Labour and Liberal like to blame the government for the Councils that Ā go bankrupt or have to cut essential services to make ends meet. It is easy to just say government should give them more money. The truth is many of the Councils get into a financial mess by mismanagement, excess spending and bad investments.
Take the cases of Labour Bristol and Nottingham. Both embarked on investing taxpayers money in their own energy company. Both spent millions, both overstretched, both incurred huge losses and had to sell off their customers as they went through administration. Bristol lost Ā£46 m in 4 years and Robin Hood Ā£38 m. 8 Council energy companies lost over Ā£110 m between them.
Or take the cases of some Councils who spent a fortune of taxpayers money on building property empires, only see them fall in value leaving the Council to pay huge interest on the debts. Or consider Thurrock who thought solar farms would be a good bet as well as property, only to lose big time Ā on these bets.
Birmingham got itself into big losses by failing to pay its female staff in past years equal pay under the law. It is now struggling with the bills to reimburse.
Councils got punch drunk on relatively cheap loans. They Ā bought property and trading assets from the private sector for high prices, failing to realise the grave risks. Interest rates went up, Ā trading losses mounted Ā and several go into the public sector equivalent of bankruptcy. Yet still some Councils persevere with wasting taxpayers money on assets they do not understand which they pay too much for.
It is difficult to sympathise with Councils that effectively go bust through bad investment. Why did so many Councils think it a good idea to buy property Ā from the private sector when it was expensive and interest rates were too low? Did they not understand those properties would fall sharply in value when rates went up?
The fate of public sector trading companies run by some Councils should act as further warning that nationalised businesses can lose taxpayers a lot of money.Labour has failed to produce any back up to the soundbite that a Great British Energy Company could Ā make money for the state and deliver lower energy prices. History suggests it would lose money and cost us more.
May 27, 2024
Indeed.
Another thing that will waste loads of tax payers money and achieve nothing is Sunakās bonkers conscription and āvolunteeringā modern slavery gimmicks. Or they would if he had any chance of getting back into a position to inflict them on us. The most wasteful and damaging though is surely net zero. Huge negative benefits and costing Ā£ trillions for a mad religion.
May 27, 2024
You’ve been in power for 14 years, why didn’t you legislate to ban such actions
You seem quick off the mark to ban ICE vehicles and gas boilers for the private sector and inflict gay marriage and smoking bans. The balk was in your court.l
May 27, 2024
Correct
May 27, 2024
I am still waiting for the 40 new hospitals to be built promised by Johnson before the Tory party further imported 4 million welfare claimants and amnesty to a record 68,000 criminals from France! How many more hospitals required for 4,068,000 people?
May 27, 2024
You’re lucky …I’m still waiting for brexit and praying for a real tory government
May 28, 2024
As the 4,068,000 are all Doctors maybe they can just man the ones we already have?
May 27, 2024
Exactly. And for some reason Woking is left off the list.
May 27, 2024
I have blogged here many times for radical change in local authorities through the successive Community Secretaries. From Spellman to Boles to Javid to Jenrick through to the current incompetent, nothing, zilch. We were promised council tax freeze, then capped without a referendum then, as usual reneged on with Sunak this year telling councils to raise to the maximum! From the man who then lied to say taxes going down under Tories! He told them to raise to the maximum!
Middle and director of services are over paid. CEOās paid a fortune, look at Birmingham and Surrey CEOās. Cameron stated no one would be paid more than the PM thenā¦ā¦ā¦nothing. JRās party at every turn squandered our taxes from overseas aid, HS2, EU, BOE, civil service, mass immigration, WHO, UN, covid etc. The list is truly endless, but they cannot afford tax cuts!!!
Sunak wasted Ā£12 billion on school boy error fraud as Lord Agnew stated when he resigned! Sunak never tried to properly investigate and get our money back!! Sunak did not resign he applied for PM! The stupid Tory party MPs elected this failure who was useless at chancellor. Worse, I think it one of the Tory party quota appointments. It was not enough to have examples of CPS failure, police failure and now post office failure. Why not merit?
May 27, 2024
Rishi Sunak racking up an almost Ā£500,000 bill for his private jets in just one week in 2022.
Asked about this Claire Coutinho said the other day āThatās not going to make a massive difference when it comes to carbon emissions, letās be serious.ā
Well Let’s be serious and ditch net zero in full Claire please. It is nonsense as you must know (you do have half a maths degree – albeit only from Oxford). Either this or cut out the “do as I say not as I do” King Charles type of gross hypocrisy from Sunak.
“Heat pumps are too expensive for ordinary families to install and run, the Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho has been warned by MPs.” Little point to them even if you can afford them as they run off electricity that costs 3+ times as much as gas anyway so cost more to run and more to install and maintain. Electricity that will often come from burning Gas, Coal or wood (young coal) and wasting 50%+ of the heat at the power stations.
Furthermore as most of this electricity will be needed for the few freezing winter weeks the increase in generating and grid capacity just for those few months (circa 10X) make no financial sense. especially when we have a good gas grid already in place.
Do the sums Claire please. Cutting the UKs CO2 output to nothing will do nothing whatsoever for the climate. And anyway the actions pushed by government wind, solar, EVs. public transport, walking, cycling, heat pumps, exporting energy intensive industries overseas… saves little of no CO2 anyway. Plus a little more CO2 and even a little warmer is actually a good thing anyway.
Then again I suppose Claire Coutinho, Sunak, Cleverly, Hunt, Lord Cameron of Greensill, Dowden, Atkins, Hunt… are all history now. Richly deserved in the main.
May 28, 2024
LL,
That would be Ā£500,000 of our taxes he wasted, yet no room for tax cuts!
May 27, 2024
This is off topic, however, on my back-of-an-envelop calculation, there are between 500,000 and 700,000 young people turning 18 in this country EACH year. I’d be interested to know where all these young folk will be accommodated and employed under the national service scheme.
Girls as well as boys? How could in not be as required by equality laws.
