The Council Bankruptcy Problem Explained
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- Опубликовано: 4 дек 2023
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Councils across the UK are struggling with funding issues, as regions tighten budgets and attempt to cut services. So in this video we unpack why councils are struggling so much, and what's really going on with Britain's council crisis.
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for a government that claims to be good with money the torys seem to have remarkable difficulty understanding the notion that if costs keep going up and income keeps going down at some point everything breaks
It’s working as intended. More money’s funneled to them and other rich, until everything breaks. Then they pack up and move to a warmer country with their wealth, for their retirement.
Hmm.
I dont disagree but who runs the local councils?
@@TheWebstaffUseless , over paid people that have never run a business with their own money .
You all will have to live more frugally, says the tory with champagne in one hand and a cigar in another
@@gertjanvandamme2068 Live frugally for your own interests and bottom line , you might be able to work less hours by doing so too . Don't worry what irrelevant people are doing . Nothing wrong with being frugal , sound advice .
"Department for Levelling Up" sounds like something from a family friendly city builder video game.
Boris the builder !
Department for levelling up, Minister of Brexit Opportunities, Minister for Common Sense. Our government is a clown show
They've modelled themselves on 'Yes, Prime Minister'.@@Kj16V
Department for Levelling Up = Take from the poor and give it to the rich. "Don't worry Minister they fall for it all the time"
@@Kj16V Yes Minister 🎯
I live in Somerset where they merged all local councils to prop up all the bankrupt ones. It's annoying because my local council was one of the solvent ones that just restarted important services like rehab but those were instantly shut once the councils merged so we're back to untreated addicts taking drugs and leaving needles around our kids play areas again.
Somerset is consistently at the bottom of all funding lists. Extremely few places get less funding than Somerset and to prop Somerset Councils up, the government gave them a lump sum of money 12-6 months before covid hit. As you can imagine as all the changes rolled in then covid killed the funding and made all costs skyrocket.
Somersets towns are all shitholes thanks to this longterm funding plan with no change in sight and 10s of half-baked projects funded by a lumpsum that was decimated by covid. Yeovils highstreet is depressing as the project aimed to fix it ran out of cash and is causing irreversible damage as all shops are closing, making it worse than if they did nothing.
All of this is made even more frustrating when outside the towns is beautiful countryside and villages. But all are suffering from no money, limited employment and terrible public services.
I moved out of Somerset a few years back, and the biggest change for me was seeing police officers. In Somerset, I could go months without seeing 1 now a week or 2 and I see 1 its a public service that Somerset can barely afford.
That's bad. I've noticed it's the large urban councils(usually controlled by Labour) that have the problems due to more and more demands on services. It's all been turned into a political game that no one wins.
And they've got an £87 million pound budget gap to somehow sort out, more cuts and higher tax anyone?
As a foreigner who used to live in UK during my university days, I see people sleeping on the streets but now Uk is dealing with drugs.
@@martinreid2487because your child may become someone else's "some junkie" when s/he grows older.
i would also like to point out that councils getting involved in dodgy investments that ruined them was a tory idea. They loosened up the rules on what councils were allowed to borrow for and told them to borrow and invest in money making schemes to offset their falling government funding. But of course council people have no experience in that area so many of them got taken for a ride. And now the torys are blaming the councils "poor decision-making" for them going bankrupt, when it would never have happened if the tories hadn't taken their other sources of money away and told them to do it
Thats bullshit, you got council CEOs on £200,000k per year, I can't be hearing no experience when so many higher ups in councils are on £150k+.
Councils are run poorly, too many pies and not enough fingers.
So fucking typical
Out of interest does anyone know the split on which parties run the local councils that went bust?
It's one thing to open up the rules but it's entirely enough decision after that made by the councils themselves.
@@TheWebstaffDid you miss the majority parties being listed beside their respective councils in the video or are you asking rhetorically?
@@TheWebstaff.....there are as many Tory run Councils, as Labour run ones, which are going bankrupt. This is not just about Labour run Councils. So it's not very helpful to make it a 'political' issue when it isn't.
I worked in a huge council during the pandemic, which prior to, had a giant surplus. They were told the money received from the central government was it, if they needed more they’d have to raise council tax. This is an obvious move to shift blame for expenditure and raising taxes away from the Tories and onto local government. In my example, they wanted to raise council tax after the pandemic, and like predicted, it went down like a cup of cold sick.
