t see any other advantage.
November 18, 2025
I thought Rayner had been plotting the opposite – a merger with Herefordshire. It’s a government decision, not a council one. Designed to defer elections.
November 17, 2025
Aren’t all Governments, MPs, Councils and councillors alike eager to spend other people’s money with little thought of control.
It’s a weakness of democracy, sometimes they have to say NO, and they’re afraid to do that because equally the electorate insist and expert more and more for less and less
November 17, 2025
“Civil Service employing at least 500 diversity officers
The figures have been extracted from Whitehall after a two-year battle for data by the MP Neil O’Brien
At least 500 civil servants are employed across Government to police and develop diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) policies, The Telegraph can reveal.
Some Whitehall departments have seen the numbers of staff whose jobs involve overseeing equality, diversity, inclusion, gender, LGBT or race policies double in the past year since Labour came to power.”
Creating jobs to cause discrimination, is personal vindictiveness.
Some honesty is required, jobs filled to meet targets is no more than simple discrimination.
The taxpayer being forced to pay for an individuals personal view, is wasted money.
You can bet anything you like that Councils up and down the land are using taxpayers money to mirror the role Parliament has taken on this practice of open discrimination. Because what is right in central government is right everywhere!
November 18, 2025
It would be interesting to know whether the government grant for Worcestershire has been trimmed overall.
The section 24 notice covers a period where the Conservatives controlled the council, prior to Reform taking over.
David Chambers, a former Tory cabinet member for education, said successive governments were to blame. “The situation is severe. The funding from central government has simply not been enough.”
That’s just the SEND budget. I can imagine the bureaucrats deciding which councils should ge rewarded and which ones punished. I note Sadiq Khan has had a special TfL bailout payment of about £1.5bn for example.
Reply Grants gave gone up. Need to borrow to cover current spending this year and next is under Reform leadership.