Methinks this is another naive idea, and will embarrass Mr Sunak, confirming he is not a serious politician and should not be running the country.
May 27, 2024
Another mad idea from Sunak. Compulsory āvolunteeringā is just yet another tax Suank. 100% of your income rather than just the usual 40% circa Ā£2,000 for the year at one weekend a month picking up little or similar. So why do we have so much little all over the place, because the council have got rid of nearly all the dust bins perhaps?
Is this deluded plan really expected to garner votes Sunak? What planet is Sunak on?
May 27, 2024
A mad gimmick, Sunak has not even done back of the envelope calculation – they know they will never be elected and never have to deliver. God know why he things it will win any votes it is just another tax on peopleās time.
May 27, 2024
PW,
The National service idea (and the reaction to it) makes me wonder if Sunak is deliberately trying to see how much damage he can do before he is turfed out.
One blunder after another. Maybe he just woke up one day and thought āblow this for a game of soldiersā?
May 27, 2024
I read it will only be 30,000 national service places the rest will be expected to volunteer.
May 27, 2024
āvolunteerā forced labour it seems? They want 45%+ of our earning for dire public services and now they want forced āvolunteerā labour for free too it seems. As dishonest as when Labour say we will āaskā people to pay a little more in taxes for ā¦.
May 27, 2024
There is a prohibition on slave and forced labour in the HRA – unless you are a politician
May 27, 2024
@Peter Wood – then again if they treated those in our armed forces reasonably, with a decent wage, decent accommodation and so on rather than denigrate them there might be healthy natural recruitment. They have to ‘pay’ for appalling food and accommodation that even those that criminally enter the UK refuse to put up with.
The contradiction is that Sunak has reduced our armed forces to a minor local civil defence brigade, that does not have the man power or equipment to face even the mildest of our enemies for much more than a week. We have what the MOD calls aircraft carriers that at a maximum can operate for 7-10 day without being replenished. so if an enemy sinks the un-armed RFA sent to replenish them, they become a undefended hulk.
May 27, 2024
Article 4 Human Rights.
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude. (2) No one shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour.
I realise – as demonstrated by the Covid Tyranny – that the Establishment’s precious Human Rights only apply when they want, but it looks to me like forced National Service is in contravention of the HRA.
May 27, 2024
Well they already get away with 45% + servitude.
May 27, 2024
Four star hotels like illegal criminal migrants? Why not. The old barracks not good enough for criminal migrants so why would it be good enough for our children?
May 27, 2024
It was the Tory wets who got rid of National Service in 1960.
There is now a backlash against WOKISM including getting rid of National Service. Some form of military service has been the norm for centuries until now. Not forgetting how spoilt and self-indulgent the modern generation are anyway. National Service won’t get rid of all the big probs but it will help, saving tax payer billions in long run as our young become more disciplined, hard-working and patriotic.
Lastly, if Blair and co in Parl had done National Service they might have had more empathy and insight not to send our soldiers to the daft wars in Afghan and Iraq.
May 27, 2024
Perhaps it should be for those who reach 18 years, who: 1) Don’t go to University or apprenticeship, or 2) Don’t have fulltime employment.
In other words, give those who have not found their ‘way in the world’ a bit more guidance and positive encouragement?
In principle, I think it would help. Just have to make it realistic.
May 27, 2024
Peter
You are being far, far too simplistic, you forgot to calculate all of the gender options, Health & Safety, insurance requirements, risk assessments, climate change implications, dietary choices and requirements, medical assessments, mental attitude, etc etc.
Once you take all this into account it will mean about a dozen people will take part a year, but of course they will need a thousand civil servants to oversee matters to ensure standards are kept up, and no one makes a claim for bullying.
As I mentioned yesterday the Court run Community service is already failing and unfit for purpose, so I do not hold out much hope for a far larger scheme that will be voluntary !
May 27, 2024
The Times today describes Gove as āa gifted and consequential political reformer, he set a formidable example to his successorsā.
Not at all, he was and is a socialist disaster. His knifing of Boris made us suffer the appalling Theresa May and the botched Brexit. He was a disciple of the deluded school drop out St. Greta and he even like Starmer wanted VAT on school fees to further rig the market, the exact reverse of what is needed. Another moronic socialist and english graduate.
May 27, 2024
Maths for everyone to 18 years of age is also a bonkers badly thought out policy from rishi.
May 27, 2024
I have worked in the front office of a bank for 35 years and never lost any money, even on a bad day. I get paid more than any politician because Iām smarter than any politician.
In other news, Wiley the scientific publisher withdraws over 13,000 research papers for being fake. Nature withdraws 10,000, just in 2023, for being fake. A London researcher discovers 60,000 papers have been written by AI.
Yet hundreds of papers that drive a coach and horses through the theory of global warming go unpublished, because the same fraudulent academics rely on huge research grants to pay their mortgages.
Now these same low IQ people who run Government and write papers are telling me to ātrust the scienceā and that increasing taxation will reduce āglobal warmingā. You never see a paper criticising global warming should be a red flag to anybody with an IQ over 120.
āThe scienceā and āGovernmentā is rotten to the core.
May 27, 2024
No longer āGlobal Warmingā as we have have no statistically significant warming recently, but āClimate Changeā they cannot go wrong with that as the climate has always changed and always will do. To pretend CO2 is some king of world thermostat is moronic, the world has had ice ages with CO2 (vital plant, tree and crop food) at 15+ times its current levels. Read to about the systematic, historical temperature record fiddling – on the Daily Sceptic site.
May 27, 2024
How people laughed at Margo in āThe Good Lifeā when she counted out her Rates money in the council offices and withheld some for services not rendered.
Today that would no doubt be an arrestable offence.
She was ridiculed and denigrated and as with all those old TV sitcoms their ethos permeated everyday life and achieved the change in behaviour that the Left wanted.
But Margo was RIGHT.