So they should be able to spend what they want but not raise the money?
@@danielwebb8402Pretty much, but the point is they were financially sound with a large amount of headroom, now they’re on the verge of bankruptcy and are cutting back on some basic services.
You're the one playing poltics. Those were always expenses the councils were going to pay for entirely.
You can't just expect central governments to always keep giving more and more money.
@@Davidtyler135it’s a political organisation, so yeah playing politics is to call a spade a spade.
The answer to the problem therefore under that view is fine, accept rising council taxes and don’t moan. Just ignore all the frivolous spending the central government did during the pandemic that could have been used to give extra support to local authorities.
@@LightningStrikeify Swings and roundabouts, there will always be people complaining whatever the outcome is.
A key part of the austerity "plan" was to make local councils bear the brunt. A politically clever idea as the voters would/did/ blame the council for the cuts.
Because they were to blame many labour councils refused to apply for grants the government offered to them yet they find money for shit like dildo monkey trans story hour pride and euro flags
Fair comment. The tories have had a plan since the 80s. Question is, where has all the billions gone? Everywhere you look is run down now, all caused by the ludicrous policies.
Your reply is along the lines of the usual "austerity" we read on social media and other sources. There are specific issues like the Birmingham issue, and incompetence from some council, but for the most part, there is one word that is mostly responsible for the financial problems like social are - IMMIGRATION! So much local government funding is due to the unsustainable rise in population,especially from south Asia where "cousin marriages" leads to a huge number of handicapped and troubled constituents, who need a lot of social care.
The Tories have forced councils to use services, which The Tories say, they have to use: What aloud of rubbish!
Your assertions are literally based on baseless facts and scaremongering. Do better@@crawford1083
I work for a rural council and I can tell you now that there are absolutely internal mistakes but they don’t even begin to compare to how much were being screwed by central goverment. It’s their way of shifting the blame away from them. Trust me when I say this, there are many more 114 notices coming!
I also work for a rural council and we are having serious issues finding staff too.
Shropshire is going down the pan. We’re selling everything and cutting anything. Even school funding is going away. We’ve been cutting £25 million for the last decade and still have £53 million debt. Rural communities are dying and no one cares. It’s not councils that are failing - it’s our government!
I work in the public finance area....... LOTS more coming......
Councils waste lots of money. Most are Labour mismanaged councils.
Well explained. Thank you for bringing up this video. Financial education is indeed required for more than 70% of the society in the country as very few are literate on the subject. Thanks to Ryan William Ames
No doubt!! I never knew Ryan William Ames had gone viral. I decided to back up my assets and property with him, when we met at a conference in New Jersey for the first time.
No doubt!! I never knew Ryan William Ames had gone viral. I decided to back up my assets and property with his when we met at a conference in New Jersey for the first time.
That is true my Friend! Investment is the best idea presently and without it, human struggles are worthless.
As of last week I counted on something but don't just know how to diversify it.
That man totally changed my life for good. I have come across individuals but none is as honest as Ryan So surprised you know him too.
*They loosened up the rules on what councils were allowed to borrow for and told them to borrow and invest in money making schemes to offset their falling government funding.*
They weren't very good at it were they?! How did the government know that local authority finance directorates would be so naff?
I work in hospitality in london and im surprised this video did not mention the housing crisis that sucks millions out of the council for emergency accomodations.
A friend of a friend was working on Government and Councils project that involved an influx of Afghanistan refugees. The public was told it would only be translators who had worked with our military and the occasional Afghan politician who were in danger. However, it turned out that at least several thousand people had come into the UK within just a few weeks. Every single one of them were put up in UK hotels at taxpayer expense.
The Home Office was literally booking every single room in airport hotels for them and then paying security contracts.
If councils could not find social housing for them, and some were a family of 7, then they stayed in hotels indefinitely.
How much has this cost the taxpayer?
@@notmenotme614 and that. Though I was referring to regular families with underage children, the sick and old that are also put in to hotels for many months with food including until they were offered council house to live in. Many of those families claimed to be single mothers(to get the free property) while their partner came in to visit regularly, or even sleep there. Not to mention the druggies and the proper homeless
i've worked with council's over the years & i can safely say the cause of this is over bloated contracts basically council contracts are in the millions whist the job in actuality cost's 1/10th of that because of the work culture there. basically if you work hard in the council you are punished because "you make the rest look bad" whist they're sat in the van playing phone games & if you go against the grain and keep working hard you'll get sacked just like i was.
