Scottish Budget Day

[Benjamin_Nevis]

1 minute ago, virginton said:

Inverclyde and West Dunbartonshire (the Tweedledum and Tweedledee of diddy councils) are already exploring the 'rationalisation' of payroll and management. Which tbf is far preferable to closing down the central library or switching off street lights overnight* like it's the 1991 Soviet Union. 

* These are legitimate, cost-cutting proposals. 

Glorious. 

Although until Inverclyde has paid a large accountancy firma few hundred thousand pounds to identify savings, only to then can the idea because they got ripped to shreds for it, losing even more money, I'm afraid you'll struggle to wrestle the tinpottery crown away. 

We also implemented a vastly unpopular system of parking charges, and did it really badly, resulting in another hilarious probable six figure loss. 

And spent north of half a million fighting a local dickhead property developer to be able to pull down a shitey old leisure centre. 

[vikingTON]

6 minutes ago, Benjamin_Nevis said:

Glorious. 

Although until Inverclyde has paid a large accountancy firma few hundred thousand pounds to identify savings, only to then can the idea because they got ripped to shreds for it, losing even more money, I'm afraid you'll struggle to wrestle the tinpottery crown away. 

We also implemented a vastly unpopular system of parking charges, and did it really badly, resulting in another hilarious probable six figure loss. 

And spent north of half a million fighting a local dickhead property developer to be able to pull down a shitey old leisure centre. 

I'll see your six figure losses and raise you this clusterfuck:

https://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/news/20150059.inverclyde-councils-bid-demolish-clune-park-hits-brick-wall/

Quote

 

Since announcing plans to regenerate Clune Park more than ten years ago, the council has seen the estimated cost of the proposed plan rise from £2.6m to £4.87m.

The current estimated cost for demolishing the estate stands at £1m.

[...]

another major Clune Park property owner — who is also yet to reach a deal to dispose of his portfolio — has demanded the reinstatement of 2014 valuations of up to £20,000 per flat.

 

A two bedroom flat has just been put up for sale on said derelict estate for £8k. Bargain!

[Benjamin_Nevis]

1 minute ago, virginton said:

I'll see your six figure losses and raise you this clusterfuck:

https://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/news/20150059.inverclyde-councils-bid-demolish-clune-park-hits-brick-wall/

A two bedroom flat has just been put up for sale on said derelict estate for £8k. Bargain!

Holy actual f**k 

Aye you win. 

[Aufc]

The big problem with councils is, for some strange reason, they don’t seem to be run as actual businesses. There is no pressure to make a profit so therefore absolutely no accountability for what js being spent. My company does some work with the council and at various point in the year they are literally throwing cash/purchase orders at us because “if they don’t spend the budget by this date then they will lose it for next year”. It seems complete madness. 
 

I have no issue with people working at home but it just seems like everything with the public service is slow as f**k and home working is used as an excuse. To me, everyone working at home shoukd only be acceptable if it doesn’t impact your overall service to your clients/customers. 
 

As also mentioned, it seems bizarre that every council has their own payroll and admin etc. surely this could be consolidated into one central region? I would imagine that there are private companies that employ more people thay all the councils that have everything centralised. 

[MONKMAN]

Some wild accusations going about here as to what defines being 'rich'.

[scottsdad]

14 hours ago, Granny Danger said:

Maybe your HR people are as clueless as your academics.  Or maybe they just find it easier to say no.

On a wider point, and I talk through personal experience though somewhat different from your colleague, tax status is based on where someone is domiciled.  Anyone spending 183 days or more in a tax year domiciled in England would be deemed to be a tax resident of England.

 

I actually thought this was the case. There must be loads of people at the border who live on one side and work on the other. And I did tell him this. 

The issue might be the fact he owns a flat 2 minutes from campus. How can he prove he doesn't live there? I am just guessing though. 

[Alert Mongoose]

2 hours ago, Aufc said:

There is no pressure to make a profit

Why would a council be expected to make a profit? 

