A lot has been made of the Conservative governments’ attempts to slash the budget defecit, but none more so than the effect that funding cuts will have on local authorities. Should councils look a bit closer to home though, when allocating the blame of these job cuts?
One of the regions hardest hit is the north west with planned cuts of 1500 and 2000 in Liverpool and Manchester respectively. Liverpool City Council bosses say they have to find £141m worth of savings between now and 2013 with compulsory redundancies essential, however is it fair that the labour-run council blame the Conservative government for tightening their belts in times of economic hardship, or should they look more closely at their other revenue streams.
In August 2010 one of Liverpools’ local newspapers revealed that in the previous year Liverpool City Council failed to collect 8% of the £186m council tax it was due which amounted to approximately £15m. The total number of seperate arrears cases outstanding at the time of the article were 285,619 which amounted to £127m since 1994.
One local commentator suggested that the problem in collecting council tax and enforcing ‘liability orders’ (court orders for the collection of arrears), is of the councils own making.
“Liverpool City Council have created a culture amongst its constituents of paying council tax only if you think you can afford it. The council is all to willing to put on-hold cases where it is clear charge payers have had sufficient time to resolve their outstanding issues. They even provide a facility within the council where cases can be put on-hold almost at the request of the charge payer. It appears the council are more ready to assist those with a history of evasion, rather than those charged with the collection of arrears.
With such vast sums of unpaid taxes, maybe councils should look at the option of creating jobs in council tax recovery and empowering and supporting these people , rather than cutting vast numbers of jobs in other areas.