Same. The office manager brought me into the office after moving me three times around the housing office I was in (way back in 1997) to tell me that she had to let me go. She said she really wanted to keep me because I worked hard, produced results and forced better work from those around me but that I was causing too much anger in the staff so I had to go. I appreciated her candidness.
That's a great explanation I have mates who work for councils who confirm what your saying
Why would the work culture within the council affect the price of external contracts?
What you're saying makes no sense lol
@@robinpickett7618 and then everyone clapped
These are the top 20 council's with a borrowing to income deficit:
1. Spelthorne: Conservative
2. Woking: Lib Dems as of 2023*
3. Eastleigh: Lib Dems
4. Runnymede: Conservative
5. Worthing: Labour as of 2022*
6. Surrey Heath: Lib Dems as of 2023*
7. Rushmoor: Conservative
8. Cherwell: Conservative
9. Uttlesford: R4U as of 2019*
10. Warrington: Labour
11. Brentwood: Lib Dem/Labour coalition as of 2023*
12. Mole Valley: Lib Dem as of 2019*
13. East Hampshire: Conservative
14. Thurrock Council: Conservative
15. Adur: Conservative
16: Epsom and Ewell: Residents Association
17. Broxbourne: Conservative (cute town mascot: it's a badger)
18. Guildford: Lib Dems as of 2023*
19. Chorley: Labour
20: Warwick: Green as of 2023*
Any with an asterisk next to the name were previously conservative or had a transitionary election cycle with no clear majority shifting away from the Tories to a new government. It should also be noted that many on the list are located in Surrey which has been dominated by the Tories since 1965.
I think a certain party are going to lose the next election in a big way if the majority of those are in Surrey & the South East.
Warrington just spent £675,000 on LTN Neighbourhoods, that the vast majority were very opposed to, and then they promptly scrapped it all wasting said monies. It feels like they are ALL trolling us at this point in history.
@@GBPaddling So they should have kept them? Or they shouldn't have done anything in the first place?
@@GBPaddling and they just spent £930k on a Cyclops crossing, which again, nobody asked for. WBC owe over £2bn and will file 114 soon.
I don't know if this is the case in England/Great Britain, but I have found that the argument of, "Well, it was run by Republicans until the most recent term, and so it's the REpublicans' fault that things are so bad due to what the Democrats inherited," tends to be remarkably consistent as an excuse for Democrat-run areas doing poorly if the Democrats have taken over within the last decade. But, if this is the actual truth, it's amazing how talented Republicans are at riding "the good times" _exactly_ long enough to leave the Democrats with the bill.
Which is to say, the Republican-run areas were doing fine for varying lengths of time, and then Democrats won on promises of more public spending or by generally accusing Republicans of "greed" or "hatred" or whathaveyou, and suddenly the areas go downhill and are short on funds. But it's always because the Republicans had run it into the ground, honest. It's just that the bill came due when the Democrats _just happened_ to take over.
Which is to say that I am not so convinced those asterisks really indicate that the previous party was at fault, unless you can show that the area was just as bad, worse, or at least that the trend hasn't changed for the worse since the left-wing party took over from the right-wing one.
Simple, the general central government grants to council have been slashed by 30% in real terms over the last decade.
The council tax have been capped below inflation resulting in another 10% cut.
Because the councils are absolutly stupid and wasteful with the money, especially Labour run councils. Don't keep adding fuel to the fire.
Because everyone can afford inflation-linked council tax rises...
@carruthers100Cutting corporation tax brought in more tax money as it attracts more corporations and creates more jobs all of which pay tax. It wouldn't if it was cut much further, but they have it about optimal for tax take currently, a further cut would mean less tax, and a tax raise will also mean less tax.
Why do you think this!? We have added 6m people to the country in the past 20 years!