May 27, 2024
She certainly was right. We should counter claim when we get tax and council tax bills. I am deducting Ā£X for the fact that I had to pay for my own hip op, pay for a private dentist or for my parents long term care or am a victim of crime due to the lack of any real deterrents to crime, or I have to pay 10% more for all my shopping due to shoplifting inaction and for insurance due to fraud that is ignored and uninsured drivers the state does almost nothing about.
Plus the cost of my alarm system I had to install due to out of control crime levels. So I am only paying you 10% of the bill. Sue me for the rest if you want to.
May 27, 2024
+++
Absolutely. Spot on.
May 27, 2024
Yea but the councils agree the police are useless, so much so they set up their own community wardens services which are basically filling gaps and pretending to be police. Indeed I am surprised some of them are not arrested for impersonating a police officer.
May 27, 2024
P. J. O’Rourke: āIn theory, taxes should be like shopping. What I buy is government services. What I pay are my taxesā
In the UK however, especially if you are wealthy or high earning, you pay a fortune and get virtually nothing of any significant value back at all.
May 27, 2024
And the more we pay the less we get!
May 27, 2024
We do have some warming at present due to the El Nino. Conditions in the Pacific are already changing signalling an end to the event, so it will abate.
May 27, 2024
Dr Mike Yeadon retired former Vice President of Pfizer, famously said about the Covid Scam and experimental gene therapies:
“I couldn’t follow ‘The Science.’ So I followed the money, and that’s where I found ‘The Science.’
The same applies to the Climate Change/Net Zero scam ….. but on a far greater scale.
May 27, 2024
++
Totally agree Donna
You are lucky to get that published!
I had a poor little ditty deleted for saying similar.
Or maybe it was lostā¦or maybe ditties are now not allowed?
I get very confused as to what is and is not ok.
Scam is ok?
May 27, 2024
+1
May 27, 2024
What, no bad trading days at all?
May 27, 2024
Good point, my local council relies heavily on academic research & study & modelling for its planning eg cycle-lanes, new trains, 15 minute cites etc
My regional mayor wants to spend Ā£17 billion on a new train station, no doubt the study paper said it would pay for itself in xx years, it never does, it becomes a council tax burden for decades
My council is also killing itself complying with the governments/ccc net-zero directives, re-wilding parks & road vergers, reduced litter & street cleaning, bi-monthly bin collection, employing extra climate staff !
May 27, 2024
Where is the graph of natural change or man made change and why do we only get the net effect published?
Itās because they want to claim all change is man made but canāt explain why natural change stopped at the start of the green grift
May 27, 2024
Good morning.
This is one where it is difficult to take a side if that is what one wants to do.
For the government, they have to maintain that councils do not raise their taxes do high as to be unaffordable. To do that they have to cap any increases to 4%, with any amount over and above that triggering a local referendum. I am not sure if this still applies but it would be nice if it would ?
For the councils they have to provide services. But these services have increased in number and cost. For example we are now expected to pay for other people’s care. This was never part of what councils use to do. All I ever wanted my council to do, was empty the bins, turn on the street lights, mow the grass (if any), run libraries and other relevant government departments such as planning, etc.
We now provide housing and benefits for people who are not UK citizens. Why ?
For the councils to make more money they have to go in search of schemes that they think will work. But the problem is, they are working outside their skills ability.
Then we come to the unions. It is clear the unions what the best pay and benefits for their members. So they have pensions and other entitlements better than those on the Private Sector with the added benefit that their jobs will be safe in a recession.
It is clear that there needs to be a major overhaul on how councils provide what services and how these services are funded. Perhaps it is time to ask the people on what, and not necessarily how much, each and every person is willing to pay.
May 27, 2024
āFor the councils to make more money they have to go in search of schemes that they think will work. But the problem is, they are working outside their skills ability.ā
Plus they do not really even care if they work anyway – as it is not their money if they lose it. They do not even get fired.
May 27, 2024
My problem with local councils is that they have all these statutory obligations, imposed by central government. These duties consume the majority of their funds yet they have no control over this spending, so it is futile when it comes to electing a local councillor, because their task is to funnel every last penny into care for those who have spent all the money they ever had.
Restore democracy to the local council, so they decide where to spend our money, not central government. If central government thinks care homes need financing let central government pay for it from general taxation. Restrict voting to those who pay council tax, so we can decide whether some social endeavour is worth paying for.
May 27, 2024
I just wish our council would ( like the government) spend its time, money and efforts on making this ghastly, dreadful place fit to live in.
Having suffered a louder than loud party all last evening and night I really do not know why I pay council tax.
Our house is not crowded up against others and the music came from way across the road.So it was LOUD! Plus we have suffered similar before, and have made complaints every time to no avail.
It is appallingā¦.the council no longer has officers who respond to noise complaints and now the entire onus is on the victim of noise and anti social behaviour to fill in the councilās online, illiterate and difficult to use complaint forms and hope they are read.
May 27, 2024
+1 Often more likely to attack anu complainant than the noise producers. Plus they do not like working nights.
May 27, 2024
+++
Oh yes.
They are very skilled in put downs and disbelief when you make a complaint.
Not so clever at sorting it all out though.
May 27, 2024
The way to curb financial mismanagement is simple!
Just make councillors & council managers personally responsible for public funds losses. It’s fraud & should be treated as such!
It’s time those who are given the roles to manage public funds are made personally accountable.
May 27, 2024
Can you imagine Sunak ever doing that? Covid Furlough fraud, because of his failure to put in any even basic controls, is estimated to be up to Ā£7 billion.
May 27, 2024
Half of all homes down here in St. Ives are second homes and apparently itās cheaper to register them as a business rather than pay the exorbitant council tax rates. I will never forget local councillors during the pandemic literally begging them on the local news not to accept the Ā£10,000 cheque they would be receiving in the post as not being actually businesses, they werenāt really entitled to them. Of course it would have fallen on deaf ears and who could blame them. I know quite a few people with an annex/barn in the garden which hasnāt been rented out for years receiving their Ā£10,000 cheques. The billions that were paid out in this way is a scandal and should be investigated. No wonder our taxes are the highest theyāve ever been.
