Small annual, predictable, increases in line with inflation are a much better prospect than sudden large increases.
Thanks to the short-sightedness of the Scottish government pandering for the populist vote, this is the situation people are now finding themselves in.
It was always going to come eventually. You can’t kick the can down the road forever.
It would be interesting to know more detail around the comparison between gradual increases and this approach.
Complete speculation on my part, I really don’t know, but logically I’d have thought it costs more to revive completely fucked services after years of decay than to maintain them.
Numbers like 15% will a bit of a shock to the system for some households too. Even at band A in Falkirk you’d be looking at around £150 increase.
D will be around £200.
Not the end of the world, but not nothing to a struggling family either.
They also had the chance to vote through cuts to nursery education budgets that would have forced working family’s to use council nurseries rather than private for 3 – 5 year old. Would have forced kids to move and only be able to access 9-3pm wothin term time. It appears one trade off to protect that is 15.6% rise
Get tae Falkirk
This is all purely due to how the government can’t be arsed to actually sort out council tax.
Looking at my local council’s budget review, 70% of their money comes from the government settlement and only 20% from council tax. Then they spend about 50% of that on education and 20% on adult social care.
**These things need paid for**, they are essential services. But really, who gives a damn if their council funds education and social care rather than the central government? The Scottish government has access to a much larger pool of tax payers and it also has the power to tax them with things *that aren’t regressive like council tax*.
It should use those powers to fund councils to a level where they aren’t cutting services they don’t have legal obligations on, to preserve the ones they do.
They *know* that councils need more money, but they’re offloading this onto the councils themselves because that way the lion’s share of the political flak lands on them. So they leave it all to be paid for by a regressive tax that damages the poorest the most.
This has been the same song and dance since austerity began. If essential services need funding and the central government won’t provide it; they may as well order the increases themselves and stop hiding behind the logical consequences of their own actions as if someone else is at fault.
I mentioned this elsewhere but a ‘silver lining’ (if you can call it that) of these rises, is that councillors are saying that given the grant settlement alongside the council tax rises, this is the first time in a long time that they’ll actually be able to invest into services, rather than just making cuts or managing decline.
I don’t agree with centralisation as a rule, however, there are 32 local authorities all with the same pay scales and yet there are 32 pay departments doing the same job as each other. The lion’s share of these people could easily work in another part of their council. And so, after a couple of years they would take up other vacancies in the council and the departments can merge.
It’s not the entire answer but one method to reduce costs without losing any jobs.
Oh, and how much we paying as a country for microsoft licenses? Windows, office, etc, etc.
Stop paying them, then force them to restructure
As a Falkirk council tax payer this is pretty sore, but not unexpected. The council has been signalling difficulties for several months – most famously its failed attempt to cut the school week. Latest attempt was to cut access to private nurseries using funded hours – which also failed. This rise was pretty inevitable.
How are people even surviving? more and more money getting taken out of peoples pockets and for what? Community buildings closing, roads/pavements are in poor condition, public services are shocking, schools are overcrowded and not enough teachers.
Ahh great. Paying an increasing amount of money just for the cunts to continue cutting services anyway.
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Probably less than inflation since the last rise.
Small annual, predictable, increases in line with inflation are a much better prospect than sudden large increases.
Thanks to the short-sightedness of the Scottish government pandering for the populist vote, this is the situation people are now finding themselves in.
It was always going to come eventually. You can’t kick the can down the road forever.
It would be interesting to know more detail around the comparison between gradual increases and this approach.
Complete speculation on my part, I really don’t know, but logically I’d have thought it costs more to revive completely fucked services after years of decay than to maintain them.
Numbers like 15% will a bit of a shock to the system for some households too. Even at band A in Falkirk you’d be looking at around £150 increase.
D will be around £200.
Not the end of the world, but not nothing to a struggling family either.
They also had the chance to vote through cuts to nursery education budgets that would have forced working family’s to use council nurseries rather than private for 3 – 5 year old. Would have forced kids to move and only be able to access 9-3pm wothin term time. It appears one trade off to protect that is 15.6% rise
Get tae Falkirk
This is all purely due to how the government can’t be arsed to actually sort out council tax.
Looking at my local council’s budget review, 70% of their money comes from the government settlement and only 20% from council tax. Then they spend about 50% of that on education and 20% on adult social care.
**These things need paid for**, they are essential services. But really, who gives a damn if their council funds education and social care rather than the central government? The Scottish government has access to a much larger pool of tax payers and it also has the power to tax them with things *that aren’t regressive like council tax*.
It should use those powers to fund councils to a level where they aren’t cutting services they don’t have legal obligations on, to preserve the ones they do.
They *know* that councils need more money, but they’re offloading this onto the councils themselves because that way the lion’s share of the political flak lands on them. So they leave it all to be paid for by a regressive tax that damages the poorest the most.
This has been the same song and dance since austerity began. If essential services need funding and the central government won’t provide it; they may as well order the increases themselves and stop hiding behind the logical consequences of their own actions as if someone else is at fault.
I mentioned this elsewhere but a ‘silver lining’ (if you can call it that) of these rises, is that councillors are saying that given the grant settlement alongside the council tax rises, this is the first time in a long time that they’ll actually be able to invest into services, rather than just making cuts or managing decline.
I don’t agree with centralisation as a rule, however, there are 32 local authorities all with the same pay scales and yet there are 32 pay departments doing the same job as each other. The lion’s share of these people could easily work in another part of their council. And so, after a couple of years they would take up other vacancies in the council and the departments can merge.
It’s not the entire answer but one method to reduce costs without losing any jobs.
Oh, and how much we paying as a country for microsoft licenses? Windows, office, etc, etc.
Stop paying them, then force them to restructure
As a Falkirk council tax payer this is pretty sore, but not unexpected. The council has been signalling difficulties for several months – most famously its failed attempt to cut the school week. Latest attempt was to cut access to private nurseries using funded hours – which also failed. This rise was pretty inevitable.
How are people even surviving? more and more money getting taken out of peoples pockets and for what? Community buildings closing, roads/pavements are in poor condition, public services are shocking, schools are overcrowded and not enough teachers.
Ahh great. Paying an increasing amount of money just for the cunts to continue cutting services anyway.
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