Uk needs proportional representation and regional parliments instead of the councils holding power
Working out well for wales scotland isn’t it…
@@GG-hi5ifrather live here on Wales than England 👍
@@lainwired3946 mm ok, dont drive over to bristol anytime soon at 20mph…
@@GG-hi5if don't worry mate, if I'm going to leave the country it won't be over the Severn. You say that as if England is swimming in good policies. Rwanda ring a bell? What about Boris getting grilled over his attitude to devolved nations at the covid enquiry?
@@lainwired3946wales is the laughing stock of the UK at the moment and for good reason. The welsh government is beyond incompetent, even makes Westminster look good.
TLDR Team, can you please follow up on the points of corruption you mentioned, why does Westminster council get so much more per capita? Why did a council pay for the cutlery of a Hilton hotel??
It's the same situation with the most expensive per mile cost in history of the world... For HS2. The country is simply and plainy governwd by money hungry, under educated, unexperienced greedy politicians. Their personal portfolios are soaring at the financial and social and also health expense of the tax payer
People need to pay a lot more attention to their local government.
But don’t take your eye off Central government since they are the ones pulling the (purse) strings.
Well I guess being forced to give up £200 off each household to help with the heating bills and help keep the record profits for the energy companies did not help.
Effectively, if you give councils less money and the cost of providing services increases then councils will run out of money. Go figure.
Yes, it's quite tough to work it out - probably need to hire a consultant to be sure of the answer.
TLDR of TLDR - Councils aren't overspending, they're underfunded.
Great summary!
One might say they should spend within their means.
Tax is at a historic high, debt is at an all time high, where would "more" money come from?
@@SaintGerbilUK Taxing billionaires and international corporations, and not letting them away with Cayman Island shenanigans. There!!!
@@SaintGerbilUK
Being annoyed at high tax while seeing little return is perfectly reasonable. However, a good portion of it does go towards servicing debts, which we've had to pay more interest on because (say it with me now), the Tories flubbed the economy 09/2022, resulting in higher rates for all. Not all of it can be blamed on interest rate payments though, so we may want to ask where this is being spent.
I'd say the money exists, the money to support our councils exists. Westminster needs to stop funding last-gasp measures to try and get support.
@@Roffey2 Agree, I don't know why so much goes overseas; with the British public suffering so much, can they really justify giving money away to other countries for no particular benefit?
Zero mention of councils drive toward paying their executive staff 6 figure salaries in the last 20 years. Also no mention of contracting services out which inevitibly costs more due to contracted companies needing to make profits. Blair's "best Value" system really showing that there is no value in privatising local services which has ultimately led to cuts in services and increased costs of those services. What about councils reserves, which it sits on to the tune of millions.
This story doesn't nearly cover the realities of the situation.
My god the state of this country at the moment.
My county council, Worcestershire, has never gotten involved with such dodgy developments and has historically had a pretty good track record of balancing the books.
However, in the last year they’ve been hit hard by increasing costs of social care, mostly fuelled by an increasing number of children being put into care.
The poverty instigated by Covid and inflation, and made more likely by Tory austerity, eventually comes back to bite the state as it cannot ignore its obligations to support the most needy, whose numbers only increase.
I’m from Shropshire and I’m sorry to say it ain’t just Covid that has caused problems with all rural counties - it’s mainly Brexit. Rural counties like Worcestershire and Shropshire relied on the EU rural funds to help boost rural development, education, healthcare and other services - but now because we’re gone, we don’t get that anymore and therefore we’re the first ones to suffer because unlike cities, rural councils can’t make the money to provide for those services hence why the debt keeps on growing and we need external help from our government or other governmental bodies (like the EU) but sadly no one cares about us anymore
Erm, immigration?
@@robinpickett7618 yes
increased educational costs such as special needs, housing benefits, council tax( ironically) etc
bring in excessive numbers of people( whom the useful idiots believe makes a hugh contribution to the economy) and you wonder what could go wrong....
It sounds to me like the main problem is that the governments are trying to push things that are better done with private investment. Oft-times mixing up the RESULT with the IMPETUS. That is, they try to build the infrastructure that results FROM increased interest and business in an area in an effort to ATTRACT business and interest to the area. This fails, because the infrastructure isn't what causes the businesses and citizens to move in; it is built up as a result of those moving in and demanding the infrastructure. So they wind up blowing tons of money on public works projects that wind up being ghost towns because nobody is interested in moving in. It's like building a Wal*Mart and expecting people to move out to that town to buy things from it. No, a Wal*Mart gets built in a town that has sufficient people to provide demand that will support the Wal*Mart. Or trying to plant grass in a desert, expecting rain to start falling because the grass is there. No, grass grows where there is sufficient rain (and other conditions) to support it; it doesn't cause the rain.
