Whatever you think of "the council", its various decisions and actions, this is not going to make things 'better'.
There are a whole range of statutory services that CEC is obliged to do, so the cuts will be more severe elsewhere.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
"City council faces strike as 2000 jobs to be axed"
(27 posts)-
Posted 9 years ago #
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Perhaps it's time for the SNP to consider abolishing their council
fundingtax freeze. Eight years without any inflationary increase is pretty extreme.Posted 9 years ago # -
"Perhaps it's time for the SNP to consider abolishing their council fundingtax freeze."
Long overdue.
'Popular with voters' of course.
As are most things that appear to 'save them money' - without thinking about wider/other cost implications (financial and services & amenities).
Posted 9 years ago # -
I wouldn't disagree with the point about the council tax freeze - though personally I'd rather it was a land value tax in the first place - but I'm sure I read something recently about Westminster imposing large cuts to this year's already-agreed-and-set-in-stone budgets, including that of the Scottish government. Something of that sort. If I've remembered right - how related are these cuts to that cut?
Edit: and this is all happening _before_ the banks go belly-up once more!
Posted 9 years ago # -
"'Popular with voters' of course."
Indeed, if they phrase it as "you'll have more money to spend" it earns votes. If they are honest and say "you'll have to spend more money" it wont.
Of course the SNP isn't against giving things to the voters for free they are just reluctant for it to come from anywhere other then holyrood (free prescriptions, trunk roads, over 60s bus travel, etc.)
Posted 9 years ago # -
local authority finance is already under consideration with a cross party group looking to replace the CT. See http://localtaxcommission.scot/
Posted 9 years ago # -
"Of course the SNP isn't against giving things to the voters for free they are just reluctant for it to come from anywhere other then holyrood "
Something to do with councils run by (gasp, shock horror) politicians from OTHER PARTIES EXCEPT THE SNP.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Again the Edinburgh Reporter has a much better, more detailed article on this story. Why even bother with the EEN? It's cr@p.
http://www.theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2015/09/council-proposing-2000-job-cuts-to-make-ends-meet/
Posted 9 years ago # -
"
EDINBURGH’S ruling Labour-SNP coalition is set to reject controversial privatisation plans being recommended by officials to help save £141 million from the council’s budget.
Proposals drawn up to help balance the books over the next four years include outsourcing repairs, maintenance and cleaning of council buildings such as schools, care homes, community centres and libraries, as well as cutting around 2000 posts.
"
http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/council-chiefs-to-reject-privatisation-plans-1-3894218
Posted 9 years ago # -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-34326185
Local authorities 'overfunded' for council tax freeze
Local government has been more than adequately compensated for revenues lost through the council tax freeze, new research has suggested. The Scottish Parliament's information centre has been looking at the figures.
It found extra cash given by the Scottish government to councils was worth slightly more than they would have raised by increasing council tax. But the research also suggested councils' share of the Scottish budget has been squeezed slightly.
The Scottish government faces frequent criticism from opposition parties, councils and unions over the money it hands to local authorities, with claims of increasing centralisation and a failure to properly compensate councils for the SNP's flagship pledge to keep council tax frozen. However, these findings from the Scottish Parliament Research Centre (Spice) suggest the council tax freeze is actually "overfunded".There's a number of threads where this might go, but this one seems most recent. And also direct Edinburgh relevance, not just generic Scottish politics / local governance.
Of course there's a number of other ways councils can and do raise money, not just taxation, but worth bearing in mind next time the council (or any council) try to directly blame their financial predicament on council tax freeze alone.
A cross-party commission has recently been established to examine alternatives to council tax and is due to report in autumn 2015.
P.S. this is not me defending either the council tax or the freeze. I don't think either work particularly well .
Posted 9 years ago # -
I'd be just as dubious about this if it came from any of the political party. But I'd rather see the workings than just take the word of the executive.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Scottish Parliament Research Centre
So the Scottish Parliament does some research on this and finds that the Scottish Parliament are in fact mega awsum?
Posted 9 years ago # -
SPICe is 'non-party' & 'non-gov', but it does go against 'expectations'.
Posted 9 years ago # -
I think we're at risk of conflating the Scottish Parliament (or any party in it) with the Scottish Government here.