May 27, 2024
Not always total fraud but often gross incompetence and they know it is not their money if they do lose. Very often though it is indeed crony capitalism with their friends or mates. Planning laws often applied very selectively and corruptly – and yet they still lose money!
May 27, 2024
Much talk about British Values sparked by Nigel Farage.
British Values are it seems defined by (someome?) as the following:
Democracy
1. A culture built upon freedom and equality, where everyone is aware of their rights and responsibilities.
2. The rule of law
The need for rules to make a happy, safe and secure environment to live and work.
3. Individual liberty
Protection of your rights and the rights of others around you.
4. Mutual respect & tolerance of different faiths and beliefs
Understanding that we all donāt share the same beliefs and values. Respecting those values, ideas and beliefs of others whilst not imposing our own onto them.
Well hardly.
1. Democracy well hardly, a FPTP vote for an MP (one of perhaps only 2 who might win) every 5 years when they never do what they promise anyway together. This todether with the unelected house of Lords stuffed with moronic Bishops and lefties, the EU and with devolved power to international organisation like ECHR, WHO, IPCCā¦
2. The rule of law? Sure the police almost never even turn up or take action against criminals when they even bother to. More interested in mugging motorists to raise more taxes. The polices and judges are hugely selective in how they apply the laws as we see with the weekly anti-jewish marches.
3. Individual liberty? Not to criticise religions though how is the liberty of that Batley Grammar School teacher or to look āopenly jewishā going? Protection of your rights? Labour is proposing to thieve assets of landlords to buy the votes of tenants so no right here? Also to put VAT on private school fees to kill fair competition in education. You go to the state school or pay 4 tines over. We do not even have the right to free speech or to keep a fare proportion of our earnings. Or is Sunak has his way will have to work some weekends unpaid. So not even the right not to be enslaved by the state.
4. āMutual respect & tolerance of different faiths and beliefsā I will only respect things worthy of respect thanks and not the many, often evil and mad religions, be they ancient ones or new ones like net zero, EDIā¦
ā Respecting those values, ideas and beliefs of others whilst not imposing our own onto them.ā Well many religion have imposing their believes on others as part of their faith, yet we have to respect these religions?
4.
May 27, 2024
@Lfelogic – FPTP was never the problem. It is who gets to choose and fund the Candidate that is to represent you and the Country in Parliament. If those in your Constituency didn’t get to choose their candidates but had them forced on them and funded by a remote gang leader – you have the flaw.
All other voting systems deny the majority a voice, as they favour a coalition of the ones those that gained the least votes dictating to the majority.
May 27, 2024
Direct democracy is the only real democracy. Easy to arrange with modern tech, too.
May 27, 2024
Do you honestly think the whole population – or even you – could vote in an informed way 10 times a day? Look at the business in the House, and dry run ādirect democracyā.
Bear in mind you will not even have the advantage of a debate as MPs do to assess the opposing arguments.
If you are thinking of referendums, then understand that those who pose the question – and count the votes, have the power.
May 27, 2024
Itās called āGovernment by Consentā. Anything other than FPTP is a fraud to remove all power from the people.
May 27, 2024
Anyone risking and spending other peopleās money recklessly is prone to incur huge debts charging other people to pay for. Councils, and particularly Labour-led ones tend to be most at fault. Evidence shows Lib Dems in Wokingham are similarly errant.
May 27, 2024
Nothing’s going to change. Political and personal vested interest warps how public monies are spent. It is criminal abuse, full stop. They can act ultra vires and know they can do so without accountability or punishment.
It almost feels there is now no one in control of how this nation is governed. No direction except the one driven by activist far Left parasites. If the Tory party dies we’re heading into towards totalitarianism. The damage inflicted by Cameron upon the party cannot be underestimated. This man’s a menace who could undermine our very freedoms by endorsing the Left.
May 27, 2024
and they brought him back as a role model, as the ideal Tory politician
May 27, 2024
Itās a beautiful sunny day which I am going to enjoy as I do every day. Shame about your world.
May 27, 2024
What you say may be absolutely true, but who is there to define the powers of local government. Who could have stopped it. None other than national government. Your government, possibly at the behest of the EU, devolved so much power that enabled local government to act way beyond its pay grade. The fact that it was largely Labour and Lib Dem councils that did this confirms that their pay grade is lower than average. Now your incapability at national level is about to unleash their level of incompetence upon us. You may have been sounding warnings all your political life, but the party you stuck so loyally to moved left, leaving you and most conservatives in the electorate without a voice. You reap what you sow and allow to grow. We the people of the UK are about to be hit with a political covid, nurtured by your party and government.
May 27, 2024
Over the years politicians have piled into the finance industry for getting people into debt through handing out money they cannot afford.
Instead of blaming councils, look at the Treasury department overseen, allegedly, by your Ministers who handed out the money. The leverages were non sensical, yes councils were hubristic but the Treasury officials should have had bath courage and expertise to say no.
As we know however āTreasury and expertiseā is an oxymoron.
May 27, 2024
Can someone please remind me which political party was running Northamptonshire County Council, and had been continuously for over 15 years before, when it had to announced that it was effectively insolvent?
Yes a rhetorical question on my part, I know the answer, but either someone else doesn’t (or he is being very selective).
May 27, 2024
What projects had they lost the money on?
May 27, 2024
One more thought jerry. This isnāt GB News where they are expected to provide balance on every show on every utterance. This is John Redwood, Right and proud to be right. So surely he can be as selective as he wants. Itās his own website and blog paid for by him. He allows many alternative voices and that is more than sufficient. He is as free now as Alastair Campbell and you never read him being balanced!
May 27, 2024
@A.Tracy; Never said otherwise, it is also up to our host to decide which replies to publish, it reflects well on him that he is willing to allow balance, unlike some who obviously would prefer otherwise…
As for your remarks, asking about ‘projects’ and Northamptonshire County Council, irrelevant, to the fact the fact that a Tory run administration ran out of money!