I take this from all the comments on "investing" in the community, "dodgy developments," and things like "rural funds" from the EU being relied upon to "boost rural development." No amount of government funding will "boost rural development" unless it's just a hand-out to big business. And, because there isn't anything to support it without the hand-out, the moment the hand-out ends, the business will go away again. Often, it won't even stay around to wait for that; it'll take the hand-out, do a little show, and leave before it spends the up-front hand-out in the area.
To actually attract business and growth, you need to provide a place where business thrives and people want to live. This is best done with lower taxes, in the case of businesses, and (for rural areas especially) fewer regulations, with an eye towards whatever government spending there is being used to make life safer from malefactors such as thieves and murderers. It is factors like those that drive people to seek rural life over city life (amongst other things, but still, it's one of the horrors of urban living that people will actively flee), so ensuring that you have a strong but friendly sheriff, for example, with adequate (but not ridiculously over-the-top) resources to ensure that he can do his job, and some active community engagement to promote good citizenship and a sense that troublemaking is not to be tolerated will go a long way towards making for a growing rural community. Lower taxes on businesses, and it'll lower the barrier for services to move in to accommodate the new population, which will have a bootstrapping effect.
In Croydon, Labour got the blame after a few dodgy investment (despite the fact that the previous Tory administration started the debt piling and made many questionable ventures themselves)
The new Tory mayor has now increased council tax by a historic 15%, is shutting down council run nurseries and selling off historic buildings.
Maybe if we elected councillors based on the person rather then the party things would turn out different ?
@connorbenning9920 Unfortunately, that would never happen, plus, most people are not interested enough in politics to look into their candidate. Most just tick the colour they most agree with or the colour they hate the least that has a chance at winning.
Sunderland council is accepting many social reallocations from London. The councils are being paid to accept new families and allocated in areas like Hendon (Sunderland). This is why there is a noticeable demographic change happening in Sunderland Hendon.
Sunderland has never been given a good share of funds for investment, therefore councils are doing this to stay afloat and invest. Government does not give Sunderland what it needs and prioritises Southern cities. Objective note
Is the council “being paid” or are London councils simply using Housing Associations in the Sunderland area, just like they are in Kent?
After being resident in an area for more than 2 years they become the responsibility of their new local council.
I think you missed off what used to be a good revenue for Councils, and that was rent income from council houses, which under Thatcher started to get sold off, and then under Blaire they sold them to housing agents.
A big cost to councils that came about from under Blaire was, financing of public services, like the rubbish collection. Councils used to just have to pay for maintenance and wages, now they have to pay for all they did before, but now they have to pay for someones profit.
Was it good revenue as council rents are low compared to private and maintenance is expensive and most council tenant s don't pay rent the tax payer ends up paying
@@ramsey633 It was a source of revenue. You can only sell your assets once. Then there's zero revenue.
My local council didn't declare bankruptcy, but paid £40 million for a swimming pool forecasted to cost £20 and £10milion for a failed housing project.
You missed the power station that Woking council built in Milton Keynes to supply power locally there - I’ve seen estimates that it costs about a fifth of Woking council tax and it’s not possible that it could show a profit.
Woking town centre has been under construction for years making it a place to avoid.
Wonder what other capital gambles are causing these councils problems and why they got signed off.
TL;DR: Councils are being given less money, it's harder for them to raise tax, and a few specific local issues led to several councils finding themselves in massive debt.
It's going to be a few miserable years
More of the same then.
Tax is at an all time high, debt is at an all time high, where would the extra money come from?
@@SaintGerbilUK Where it always comes from... central bank. It's been printing money and giving to the rich since the money markets began over 100 years ago.
@@shaunpowelluk you're an idiot and you seem to think that there's a global conspiracy to raise prices among all of the businesses and shops all in line with eachother just happening to be the same as inflation.
Why do you think that we had a gold reserve which was sold off by Gordon brown?
Why did the gold standard exist?
What dictates the price of one currency like the dollar or yen to the pound?
