Western Mail: ‘Value-for-money ratings could shave £100 a year off Welsh council tax bills’

MANY council tax bills could be reduced by £100 a year if local authorities in Wales were awarded English-style “value for money” ratings, it has been claimed.

Jeff Jones, who was Labour leader of Bridgend council until 2004, said there was a compelling case to provide taxpayers with an easy-to-understand assessment of the 22 councils in Wales.

Mr Jones, who now works as a consultant, said, “In England it is very easy for people to find out how their council is doing because of the assessments made by the Audit Commission.

“Every authority is given marks from one to four, with those getting one being judged as poor performers.

“In Wales, however, there has been strong resistance to such assessments.

“There is a reluctance for that kind of information to be made available.

“In my view, councillors have nothing to fear from such assessments, and much to gain. A lot of the problems in local government derive from bad management from the top.

“If a council was given a low score, it would give councillors the opportunity to speak to the chief executive and say if matters did not improve within, say, six months, they would be out.

“Poor performance by a council has a direct impact on the cost of providing services. I believe that introducing a scoring system for local authorities in Wales could force them to sharpen up, with the prospect of savings on council tax that could amount to £100 a year.”

A spokesman for the Welsh Local Government Association said, “The Wales Programme for Improvement is under review and will need to evolve to reflect changing priorities for local government improvement.

“We are keen to introduce greater comparability of services and performance within and between local authorities and the annual reporting of performance information through the Local Government Data Unit goes a long way in achieving this; it allows service users, politicians and professionals to compare performance in service areas across Wales.

“It is noticeable that the approaches in England and Wales are growing closer, not least since the Audit Commission in England is developing the Comprehensive Area Assessment which will abandon an overall star rating for councils and the new national indicator set will not be scored.

“Instead, the focus shifts away from organisational naval gazing to a proper examination of the prospects for local areas and the quality of life for people living there.

“It will put the experience of citizens, people who use services and local taxpayers at the centre of debate, which is our focus in Wales.”

Meanwhile the Taxpayers’ Alliance campaign group released a report suggesting there had been a big increase in the number of middle-ranking council managers with remuneration packages worth more than £50,000 a year.

The report says, “The data in local authority accounts over the past decade implies that council have hired a new class of middle and senior management and then increased their pay and benefits packages faster than the economy-wide average.

“It is of course quite normal that wages should increase above the rate of inflation in a growing economy, and over time we would expect more people to earn £50,000 and above. But the increase in the number of local authority employees being paid more than £50,000 a year has been phenomenal, far outstripping the rate of increase in the economy as a whole.”

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said, “With council tax doubling in the past decade, it’s extremely disappointing that town halls have chosen to hire a new class of middle managers, many of whom are being paid more than MPs.

“Local authorities should study our findings carefully to see where savings can be made, instead of using their half-billion-pound PR machine to obscure their finances from taxpayers.”

In Wales, the councils with the highest number of managers earning more than £50,000 are Cardiff (54), Carmarthenshire (44) and Rhondda Cynon Taf (34). In terms of cost per resident of such packages, Torfaen comes out on top at £21.10, followed by Carmarthenshire at £18.71 and Conwy at £18.42.