Reform to begin Musk-style audits of councils

This is all good.
We have a Kent native, who may keep us posted when all the improvements happen.
Accuracy is important, and now we have true names for the audit teams from growstuff, 'DILDO', and from Silverbrooks, 'DOGGING'.
This is all happening in plenty of time for a review, and audit, of how they have improved the lives and services for their constituents, well before the next GE.

What worries me even more than the cost of all this is that it must be Farage pulling the strings at the 10 Reform controlled councils. Is this what we want and need? Is it ethical?

It's this isn't it.
Councils are struggling because funding has been restricted for so long.
I heard someone on Radio 4 last night saying that the defence spending is a breath of fresh air after 14 years of no increase in budget. If we're in a mess it's because of this.

Reform's MO is to detract from this fact and make people believe that other reasons/people are to blame.

This is an interesting breakdown of how every £1 of council income is spent. Look at what is by far the biggest percentage of expenditure. Do older Reform voters really want that budget to be cut back even further to the bone?
www.local.gov.uk/about/campaigns/save-local-services/save-local-services-how-ps1-council-funding-spent

I am a Kent native too. I expect this to cost a huge amount without much, if any, change/improvement but will do my best and try to keep an open mind.

One man's vanity project is the thing that changes another person's life for the better.

Every single LA has to publish a statement of accounts every year and it’s in the public forum.

Why don’t check out your own councils statement of accounts and get a flavour of what it’s spent on and they decide how much of this is “waste” and “vanity projects”

Councils provide services we sometimes overlook, waste collections we always remember, but most councils also provide a local recycling centre or “tip” or “dump” and provide public dog poo bins and rubbish bins, this is just one example.

Where I live we have three huge public parks and a seafront, should we stop maintaining these?

We have a very large council sports and swimming centre, shall we close this?

We have a large aging population, with people living longer and longer, it’s not unusual for people to live into their nineties these days.

Also so called “vanity projects” are often not funded directly from council funding but from grants and local businesses.

We really need to unpick things, imo, before we can agree if bringing in external forensic auditors is a good use of council funding.

God knows I’m no fan of Farage, but having worked (in the past) for some years for the local council, I couldn’t help noticing what they were spending on what I’d call ‘frills’ - while pleading poverty and sending out questionnaires to residents with questions like, ‘Would you prefer us to cut a) children’s services, b) old people’s services, or c) libraries?

My experience Witzend is that the vanity projects are usually funded because the party running the council has a bee in their bonnet about whatever it is, and insist that funding is allocated to that area. Officers of the council are not the ones in charge of funding allocation, it has to be approved by the councillors.

It’s great that we have some Kent natives on GN. Please keep us informed of the reality of what’s happening.

I fear that all we’ll hear from the media will be rhetoric, sound bites and downright disinformation.

Witzend could you give examples of the sort of things these ‘frills’ were?

Casdon

My experience Witzend is that the vanity projects are usually funded because the party running the council has a bee in their bonnet about whatever it is, and insist that funding is allocated to that area. Officers of the council are not the ones in charge of funding allocation, it has to be approved by the councillors.

Yes! This - absolutely correct.

Casdon

This is an interesting breakdown of how every £1 of council income is spent. Look at what is by far the biggest percentage of expenditure. Do older Reform voters really want that budget to be cut back even further to the bone?
www.local.gov.uk/about/campaigns/save-local-services/save-local-services-how-ps1-council-funding-spent

I'm afraid all the Farage/Trump worshippers will not look at this Casdon. These people seem to fear the truth even when they see how belief in snake-oil salesment has worked out elsewhere. They would far rather find yet another group of the dispossessed (in whatever way) to blame.

I'm in Kent and I'll watch with interest the "savings" - after the people employed to find them have been paid, of course.
There seems to be an understanding on the part of Reform that the county has been run by " woke lefties", so there's lots of silly projects to be cut; it has been Conservative for decades.

Read about Thurrock Council today? £268 million?!? Where on earth did they get that amount from in the first place to invest? Hope the council are investigated as well. No wonder Reform think they’re onto a winner here.

FGT haven’t read anything today about Thurrock council. Where did you read it, so I can look at it for myself?

Chocolatelovinggran

I'm in Kent and I'll watch with interest the "savings" - after the people employed to find them have been paid, of course.
There seems to be an understanding on the part of Reform that the county has been run by " woke lefties", so there's lots of silly projects to be cut; it has been Conservative for decades.

That made me laugh as it's so true! Before you told me I'd assumed it surely must have been lib/lab to spend on all these frills (and what frills has Kent council been spending money on anyway under the Tories?)

This report by Kent council identified many areas where "diversity" initiatives fell well short of government requirements (NB, requirements set by Tory government) 😂

www.kent.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/131983/KCC-Annual-Equality-and-Diversity-Report.pdf

😂 So this council, falling behind on Equality/Diversity is to hire expensive inspectors to tell them...what? They have to meet government standards......

LizzieDrip

FGT haven’t read anything today about Thurrock council. Where did you read it, so I can look at it for myself?

Thurrock is up the road from me.

At one point they were £1.5 billion in debt due to dodgy investments, mainly solar panel farms.

The government are loaning them some money but the repayments will put more strain on an already struggling administration.

www.gov.uk/government/news/sfo-investigates-alleged-multi-million-pound-council-fraud

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has today issued a series of Section 2 notices compelling financial institutions to provide information on its newly opened investigation into alleged fraud committed against Thurrock Council.

Note the words fraud committed against Thurrock Council not by.

www.thurrock.gov.uk/news/thurrock-council-welcomes-serious-fraud-office-investigation

The council welcomes the news that the Serious Fraud Office has confirmed it is investigating allegations of fraud committed against Thurrock Council arising from its dealings with Rockfire Investment Finance Plc and other Rockfire companies.

The SFO has today issued a series of Section 2 notices compelling financial institutions to provide information about Rockfire, linked to Thurrock Council’s investments in solar farm bonds.

Cllr Victoria Holloway, Cabinet Member for Place and the Environment, said: “Since these catastrophic investments first came to light, this administration—standing firmly alongside our residents—has consistently and rightly called for a full investigation. We therefore strongly welcome today’s announcement from the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). It represents a vital step toward securing justice and ensuring accountability on behalf of our communities.

“Thurrock Council will continue to fully support this investigation and will make sure the SFO has access to all the information it requires, as we have continued to do since these losses were uncovered.

“Alongside this, the council is vigorously pursuing civil claims against Rockfire and its owner, Liam Kavanagh, to recover public funds lost through these failed investments. Today’s announcement strengthens our resolve to see this through.”

The involvement of former Thurrock CEO Lyn Carpenter and former Thurrock CFO Sean Clark in this matter are well documented but the SFO investigation should throw further light.

Thanks Silverbrooks I was going to post more info once I have herded GC into their swimming lesson 👍🏻

More on the history of the story here:

www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2022-10-19/thurrock-council-ordered-to-disclose-details-of-dodgy-deals-worth-1bn/#:~:text=In%20October%202019%2C%20the%20Bureau,the%20deals%20were%20being%20agreed.

This was sterling work from the BIJ but this isn’t what Reform seem to be about with this Musk-style DOGE initiative.

They have no evidence of any fraudulent activity at Kent CC. They are simply following Trump in their hatred of diversity, equalty and inclusivity. This will probably be some thoughtless slash and burn mission which will end up cutting vital services.

Yep

Note the words fraud committed against Thurrock Council not by

Thanks Silverbrooks, and for the links too.

Its so complicated, people often don't base decisions on anything like full information (neither do many have the time for it) I just wish the press were more responsible as in including "both sides of a story" when there is one.