May 28, 2024
I asked what the projects Northamptonshire County Council lost money on were. I’m interested in what the Tory administration chose to invest in that didn’t succeed.
May 27, 2024
It looks like the problem with Council speculating with our money originates with the Blair/Brown “Local Government Act 2003.” It enabled councils to trade in activities related to their functions on a commercial basis with a view to profit through a company. In addition, the 2003 Act empowers councils to charge for any discretionary services on a cost recovery basis.”
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/26/contents
It would seem that the problems Sir John highlights of some Councils over-borrowing and speculating is a consequence of the 2003 Act.
Amending the Act (ie shutting the barn door BEFORE the horse bolted) might have been good use of 14 years in power for the Not-a-Conservative-Party, but like every other destructive Act/Policy implemented by Blair/Brown, the NaCP just meekly accepted, and in some cases exploited it. ie Woking – Conservative run between 2007-2019 and now LibDem, which has been declared bankrupt with debts forecast to hit Ā£2.6 billion.
May 27, 2024
@Donna; There is a difference between the Local Government Act 2003. allowing something and how or if such provision is then used, otherwise please point out the clause(s) in the said Act that required local authorities to invest in sub-prime or at high risk! No different from Thatcher era Acts that encouraged many more people to take out mortgages, personal credit, make investments etc, it wasn’t the Governments fault that some chose or were hoodwinked into over extending their finances and thus suffering Foreclosure or loss etc.
May 27, 2024
Utter tosh and comparison totally wrong.
May 27, 2024
I realise there’s a difference between allowing and requiring ….. but allowing Councils to behave like speculators with Council Taxpayers money isn’t a very sensible thing to do and it should have been stopped.
May 27, 2024
@Donna, Well yes, but even more stupid then for a following Tory govt not to repeal such a law within their first 100 days, enacting law or regulation that require LAs to divest themselves from such risks. Stop trying to use cheap shots that have not been thought through, all you do is further damage those you seek to defend!
As for wasting ‘taxpayers money’ [1], how much did it cost the treasury to bail out the UK sub-prime mortgage sector back in 2007-8, due to the unthinking actions by some, brought about by Thatcher era Acts, it’s not just the public sector that ends up wasting treasury money due to eye-watering losses and bailouts.
[1] it is no long taxpayers money once paid to HMT
May 28, 2024
I’m interested to know who/what you think I’m trying to defend?
May 27, 2024
Donna
Indeed, The remit of Councils has changed, they are no longer responsible for the upkeep of their own Buildings, roads, footpaths, schools, parks, drains, ditches, trees, street lights, street sweeping, rubbish collection/disposal, schools, libraries and their own employed work force, all paid for by local rates.
Now they are a redistribution of wealth department of government, responsible for collection of car park fees and fines, moving traffic offence fines, receive huge government allocations of grant cash to spend on government initiatives, cash from new build housing developments, cash for new cycle lanes etc. all then to be distributed for social care, and a host of other government requirements.
Unfortunately the population now think that National and Local Government should pay for almost everything, because they interfere with almost everything.
The sad fact is National and Local Government employ too many people with little, common sense, financial/people management skill in any required field of expertise, they too often rely upon so called outside experts who very often know nothing about the local area, people, or past history.
May 27, 2024
+many, a decade is enough time to repeal any pervious unwanted labour law ….what have the tories been doing this past 14 years ……and they still haven’t repealed any EU laws
May 27, 2024
I used to live in the Woking area. The hopeless schemes the council indulged in were absurd: the supposed Tories were mainly responsible to the point where I voted against them.
May 27, 2024
Your first example of two councils failing to succeed as energy providers should be a clear and strident warning to Wokingham District Council not to pursue their solar farm business .. but they will ignore such lessons to obtain political brownie points.
May 27, 2024
Thurrock Council is another that lent millions to a solar developer and are bust as a result. Conservative if I remember correctly.
May 27, 2024
dixie, and all done in the name of “climate change” just like the proposals for endless cycle lanes and electric/battery cycle delivery bikes !
May 27, 2024
@dixie – more like stroking personal ego with a virtue signal before looking at the facts.
May 27, 2024
As I have made most of my money from buying commercial property, and insurance companies/pension funds are the biggest owners of commercial property, the problem is not inherently with commercial property but with the reality that government both local and national is staffed by idiots. Now that commercial property is in a very bad way while I am making a lot less profit (yes still considerable profit) from it a lot of Councils are making massive losses!
May 27, 2024
All that I see around me are empty commercial offices since covid. Some going to auction in desperation as the owners pensions are tied up in them. Itās a very sad situation.
May 27, 2024
No state entity should be looked to own property or compete in business or investment in any way. They are the rule makers and as such MUST be disqualified from competing.
Sir John, I hope Bridgeon updated you on the War with Russia? Another massive unauthorised and unnecessary expense, not to mention actively and needlessly putting Britain in Danger!
May 27, 2024
Sometime during the 1990s councils and the civil service somehow got the idea ( who told them??) that they were like the private sector. They tried to act well above their station and capabilities.
I remember someone in the know telling me how public service managers would go to meetings with real big shot companies and imagine that they were on a par with proper business people (And get fleeced!) They started talking about customers, DELIGHTING their customers and called themselves a ābusinessā. They spoke of āaggressive takeoversā of various departments. And held meetings in their homes!
They thought they were the bees knees going to conferences and staying in hotels ( all obviously at public expense).
Well, the now bankrupt councils have melted the wax on their wings and are crashing to the ground.
Serves them right! But as usual ā¦WE suffer!
May 27, 2024
I just love it when I am fined for parking for 20 minutes outside my garage or have to pay a toll to go to work and am addressed as a ‘ customer’.
May 27, 2024
+++
Yes.
The very idea andds insult to injury.
No notion of āthe customerā always being right!