There is a learned member of CCE who is infinitely knowledgeable of the precise organisational mechanics of it all so I won't pretend to try and provide a better answer! In the meantime, the below is taken from a document outlining the role of SPICe when the parliament was first set up;
SPICe provides research, information and documentation services to the Scottish Parliament. SPICe staff are staff of the Parliament itself (i.e. they are not civil servants). They work solely and impartially for the Parliament and its Members. They should not be confused with the “political” researchers and other staff of individual MSPs or parties within or outwith Parliament.
SPICe’s purpose is to assist MSPs, their staff and the staff of the Parliament to secure expert information and briefing for their parliamentary duties. SPICe staff possess subject expertise in relevant (primarily devolved) areas. They undertake and commission research for the Parliament’s Committees, individual MSPs and for the Parliament itself.
Briefing papers are produced on all bills, major issues relating to forthcoming parliamentary business and other subjects of topical interest..Anyway. It's fair to say the article cannot simply be written off as Government or SNP propaganda.
Posted 9 years ago # -
SPICe staff are staff of the Parliament itself (i.e. they are not civil servants).
I don't understand this... isn't a civil servant someone who works for a public body like the parliament?
Posted 9 years ago # -
No the civil service in the British understanding of it only includes Crown (i.e. Central Government) employees, not parliamentary employees or local government employees. The Civil Service for the Scottish Government (i.e. working for the Scottish Ministers) is reserved to Westminster, although the actual Civil Servants themselves owe their loyalty to the Scottish Ministers in question.
It's a key distinction as Civil Service code of conduct obliges Civil Servants to be loyal to and work only for the Government of the day (and not for the opposition). The parliamentary employees work for the parliament and therefore can work impartially and for all the parties in it. Or something like that.
Posted 9 years ago # -
The SPICe website is quite helpful:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/92443.aspx
It's a fairly simple calculation of the difference between the money provided by the Scottish Government to Local Authorities to compensate for the freeze and the amount Local Authorities would have collected if the tax had been uprated by inflation.Posted 9 years ago # -
Edinburgh would also like to generate revenue by a hotel bedroom tax, apparently works in Berlin? Scot gov declines to allow this.
Quite like if scot gov tried to raise revenue by increasing tax. I would gladly pay more tax to end food banks if UK gov didn't then cut the grant to Scotland.
Tricky
Posted 9 years ago # -
Most tourist destinations I've been to in recent years have a local hotel tax. Certainly Berlin. Hong Kong seems to charge 10%. Seems a no brainer, which has no appreciable impact on the takings of the hotel trade at all, despite the "anti-business" moaning it invariably occasions.
Posted 9 years ago # -
the money provided by the Scottish Government to Local Authorities to compensate for the freeze
Where does the Scottish Government get that money from?
Posted 9 years ago # -
Edinburgh also wants to retain a bigger share of corporation tax collected within the council area (I'm sure this was discussed on A. N. Other local politics thread).
Posted 9 years ago # -
Sadly the data linked to is a dead link but reading the report I don't see how the government can claim to have paid £70m extra a year to councils since the freeze.
Ignoring the year when fire and police were centralised, the funding for councils has dropped in 3 out of 7 years since the freeze. (The total funding for councils, F&P dropped £700m when fire and police were centralised.)
So it seems that the £70m is a hypothetical figure which isn't an addition to any other grant but instead the figure councils stand to loose should they increase council tax. However it does look like the £70m figure is roughly the cost of the council tax freeze over the last 8 years.
Having taken some of the numbers from the report and removing the funding for the council tax freeze from the central government grants (as well as assuming the drop in the year F&P were centralised was entirely F&P and that the previous increases/decreases were in line with total funding It looks like councils have had their central government funding cut by £275m since the 2007-2008 tax year.
So although the letter of the legislation perhaps suggests the councils have been compensated I don't agree that the figures presented back that up.
I should repeat that I'm not a fan of council tax and think it should be replaced by an increase in other areas of tax but until it is replaced it should be allowed to function as intended.
Posted 9 years ago # -
I heard Chris Brace was leaving his position on the cycling team and to be replaced by Phil Noble.
Can anyone confirm / back this up?
Posted 9 years ago # -
Edd1e_h I heard the same & understand Chris is leaving at the end of this month (we should invite him to PY...).
A lot of experience of battling to get cycle schemes built going with him.
Posted 9 years ago # -
I'm pretty sure PN is/was CB's boss?
Posted 9 years ago # -
Phil might have to cover some work, but the post will be filled.
CB is going to Sustrans.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Ah, that's actually not bad news then. :-)
Posted 9 years ago #
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