Why Are So Many Local Authorities Going Bankrupt?

[dave50]

Is it because they have been starved of cash or is it more likely they are wasteful and incompetent. They should only be focused on the basic important local services that people pay for. Not indulging virtue signalling such as  their ridiculous pointles departments such as climate change or diversity.

[jourdain2]

I think you've answered your own question, dave50.

[davebro3]

bloated bureaucracy

[ToraToraTora]

....because they spend fortunes on TROB BS rather than doing their basic functions.

[jno]

I know this is just another anti-British whine rather than a real question, but anyone actually interested in the answer can read it here

https://archive.ph/3Y8Lp

 

[davebro3]

So the bloated beaurocrats have been playing the markets with council tax payers' money instead of investing it more conservatively? 

[dave50]

They know what income they have coming in, they should be balancing the books every year, not going into debt.

[Peter Pedant]

Not indulging virtue signalling such as  their ridiculous pointles departments such as climate change or diversity.

is that you or them? hur hur hur

because they can borrow against capital ( for revenue purposes normally kept separate) and then cdnt repay

remember they dont produce sell and profit - they  collect taxes and spend

technical quezzie: technical answer even for AB

[Peter Pedant]

o god the usual sub-IQ "discussion" on AB

[Peter Pedant]

worrrrrse norrrth of the borrrrder

https://www.westcoasttoday.co.uk/news/councils-granted-14b-amid-bankruptcy-fears

they're all doooomed !

[Deskdiary]

Excerpt from JNO's post...

 

"...risky investment bets..."

 

Why are council's undertaking "risky" investment bets? Only sophisticated investors try risky bets. Councils should not be investing in risky bets with money that does not belong to them.

 

Councils, whatever their hue, are fundamentally incompetent and wasteful, but it's easy to be wasteful with other people's money.

 

The very last people that should be in charge of other people's money are councils.

[Peter Pedant]

Why are council's undertaking "risky" investment bets? 

er because the law was altered to allow them to do so

the URL above was meant t search for The Three Islands Council which was in hock  for £1000 a head, voter

Iceland did this as well. Yes councillors ar enot investors. - Speaking as someone who tripled their council's capital base from £8 to £24m in six years

[mushroom25]

Birmingham City Council have just signed off on £149m of budget cuts, as well as committing to £500m of asset sales, and a 21% increase in council tax over the next 2 years. the cuts will seriously affect statutory services including children’s services, home-school transport, early help and adult social care, as well as a 100% cut in arts funding.

the council cannot declare itself bankrupt, but it can issue a section 114 notice when it hasn't the funds to cover its costs. in the past 6 months, Birmingham has issued 2 such notices.

the council cites the reason for its dfficulties as being in response to an equal pay liability of about £700m, but this is a smokescreen to hide the disastrous implementation of a new HR and finance IT system. Not only did its start up cost overrun by £91m, but the savings it was expected to make was overestimated by nearly 80%, and the system was so riddled with errors that the council had no idea what it was acually spending for nearly a year, leading to millions having to be written off.

[barry1010]

Who bears the costs of all the council tax concessions where some households pay reduced or no tax?

[dave50]

Yes Barry, household's thart pay no council tax should not get a vote in local elections. 

[barry1010]

Disabled ex-servicemen? Pensioners who have worked all their lives on the factory floor Widowed young mothers? Those sort of people?

[Old_Geezer]

My suspicion is that the reason for local authorities being in financial difficulties is that local authorities consist of a load of egomaniacs who have no interest in the community, save for the ability to push them around and charge them excessively for the privilege, with agendas of their own on which projects they waste the money demanded from the rest of us.

[tomus42]

//is it more likely they are wasteful and incompetent //

That's obviously what you think. Do you have any evidence to support your view or must we assume you're a prejudiced fool?

[fripfrip]

No he's not a prejudiced fool,his evidence they are wasteful and incompetent is the fact that they are going bankrupt.

[barry1010]

The cost to councils of adult social care is enormous, the biggest expenditure after education.

My council sent me a survey asking where they should make cuts and it was very difficult to answer

[ladybirder]

Barry, are you meaning, "Pensioners who have worked all their lives on the factory floor" should have to pay Council Tax?  If so why ever not?