Top-performing councils have reacted furiously to allegations by local government minister, John Healey, that they are lagging behind in efficiency savings – claims which have put a new strain on central-local relations.
The minister claimed ‘millions’ of householders could get council tax savings of between £36 and £101, if councils were ‘more efficient’ in delivering services.
He named 10 local authorities which he said could offer the biggest cuts in tax bills – including Birmingham City Council, Hampshire CC and Kent CC.
Of the 10, six are four-star CPA councils and two are three-star.
Five of the county councils, including Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Norfolk and Surrey, joined forces and rounded on Mr Healey, accusing him of unscientifically ‘plucking figures out of the air’.
In a statement, the five leaders – Lord Hanningfield, Robert Gordon, Paul Carter, Daniel Cox and Nick Skellett – said: ‘Jointly, our five authorities have saved £302m in the last three financial years, significantly more than the government target set for us.
‘This makes the additional £185m that he [Mr Healey] made available in January to all 410 local authorities to help make efficiency savings look rather small and insignificant.’
As the news filtered through local government, accusations that the move by Mr Healey was politically-led began to surface, with all 10 councils, except Lancashire, being Liberal Democrat or Conservative-led.
And Cllr Richard Kemp, leader of the Liberal Democrats at the LGA, pointed out that Leeds, Birmingham and Liverpool were all councils Labour hoped to gain control of in local elections this year.
He said: ‘This is just low politics and destroys the concept of the concordat between local and national government which was only signed by Hazel Blears in December last year.’
A local government insider told The MJ there was no science behind the figures at all, and it appeared to be the result of ‘dodgy spinning’ by CLG‘Mr Healey seems like a nice guy,’ he told The MJ. ‘This is doing him damage and harm, and is affecting relations between central and local government. It seems like some junior CLG figure has spun this incorrectly.’
Ken Thornber, leader of Hampshire CC, described Mr Healey’s comments as a ‘kick in the teeth’, and challenged his officials to visit Hampshire, look through the books, and find where £36m could be taken off tax bills. He urged Mr Healey to look at the hard evidence more carefully.