Reform to begin Musk-style audits of councils

GrannyGravy13

Nothing wrong with an in-depth look at the accounts, as long as they keep essential services.

All businesses and government bodies should look at how and where the money is spent.

Local councils already have governance and scrutiny committees for this and an annual external audit.

Edit - thats a summary of my own local council not Durham.

I'm keeping an eye on Durham and Durham CC, as family live in the area. Locally thank goodness no change and the council can get on with the struggles they have.

I've just looked up and. found a 21 page summary of every single worker they. employ, what salary scale and short report of work done. Surely this is enough information?

FriedGreenTomatoes2

My bugbear is procurement issues. A friend worked in local authority and 25 years ago she went to the local admin manager saying she needed a desk lamp and had found one in Ryman’s (her local store) for a tenner (which included VAT).

Oh no, she was told. Shecould only order one through the Council’s contracted supplier so was given a very thick full colour glossy catalogue.

Guess what? The same desk lamp as the one in Rymans was £85 (not including VAT).

I’ve always remembered this illustration of how money truly is wasted. There will be a lot of waste uncovered I bet.

I absolutely agree with you re procurement.

This does need looking at and improving.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

You seem a tad het up Wyllow. I shall now disengage. I don’t have the time nor inclination to smooth your ruffled feathers. Different opinions on topics are allowed.

Just what I was thinking too.
There are plenty of wasteful Councils around as well as Bradford and Birmingham who have been showering cash on their pet projects for far too long.
If Reform want to bring in analysts from outside to assess things then why not? Shows that they’re serious about making their own Councils deliver value for money.

I’ll be watching with great interest to see how the new Reform councils meet their statutory duties and residents expectations. Meanwhile, I’m glad I don’t live in Kent.

Yes, Pax. 😊

Because it was a topic I know something about and had impressed me in the past Wyllow.

However DEI initiatives and eye watering salaries for council workers championing such directives, less so.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

You seem a tad het up Wyllow. I shall now disengage. I don’t have the time nor inclination to smooth your ruffled feathers. Different opinions on topics are allowed.

Pax, 🙂
perhaps we both have ruffled feathers

but many different opinions on here not just mine.

My most ruffled feathers are the thought of cutting disability support into work, taking all the joy out of celebrating difference, and the idea that Kent council have appointed a numpty on accounting yet calling in a team to examine accounting.....

FriedGreenTomatoes2

I know nothing about Greater Manchester expenditures Wyllow. These days I have bigger fish to fry sadly. However I am impressed by our Mayor, Andy Burnham and our Chief Constable - Stephen Watson and his Operation Vulcan.

Operation Vulcan is a partnership response of 65 different agencies who collectively addressed embedded criminality in a specific area of Manchester. (Cheetham Hill & Strangeways). The criminality was centred around the supply of counterfeit goods, which had given the area a reputation for being the counterfeit capital of Europe.

I do realise/know your sad bigger fish FGT - but you managed a critique on Bradford?

You seem a tad het up Wyllow. I shall now disengage. I don’t have the time nor inclination to smooth your ruffled feathers. Different opinions on topics are allowed.

correction

not
"What a sad, narrow society we will live in if we stop employing people with disabilities who manfully live up to a meritocracy"

but
""What a sad, narrow society we will live in if we stop employing people with disabilities who manage to live up to a meritocracy"

I know nothing about Greater Manchester expenditures Wyllow. These days I have bigger fish to fry sadly. However I am impressed by our Mayor, Andy Burnham and our Chief Constable - Stephen Watson and his Operation Vulcan.

Operation Vulcan is a partnership response of 65 different agencies who collectively addressed embedded criminality in a specific area of Manchester. (Cheetham Hill & Strangeways). The criminality was centred around the supply of counterfeit goods, which had given the area a reputation for being the counterfeit capital of Europe.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

It will indeed visgirl. Transparency but with an eye to culling DEI nonsense. Meritocracy all the way and it doesn’t needed brightly coloured lanyards and posters to virtue signal either.

Helping disabled people gt into work and getting the necessary practical support in place is not wasting money. (and saves money on benefits)

What a sad, narrow society we will live in if we stop employing people with disabilities who manfully live up to a meritocracy with this initial support. Is this really what we want?

As regards lanyards -for goodness sake, they get reused year on year! Are we to crush all other sorts of diversity too? Turn the clock back on gay people when the likes of Andrew Tate spread their disgusting propaganda? Not my world.

I wonder if he will be investigated and found wanting *Silverbrooks?

He should be!!! What a farce.

FGT - I asked you about vanity projects and your own council?

My bugbear is procurement issues. A friend worked in local authority and 25 years ago she went to the local admin manager saying she needed a desk lamp and had found one in Ryman’s (her local store) for a tenner (which included VAT).

Oh no, she was told. Shecould only order one through the Council’s contracted supplier so was given a very thick full colour glossy catalogue.

Guess what? The same desk lamp as the one in Rymans was £85 (not including VAT).

I’ve always remembered this illustration of how money truly is wasted. There will be a lot of waste uncovered I bet.

I predict Reform’s findings will be a real eye-opener.

I’m continually reading how these councils ‘diversity and equality’ managers are earning eye watering salaries for their made up non-jobs.

Meanwhile councils claim they are strapped for cash.

I would just like to draw your attention to one Reform councillor called David Wimble, long term pal of Nigel Farage and recently reelected to the now Reform-controlled Kent Council Council.

Kent County Council (KCC), responsible for a staggering £1.5 billion net revenue budget that funds critical services from education to social care, faces intensified scrutiny as local elections approach, with concerns mounting over candidates’ financial literacy. The issue crystallized during a recent Folkestone & Hythe District Council meeting on February 26 when one sitting councillor—now seeking election to KCC—openly admitted, “Numbers have never been my big thing, which is why I was so shocked to find out I’ve been put on the committee dealing with the accounts.

You couldn't make this stuff up.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

It will indeed visgirl. Transparency but with an eye to culling DEI nonsense. Meritocracy all the way and it doesn’t needed brightly coloured lanyards and posters to virtue signal either.

IMO, DEI is NOT nonsense, the amount spent in these areas are negligible and with two daughters with neurodivergent brains, working full time, it offer protection and opportunities they may not have enjoyed! It’s about levelling the playing field and inclusion, not favouring these people, assisting them.

The flagrant incompetence and subsequent profligate waste on display at Bradford Council is simply breathtaking. A bankrupt council that had just imposed a 10% council tax increase thinks it is okay to spend £250k on a 20mph scheme that 90% of the residents don’t want. Meanwhile potholes need filling. 🤷‍♀️

Sounds good to me.

It will indeed visgirl. Transparency but with an eye to culling DEI nonsense. Meritocracy all the way and it doesn’t needed brightly coloured lanyards and posters to virtue signal either.

Per the Times... The new unit will visit and analyse all ten councils now controlled by Reform since the party’s victory in last month’s local elections. Kent county council has a budget of more than £2.5 billion.
So not every council. Tbh it will be interesting to see what they find?

It's just that so many councils are close to bankruptcy that already they are searching for anything they can save on desperate to keep care services going. Its not hard to observe cuts going about everyday life and the conflicts between for example valuable regenerating city centres or keeping deprived area' green spaces going versus the costs of doing it.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

The country is skint. We have to spend what we do very mindfully. Servicing our debt alone is eye watering.

Or worse.
Some Councils are in big debt positions.