COUNCIL PIGGY BANKS EXPOSED

IF you read most local newspapers you would think Councils are short of money.

Yet DESPITE rinsing ever more Council Tax out of people, dozens of Councils around the country have seen their cash stockpiles increase, according to new research.

317 Councils were asked by The Taxpayers’ Alliance how much money they were holding in their piggy banks (known in Town Hall circles as “usable reserves”).

The answers that came back show that Councils around the country are sitting on cash mountains equivalent to £47 BILLION.

47% of these (equivalent to 150 different Councils) also saw their kitties RISE during the year March 2023-24.

All of this information was sent out to newspapers at the end of February but don’t expect to read about it here in Cumbria.

Churnalists here are far more likely to preoccupy themselves asking snidey questions about who funds The Taxpayers’ Alliance than daring to tell their readers where their money’s going!

The local media, with the exception of hyperlocal news website, Penrith Town, only seems interested in telling you one side of the story – that our local Town Halls need ever more cash.

Indeed, after last week’s budget, The Crumbling News, Carlisle, rolled out the world’s smallest violin; telling readers in a front page strapline: “Council facing significant financial pressures.”

Well wet my face with artificial tears!

The results mentioned here spell out that nearly half of the Councils approached are HIKING Council Tax while GROWING their reserves.

Instead of lowering or freezing Council Tax and dipping into this nest egg to plug gaps, Councils of ALL political stripes are choosing to milk their residents for more cash rather than spend money they’re sitting on.

The Taxpayers’ Alliance has said that its data shows that some Councils out there are: “Choosing to increase Council Tax” only to squirrel away ever-growing sums of money in their banks for the rainy day that never seems to come.

The TPA said: “It is difficult to reconcile the near-universal increase in Council Tax with the growing reserves of some local authorities.

“While it is important to maintain sufficient reserves for emergencies, some councils have accumulated usable reserves far in excess of the national average.

“Councils must justify the growth of their reserves and ensure that they only raise Council Tax as a last resort.”

New councils such as Cumberland Council and Westmorland & Furness Council were not included in the data set.

At the time of Local Government Disorganisation in Cumbria when seven councils were reduced to two in 2023, the numbers below show the multi-million-pound cash piles our outgoing Councils were sitting on.

Cumbria County Council – £63 million; South Lakeland District Council £16m; Copeland Council £14.2m; Carlisle City Council £12.9m; Eden District Council £12.9m; Barrow Borough Council £11.7m and Allerdale £6.9m.

But that doesn’t count all the DEBT they were in back then, which was as follows: Cumbria County Council £386m; SLDC £12.8m; Copeland £5.0m; Carlisle £13.2m; Eden £0.0; Barrow £34m and Allerdale £16.5m.

That’s all been divvied up now and lumped onto Crumberland Council, and Wokemoreland & Farcical Council, and, er, passed onto you.

More alarming is that when a Cumbria Mayor is elected next year as Labour steamrollers Devolution into Cumbria it will add ANOTHER line of bureaucracy on our local Council Tax bills.

These Mayors don’t come cheap because they require an expensive supporting cast of over-paid directors, pen pushers, bag carriers, HR droids, administrators, PR spinners, and cosy offices.

Guess what? You’re paying for it and you won’t read about this until it’s all done and dusted…