May 27, 2024
I note Sir John you do not refer to/point out that Conservative Councils have gone bankrupt too. Thurrock is Conservative (2022). The first Council to go bankrupt was Northamptonshire(2018) a Conservative Council. The head count since 2018 is 4 labour, 2 Conservative, 1 Lib Dem.
Government does direct what Councils should do/undertake. We have to ask why does Government fund Councils in the first place. Should not our Council tax cover what needs to be done at the local level ? Councils would then have no excuse to blame the Government in power.
As you have clearly point out the Current Government have not done much better than a Bankrupt Council over the past 14 years. Doubt if a Labour or Lib Dem Government would have done any better. I guess the above statistic would indicate you won’t be so bankrupt under Conservative administration as Labour š But the statistic ignores % of Councils Labour, Conservative, Lib Dem.
Again Sir John you tie this to Nationalisation of strategic Utilities. Currently the Utilities are not performing to the benefit of the tax payer under private ownership.
So what’s the Answer? Is our Political system outdated. Is it really democratic. Are the wrong people in power? Are they competent enough to run things ?
You did mention that your experience of running companies in the real world was not put to use whilst in Government.
But this is where Political Thinking and the cult of modern management theory have joined.
Basically you don’t have to have been a plumber to manage plumbing.
May 27, 2024
Contrary to “information” published in the right-wing press, the adoption of EVs by the public in the UK increased substantially in April 2024
According to the latest data published by the SMMT, total UK new car registrations grew for the 21st consecutive month in April 2024, rising by a modest 1.0% to reach 134,274 units,
EVs continued to be the main drivers of market expansion. PHEVs (10,493) recorded the strongest growth, rising by 22.1% to account for 7.8% of the market, followed by HEVs (17,538) up 16.7% with a 13.1% share of demand. April 2024 was a brighter month for BEV (22,717) registrations. Overall, BEV uptake rose 10.7%, pushing up market share to 16.9%, a significant uplift on last Aprilās 15.4%.
Drivers today enjoy the widest ever choice of BEV models ā more than 100 ā powered by the latest technology and manufacturers continue to provide compelling offers to encourage their uptake. However, the lack of government incentives for private motorists remains a barrier that cannot be overcome by the industry alone.
Compared to 1 January 2024 the total installed EV charging devices rose by 5,993 – an increase of 11%. There was an increase in the number of public charging devices in all regions of the UK
Reply EV sales rose to companies who get a tax break. They are poor to individual consumers spending their own money
May 27, 2024
Tax breaks for company electric cars are over Ā£10k compared to ICE cars.
May 27, 2024
@SK – Individuals do get a tax breaks they pay hardly any tax on their electricity and no road tax. Rather than 50%+ on petrol and diesel and still they do not want them. Hybrids are not EVs at all and plug in hybrids often rarely get plugged in not worth the hassle and so just run of petrol. Full battery EVs save no CO2 after construction and typical UK electricity mix is considered far better and more flexible to keep your old petrol or diesel car. Far less road and tyre wear too. Seven gallons of oil to make a typical tyre it seems. Some EVs wear them out after just 7500 miles.
May 27, 2024
There’s an intelligent conversation on the Spectator’s YouTube channel about EVs SG that you should watch. I think it nicely summarizes my view on the matter. I’m sure EVs will improve and become more popular but they certainly didn’t compare well when I purchased my ICE two years ago. I kept my last car for 7 years and the one before that for 12, both purchased from new. So in another 5-10 years, I may still need to buy another vehicle and by then I’m pretty sure the technology will have either very much improved or been superceded.
What I object to is the nonsense of Governments insisting that we make this change now. The Spectator gave a good example of Government banning the sale of incadescent light bulbs, with the alternative being those strange curly devices that were not very bright and didn’t last long either. They were also more expensive than the old incadescent ones of course. Two years later LED lights made the ‘curly’ ones obsolete. I also seem to recall how keen Government was for everyone to drive diesels at one time….
May 27, 2024
I have no ideological argument against EVs. From my perspective, they might be a good idea for local use – nice and quiet. We have a drive we can put the vehicle on to charge overnight. Many people don’t. Many people also can only afford one vehicle, which has to serve their comprehensive needs. Many will look at an EV with range anxiety, so it’s not their choice if their use requires long journeys.
I do resent the narrative that claims EVs are some kind of environmental solution; their batteries require considerable polluting mining. If you want to be environmentally friendly get on your bike – plenty of fuel available in the waistlines of tubby Brits.
May 27, 2024
Well yes but once your belly is gone you will have to eat more, Human food is a very inefficient fuel.
May 27, 2024
DA : “From my perspective, they [evs] might be a good idea for local use ā nice and quiet.”
Unfortunately so quiet that it has been found that pedestrians are twice as likely to be hit by an ev or hybrid than an ice.
May 27, 2024
Each time you plug in an EV Plug in hybrid you might typically save 50p. So perhaps six year every day will pay for you home charger? By which time the battery will need replacing. āOwner of Hyundai plug-in hybrid shocked by $15,000 cost to replace batteryā I read.
Also this 50p of āsavingā is all due to not paying 50% taxes on electricity as you do on petrol so not even a real saving. Even before the cost of the battery and charger is considered.
Oh and carrying the extra weight of the battery and electric motor around make the car less efficient, heavier, gives more tyre wear and is more complex amd expensive to maintain. Otherwise a great plan. Keep your old petrol car far cheaper and better for the environment. Yet Government run a scheme to pay you to scrap them!
May 27, 2024
@Sakara
Each time you plug in a plug in hybrid it might save you 40p so after six years every day you might save enough to PAY for the home charger! By that time the battery will be on the way out. āOwner of Hyundai plug-in hybrid shocked by $15,000 cost to replace batteryā I read. Oh and the 40p is mainly a tax saving not a real one overall. Plus the weight of the battery and motor make the car less efficient and more expensive to maintain! Great plan!