How rich do you have to be for the "central bank" to start printing money for you?
@carruthers100 what was the corporation tax for the small mom and pop shop?
It's strange that you always talk about big companies without understanding that they used to be small companies and a crippling corporate tax rate applies to them as well.
Why do you want to crush the small family run business which is barely getting by?
i have been saying this and i will keep saying it; The most important thing that should be on everyone's mind currently should be to invest in different sources of income that doesn't depend on the government. Especially with the current economic crisis around the world. This is still a good time to invest in various stocks, Gold, silver and digital currencies. I never imagined that a few thousand dollars per month would add up. However, it is. I've made around $870,000 since 2020.
Good advice. Invest in physical stuff like precious metals and minerals, or in stocks that focus on raw materials.
You realise that this "other sources of income" bit is what got a council investing in a hotel and losing out? Yep invest all you want but make sure you're not using taxpayers' money
I strongly advise you to read a few books before diving into investing. Books such as "Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits" and "The Intelligent Investor" can be immensely helpful in guiding you through the process.
Very true , I diversified my $400K portfolio across multiple market with the aid of an investment advisor, I have been able to generate over $900k in net profit across high dividend yield stocks, ETF and bonds in few months.
Please can you leave the info of your investment advisor here? I’m in dire need for one.
I'd start by narrowing the remit of councils to roughly "fix the roads, collect the bins, run the buses and maintain the parks". Education and social care imo should be centrally funded and administered, they're far too important to leave this to an effective postcode lottery. Dodgy investments aside, there's also an incredible amount of waste in general day-to-day operations of many councils, something that gets far too little scrutiny.
Absolutely too many councils are trying to leave a "legacy" when they cannot do the basics and the "legacy" projects spiral out of control.
Most can't even fix the roads, they're in such a state of disrepair
It's the same with the NHS though. Every hospital run like a private business with its own budget and board. Why can't they all follow the same funding model and money allocated as per local need but I think we know why - back door privatisation of the NHS where nearly everything is outsourced to private contractors now(usually Torys). Back before de-regulation of the buses, Sheffield and South Yorkshire had some of the cheapest & best bus services in the country. It's finally looking like it's going to be taken back under control of the regional mayor like Manchester has already done.
No they shouldn’t. That would be like returning to the Middle Ages.
oh so local governments collected the bins and run the buses in the middle ages? @@michaelashall4523
Most of our councils assets are in councillors private bank accounts, I'm sure the Hilton Hotel Group was happy to pay some cash incentives for the help with there business. Always been the way and nothing will change.
Online Delivery Sales Tax (ODST) should be applied to every online sale - This would make companies like Amazon pay a more fair share of the tax burden.
They'd just pass that on to the consumer though. Whether that is a good or bad thing is another debate.
They'd find a way to dodge it.
And the monies raised would go straight to the Treasury, wouldn't help local council finances.
A lot of the sales aren’t actually by Amazon but by third parties.
If you look at a lot of the listings many of them say:
Dispatched by Amazon
Sold by “third party”
The sales are by smaller companies with Amazon supplying warehouse space and deliveries, for which they will be paid by the other company.
Some of the companies don’t even use the warehouse and delivery but use Amazon simply as a storefront. When you buy from those companies they will ship by another courier like Royal Mail or DPD.
they already are amazon made over 40billion from eu and uk deliveries and pay no taxes@@haveanotherpinacolada
I would note that Thurrock went bankrupt because the Councilors and senior officers failed on scrutiny and due diligence. The Chief Financial Officer made massive investments in a Green Solar power generator, even doubling down when it was apparent he'd been scammed. He in fact tried to hide his nefarious acts but still walks free. The man who scammed him is living very well indeed. Sadly the local taxpayers are going to have to stump up, and the most vulnerable will bear the brunt as services are slashed to the bone.
Names please!
pressed the wrong button - 'and partake in an annual citizens audit, as is our right under Local Govt Law. Search on it if you're interested.
This is the effect austerity has had on the country, the local governments and the economy.
Local government finance is a bit more complicated than this, for starters there's parking revenue, and for some council's such as Westminster this is a lot of money. Also the idea of council tax increases being limited, yes, but that's the increase per property. The number of properties also varies year on year and for some councils that is more significant than others, ever wondered who benefited from the canyonisation of the Thames and all those new blocks of flats being sold to overseas investors who rarely use the parks or put out any rubbish because they only visit their London home every year or two?
