I read your council tax increase pieces in total despair. I believe that the people discussing and implementing tax increases, whether county or district, have lost the plot.
Here's my proposal for the next three years' council tax levels:-
Year 1 – No tax increase over prior year. County and district council managers to absorb inflationary pressures through cost reduction. An additional 5% cost reduction requirement to
be imposed on managers.
These cost reductions to be achieved alongside improvements in customer service.
A committee of successful businessmen/ council tax payers should be established to ensure that the right service level targets are set and properly measured. Manager performance should be reviewed with independent assessors at least quarterly and failing managers removed from their positions.
Years 2 and 3 – council tax to be reduced by the previous year's savings. Further cost reduction and increased customer service level targets to be set on the same basis as for Year 1. The process of weeding out poor performers at all levels in the council organisations should be continuous.
By the end of Year 3, county and district council expenditures should be down by around 15% and inflationary pressures over the three year period should have been offset through additional cost reductions accompanied by service improvements in all areas of council activity.
The process should then continue to be one of doing more for less, not less for more, the same for more or more for more. This country's bureaucracies (national as well as regional and local) must be sorted out before it becomes an economic mediocrity. - Jeff Penny, The Maltings, Leamington.