May 27, 2024
SG :
Not A Lot of People Know That :
“EV Sales Flatline Again In April”
May 7, 2024
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2024/05/07/ev-sales-flatline-again-in-april/
May 27, 2024
PS : I have no wish to see evs becoming the only vehicles allowed on our roads. They are not āgreenā because of the mining of all the minerals in their manufacture and the electricity they use, their impracticality, increased weight, danger from explosion and because the UK local grid limits evs to 1 in 7 houses according to written evidence given to a HoC Select Committee by a Southampton University engineering professor. Plus the problems in their toxic battery disposal.
But the issue that is totally unfair and regressive is that it is the wealthy who are being subsidised by the poorer people via charges, taxes and bills to subsidise these toys. If subsidies should be applied to evs then they should be for new batteries for second hand vehicles.
May 27, 2024
SG, when you say “government incentives” I take it you mean taxpayers’ money”?
May 27, 2024
How relevant are PHEVs and HEVs to this debate? They partly or entirely utilise liquid fuels. I’ve always thought of hybrids like the Prius as relatively energy-efficient liquid-fuelled cars.
More useful statistics could be the number of pure-electric cars or vans purchased by private individuals (including sole traders) and the proportion of the car and light van stock which is made up of such vehicles.
May 27, 2024
Why do these councils seek investments?āBecause the return on their savings at the bank is too low.āJust as pension funds took up LDIs.āIt isn’t just the domestic saver who has suffered since Brown ‘saved the world’ in ’08.āThe real pain never arrived, fiat currency has just been devalued at an ever faster rate.
Opinion is growing against a CBDC in the USA.āMore are becoming aware of how the US dollar is being devalued by politicians taking on ever more debt.āThat sentiment will cross the pond.
May 27, 2024
The Ukraine military has undertaken another successful long-range drone attack on a tactical military target in Russiaās Krasnodar region. The long-range nuclear early-warning radar system Voronezh-DM in Armavir, southern Russia, was hit and destroyed by drones launched by Ukraineās military intelligence on Thursday. Video and satellite imagery have been posted on several YouTube channels.
Clearly in response to the war criminal Putin’s visit to Belarus last week – where he monitored an excercise involving Russian “tactical” short-range nuclear missiles – this is the third successfull attack on the Russian nuclear early warning system since the end of March.
The Voronezh-DM radar monitored Crimea and the southern reaches of Ukraine from threats originating from the Black Sea and is definately an escalation. The UK MoD declined to comment that the drones used in this attack were the highly effective British/French supplied Storm Shadow
May 28, 2024
Storm shadows are air-launched cruise missiles, not ‘drones’, SG. Kiev claimed it sent a long-distance drone. So it’s interesting that the MoD wouldn’t deny that a British missile was used to hit the Russian radar station.
May 27, 2024
You consistently and precisely identify the weakness of nationalised endeavours: no level of personal risk or consequence, and being ultimately underwritten by the state.
On the other hand, Thames Water have mitigated their risk by debt, and becoming too big to fail and too expensive to buy back.
May 27, 2024
Well my Conservative council and this āConservativeā Government have just swallowed up half my state pension increase in council tax rises and income tax. Despite our joint pensions being below the average income, we still have to pay Ā£3,500 a year because we were stupid enough to put savings by for our old age. What do we receive for this grand sum and large chunk of our income every year because we have no streetlights, no pavements, no buses, oh but we do have ever increasing pot holes. Council tax is the most punitive tax of all and is a licence for councils of all colours to squander it on whatever they choose which they do with the blessing of this not a Conservative useless Government.
May 27, 2024
If councils concentrated on running services effectively, without having big ideas we’d all be better off.
Directors of private companies are penalised when those companies go bust – why are councillors not made responsible for incompetence or inappropriate actions.
It really is time local councils, and government, gave a regular account of what they have been doing. Most councils send out a brochure to homes 3 or 4 times a year, highlighting positive wins. Such brochures should come out monthly and detail for all to see, how voting went on all issues, as well as what funds were spent that month. Information should be provided on what motions were passed that would have an effect on voters.
We need to know what councils have been up to so that we can put a stop to some of their more silly schemes, like 15 minute cities and anti-car policies.
May 27, 2024
Warrington Ā£1.8bn debt then āFurther Financial Fiasco at Warrington Borough Council: Ā£10m of property investment now in doubt. It has finally been revealed that Warrington Borough Council’s Ā£10m investment in 2021 for shares in a Birmingham property company now has an estimated value of just Ā£1.3m.ā
Why would Warrington buy shares in a Birmingham property company? Is there a link up between Labour run councils to share out property losses?
May 27, 2024
Sir John
It would appear these wild dreams of power and demagogy that has permeated to local has-beens come from the top.
What has National Service got to do with managing the UK to create the much needed resilient and growing economy. If it was about real recruitment why are our brave service men and women being trashed, under valued, abused and demonised by Government? National Service has in truth nothing to do with anything.
What has the ideology of trashing education, got to do with managing the UK to create the much needed resilient and growing economy. Just trashing what most see as family responsibility in getting the best possible start for ones children. Punishment taxes to increase the burden on State Schools is just punishment and stupidity.
We have a pair of Don Quixote’s tilting at windmills while living in personal dream worlds.
These 2 idiots (3 if you include the loser) have no clue about Government, the economy, controlling spending and moving the Country froward. Their combined intellect is unable to see that it is their Socialist punishment of high tax, high spending is the single thing that is killing a Nation. As often stated on these pages they are just the Uni-Party, or more like the Loony Party – Screaming Lord Sutch offered us more that these 3 combined.
The only take away is they see their personal self esteem and ego as the only thing that matters. The should never be MPs let alone prospective PM. Managing a great vibrant Nation is not any of their aims, they don’t understand that.
Sir John you wonder why local councils fail? It comes from what ego tells some, the pretend leadership of this Country, that it is ideology and ego that should be the only direction.