With Birmingham City Council, hosting the Commonwealth Games didn't help particularly when they spent £10m on a 2.5 mile bus/cycle lane (A34 from Perry Barr to City Centre). Please explain how it costs that much to effectively have some lines painted on the road.
I have no idea how an organisation can take so much money, provide so little and yet become bankrupt.
Corruption in contracts.
That's easy. Paying themselves too much. Doing things they are not supposed to be doing ( like hilton hotels ) and working three days a week
Just watch the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy- Golgafrincham Ark B….🤔
It's not uncommon for a lot of the money councils collect to go towards their super high salaries and golden pension pots. Nuff said. Bit of a gravy train.
Exactly...i live in Havering Borough...and it's a mess some areas is worse than Favelas in Río...rubbish everywhere,streets very raee are cleanead,.well the list is enormous....where tge money goes..i wonder.
I would love to have the privilege of the gov and these councils under austerity. To just call my energy company up “hello unfortunately I am going to have to cut my payments to you by 11%, sorry”
You can call up your energy supplier and ask to reduce your payments because you are in financial hardship, but it will affect your credit rating if you go through with it.
It is my understanding that
1. Councils are registered corporations, and therefore private businesses who's only aim is to make a profit for its shareholders.(that's not us, by the way)
2. All taxes and fines are paid into the Government Consolidated Fund and some unknown entity then decides how much to give to whom, much of which pays for funding wars and weapons
3. Councils are trustees to the people of the town/area, and therefore it is difficult to find out what, if any land they actually own, and therefore, on who's authority and how can they 'sell' the land ?
4. As they are private corporations, they have no standing to demand payment from people in their areas unless the people have signed a contract agreeing to such terms or consent by compliance
5. If a corporation declares bankruptcy, then it is folly to keep paying.
6. None of the above is made clear to the people, and therefore no INFORMED consent has been provided, making councils fraudulent
7. People consider council tax something that helps the community, but this is not the case as a vast amount of community care has been sold off to other private corporations making us have to pay for care on top of what we are already paying, and point 2 means it just goes into a massive pot
8. We have no idea of what exactly is paid to whom, how much, or why. For example, the CT states nebulous claims that n% is for 'police', n% for schools, but doesn't say specifics. If CT pays for all our community needs, what are all the other taxes for, and why are our services so bad or even nonexistent when they used to be provided for less?
9. How much of the revenue extorted is put into pension funds and overseas bank accounts? Remember the 2008 crash, where. our council amongst others were caught having 'lost' 1.5 million pounds in Iceland bank. Nobody was held accountable and no proper investigations were carried out.
You have therefore misunderstood
My council is currently spending 60000 a month on upkeep of a partially built cinema that they built,tje company that was going to have it(its all signed ip)went bust. There's a cinema down the road with restaurants and nightclubs and free parking. They also just ripped up a nice little piazza(that was built a few years ago) and put a permanent market on it,meaning a nice view is ruined. They've just replaced all the rubbish bags with tiny plastic bags that are meant to make recycling easier, but means imcreased costs as picking the rubbish up takes longer and the bags dont have lids so more litter on the floor. Theyve jist been given nearly a million quid to put in a cycle route that is already 70 percent dual use. Why are councils short of money?let me think.....
We have the same cycle route issue here in Doncaster, they recently built a cycle route near to me and now they are installing lighting along the route, the amount of people using this cycle lane at night does not justify installing lighting.
@@George-hs2zm not like bicycles have lights on,or anything 🤷
It’s everywhere. In the U.K. two out of three councils are in debt or are heading towards bankruptcy. Isn’t that mental 2/3!!!
My council, Shropshire, a conservative council, is still in a £58 million debt. It’s literally cutting everything which isn’t ‘essential’ which means no more libraries, leisure centres, swimming baths, potholes prevention, flood protection, funding for the arts/theatres, disability support hubs, homeless shelters, park management, funding for heritage/cultural sites and no more footpaths. Only health care and schools are being funded. What is left? We have no identity now because of ‘cuts’. And cultural hubs like Shrewsbury museum, Shrewsbury library, and Darwin’s house is now rumoured to be up for sale. We’re selling our family silver and the everything else! It’s embarrassing, depressing and disgusting how rural communities are being let down and betrayed! Shropshire has increased in population over the last 10 years by double (mainly from southern retirees who see it as a place to stay in their latter years which increased the house prices) and sure it’s an aging demographic but young people need more support and facilities here - but no - we’ve been cutting £25 million every two years and we’re still in a debt hole for the last decade.