[Aufc]

26 minutes ago, Alert Mongoose said:

Why would a council be expected to make a profit? 

I worded that incorrectly. There is no accountability for costs and departments rush to spend all their budget purely so they don’t lose it the following year. 

[Salt n Vinegar]

6 hours ago, Aufc said:

I worded that incorrectly. There is no accountability for costs and departments rush to spend all their budget purely so they don’t lose it the following year. 

There is another factor to consider though.  I worked in local authorities for quite a while.  Council officers and Councillors were, and are, always trying to do more with less funding overall.  IIRC where I worked 2% and often 5% "efficiency savings" (that is, base budget reductions) were assumed for each year's budget even before new responsibilities were added. One of the main reasons I took voluntary severance was because I could see how things were going. Even before I left we had insufficient staff to do the job to what I felt was an acceptable level, let alone cope with staff illness or even holidays. 

I'm not looking for sympathy (I know better than that around here!) but during my notice period I was shocked to find out that almost half of the staff in our section were suffering from stress to the extent that they were on GP prescribed medication.  No workplace should be run like that. 

The electorate, the Councillors and the Scottish Government look to Councils to deliver more and more. While allocating more money either from Holyrood and/or from Council Tax/other local authority charges won't automatically mean better services, there's very little chance of sustained service improvement without more funds.

As far as I'm concerned the 1994-1996 reorganisation went the "wrong" way. The 9 Regional Councils would have been far better at strategic planning and economies of scale. We should have kept them and abolished the District Councils. Instead we got 32 single tier Councils. We would not need 32 chief executives, 32 Directors of Finance, 32 Directors of Education etc etc. (The job titles may vary from place to pace, but even if individual posts within a Council cover more than one function, like Health and Social Care, you get the gist of it.) 

To tiptoe into the politics a little, IMO the Regions were abolished because the Tories couldn't control them, (losing control of Tayside Region in the 1986 election was a big blow for the Tories) and the Strathclyde Regional Council water referendum in 1994 (google it if you're unfamiliar with what asking voters opinions can achieve!) was a massive GIRFUY to Westminster. 

It will be vital that the part of the extra taxe take being allocated to the NHS do actually achieve improvements otherwise I really fear for its future. 

 

Edited December 17, 2022 by Salt n Vinegar
Typo

[jakedee]

31 minutes ago, Salt n Vinegar said:

 

To tiptoe into the politics a little, IMO the Regions were abolished because the Tories couldn't control them, (losing control of Tayside Region in the 1986 election was a big blow for the Tories) 

The gerrymandering of the local council boundaries after the Regions were abolished were also a Tory exercise in trying to boost their presence. Having council services travelling, eg from Perth to Invergowrie makes no sense whatsoever. School boundaries is another sham.

 

[Granny Danger]

50 minutes ago, Salt n Vinegar said:

 

To tiptoe into the politics a little, IMO the Regions were abolished because the Tories couldn't control them, (losing control of Tayside Region in the 1986 election was a big blow for the Tories) and the Strathclyde Regional Council water referendum in 1994 (google it if you're unfamiliar with what asking voters opinions can achieve!) was a massive GIRFUY to Westminster. 

It will be vital that the part of the extra taxe take being allocated to the NHS do actually achieve improvements otherwise I really fear for its future. 

 

Tayside and Lothian were the jewels in the Scottish local authority crown and losing them hurt.  Also they didn’t like the power Strathclyde wielded because of its size.

Abolishing the regions was purely a political act.  Some services, such as housing, are best delivered at a local level but roads, social work and education all benefited from the larger authority structure.

As an aside local government in the U.K. is not really ‘government’ it is local administration.  Authorities have very limited discretionary powers, can only raise a small part of their budgets and mainly carry out statutory duties on behalf of national government.

 

[Blue Brazil Forever]

According to senior observers/ business men (tories ?) heading south and trans pretendies (SNP voters?) heading for Scotland. Sounds like a fair exchange to me.