May 27, 2024
227 illegal aliens /boat people arrived saturday from the safe country of France
May 27, 2024
Pass a law that no council can borrow, lend or invest taxpayers funds ā¦there only function is to collect local council tax & government grant and spend those funds on local services
May 27, 2024
Effective Council management is no different to that of the Government , it all depends on background skills and capability . The means by which individuals are selected for decision roles is at the basis of errors and mistakes . A system of outside judgement by individuals of proven capability is the key to how selection occurs ; this should be implemented without any further delay .
May 27, 2024
Whilst some Councils enormous losses and bankruptcy is due to mismanagement and incompetence in many cases it is a deliberate act to impoverish their local residents and the country with the reasoning that poverty enhances the Leftās popularity and if possible causes the collapse of governments and western capitalism.
It is not āgo woke, go broke,ā but āgo woke to go brokeā.
May 27, 2024
“Councils got punch drunk on relatively cheap loans.” did they not realise it wasn’t their personal money they were gambling with? Or did they think that as 14years of Conservative Government high spending and high taxation gave them permission to also play fast and loose with other people’s money?
May 27, 2024
It’s restating the obvious that county Councils brag about spending, much like government, but waste it significantly.
Here in south west Oxfordshire the surface of a road between two villages has been resurfaced. They congratulate themselves. What they don’t say is that is all they have done.
The many potholes in it were not repaired first. Nor were some areas where the surface had in fact sunken.
What they did was resurface the whole and to include into the potholes. They are still there. Vehicles still hit them and damage themselves. This more so now because for the moment they are not as easy to see. Water still collects in them. It won’t be long before the new surface there breaks down.
This is an example of the way thousands of functions in this country are mismanaged. It is done because those in control, senior national leaders and local ones, don’t know how things are done or don’t care.
They claim success via the level of money spent. It should be noticed how Sunak at PMQs last week mentioned how well he was doing in allocating Ā£8bn for road maintenance as if money levels were the success.
I don’t want Labour but I do want people who know what is going on and how to do things properly and care more.
May 27, 2024
It should not be down to you, SJ, to inform the public about their wasteful councils who consistently blame the Government for their failures but the Government PR machine themselves.
Conservative governments past and present have always failed in presenting their positive case to the public. Even under Dave Cameron, a PR expert, there was but little promotion of his policies. Perhaps because they did not work either?
May 27, 2024
Which properties have āfallen sharply in valueā? My understanding is that investment funds are buying up UK residential property.
Reply These are commercial properties, especially shops
May 27, 2024
And when you have owned a parade since 1932, you canāt sell it because of CGT. Every time the Government interferes in the market, they cause havoc.
May 27, 2024
Do you have figures to back up that assertion! I donāt have figures to refute it but, anecdotally, I observe that almost every 23 and 24 plate car around here is an EV. Lots of retired people here who can afford them and, presumably, feel they are doing their bit for the environment and, charging at home (often via solar), enjoy cheap running costs.
May 27, 2024
Another none entity voicing an opinion – he most probably is correct but he is part of the affront to democracy, part of the Countries corrupted machinery
‘In a post on X attacking Rishi Sunak, Lord Goldsmith predicted that the Prime Minister would ādisappear off to Californiaā and suggested that the state of the party is the fault of Tory MPs who ousted Boris Johnson from Number 10.
He said: āI understand the anger towards Sunak who has damaged the Party almost beyond repair and all but guaranteed the majority of his MPs will lose their job next month.
āBut itās hard to muster much sympathy given that none of this would have happened without the complicity of a majority of the Party & what is now unfolding was entirely predictable- indeed predicted.
āThe hope is that when Sunak disappears off to California in a few weeks there are at least some decent MPs left around which to rebuild.ā
May 27, 2024
āIām doneā: President of Birmingham Young Conservatives defects
The president of the Birmingham Young Conservatives has blamed the National Service scheme for his defectment to the Liberal Democrats.
Clear he wasn’t a Conservative although he does sound like a good Socialist so you would have thought he would support his fellow Socialist Sunak
May 27, 2024
A little OT. But I am watching an excellent film of 1970. Oliver Cromwell. A lot said in it is relevant today.
We all need a new Cromwell like, but for England in particular. Not to remove the king, but to remove the corrupt elite Establishment rulers.
And the politicians who empower defend and enable them and their followers to suppress us and our freedom.
May 27, 2024
Just watched it myself. What a magnificent, spine-tingling performance by Harris.
Cromwell died a constitutional monarchist. It’s a pity cannot see that
May 27, 2024
A Tory spokesperson says ‘A vote for Reform is a vote for Keir Starmer.’
This concerns a local MP standing for election when one is chosen
Note: this is not a vote for Labour but for the other Presidential Candidate. This is a Presidential Election not one where you vote for who should be your local MP supporting your community and the country in Parliament
May 27, 2024
“CCHQ have taken to blaming Tory MPs for focusing too much on doing their job rather than campaigning”
Campaign for what? 14 year of broken promises, 14 years we will stop the Criminal invaders, 14 years of high spending and tax. 14years of one day we will have a bonfire of the Quangos – so they increase them. 14 years refusal to manage. At least the Tory MPs have a record they can point to when campaigning.
May 28, 2024
‘you vote for who should be your local MP supporting your community’
what a novel idea …..doubt it will catch on.
May 27, 2024
“Councils show how much you lose with government investment and trading”
And what finer example of this than Conservative-run Woking?
May 27, 2024
I see Farage is once again doing the dirty work of the Tory party.
May 27, 2024
Do you mean the work that our government hasn’t the bottle to do
May 27, 2024
A lot of dodgy deals happen too.
I know of one university which was given a lot of land by the local councils. A significant transfer of wealth from councils to the university.
That university is now one of the richest in the country, and has sold a lot of the land it was gifted and banked the cash.
Meanwhile the ordinary council tax payers have not seen any benefit from this transfer of wealth.
The way the public sector does such deals is dodgy in the extreme, and would not have any public support if it was publicised more.