Shropshire council shouldn’t be blamed for that mess - it’s the government and their cuts that are destroying our communities. Councils are doing crisis management and just surviving never mind governing.
Councils need more devolution, governmental support and regular funding. How can we ‘go green’, have growth in our economy, keep our children safe, improve our education system and secure our nation’s future if we just let everywhere go to rack and ruins? The problem is - no one at the top is offering solutions and that tells you everything about British politics at the moment. We’re becoming a third world country and it’s worrying especially in rural communities.
This was a particularly harrowing comment to read, but so important. Thank you for sharing what's happening in your local area, it's such a shame to see.
Where did the population "doubling" come from?
Where do you think all of that adult social services are going?
@@SaintGerbilUKthis is why you need central funding. Shrewsbury is turning into a giant retirement home for the rest of the country, while young people move away to find somewhere with a better social life
This may or may not be a good thing - is it good that old folk can have somewhere where everyone else is moving at the same pace, or is a mix healthier for everyone?
Either way, if we're doing it, funding needs to match reality. Shropshire is providing retirement services for the rest of the country, so it's just common sense that funding should come from the rest of the country to pay for it
@@markwelch3564 the problem with centralising funding and power is that the further away you are from it, the less valuable it is to you.
For example, do you really feel like anyone in Parlement represents your values and viewpoint?
And how can you hold them to account if not?
@@SaintGerbilUK that's more our broken electoral system than where the power is scoped. I've never had representation in Parliament
Our local council is considering reducing the school week to 4 days to reduce costs. Tories out.
even before councils were underfunded by successive governments they were incompetent and useless, all they did was employ too many highly paid staff before they even tried to supply the essential services they were by law required to provide.
@patricktracey7424: And your objectively assessed evidence for this is? By the way, what valuable contribution do you make to society?
@@conradharcourt8263most people contribute more to society than beurocrats
@@quillo2747 With respect I imagine that you know very little of what 'beurocrats' [assuming you mean bureaucrats] actually do. If a neighbour upsets you, you get food poisoning from a take away or your dole money is late I imagine you expect 'beurocrats' to help you then. Or do you just go and thump someone?
Don't just parrot ancient cliches, learn to think and find things out for yourself.
Greater Nanchester has a Mayor and 2 Deputy Mayors, non of them are wanted or needed. Jobs for the boys.
The councils pay very high salaries and their excuse is "we have to pay top money to get the best", then the council hires consultants because the best can not do their jobs. So much money is wasted by councils, it is criminal.
A junior colleague left my council department because he was offered a job in the private sector with a £10k salary increase. At the same time we cannot find someone for our manager role because the private sector pays better and the work is more interesting. And every year I'm getting paid less in real terms because the pay increase is less than inflation.
In short, the idea that anyone works in the council for the money is a joke.
Hey, feel free to publish your list, I am not sure of the relevance though, my comment was about councils whether Labour, Con, Green or Plaid.@@carruthers100
@@pragueuprising560clearly haven't seen what Birmingham Council did. I am aware other councils run much better though.
@@therunnerbee1845 In what way is being unable to recruit people with the necessary skills for the work they do an example of running well?
Living in LB of Croydon which is bankrupt and after seeing how the council wasted money, invested our money in stupid/risky ways, defrauded (I dont know what else to call it) the local tax payers and run down the area leaving us with a 15% council tax rise and no end in sight I lay the blame mainly at Croydon Council not central government.
This sounds awful.
I see a direct comparison to this govt's handling of:
Water waste in our rivers & lakes
Education and falling buildings
Non-building of new schools, prisons, and housing
PPE equipment and allocation of contracts
MP's expenses (£17 mill in subsidised meals alone in 2022)
Tract and Trace IT system £37 bill!!!! The first app did not work!!!
Trashed economy, health service ....
@@isabellewhite3505 Problem is none of the choices voters are given are any good, they're all corrupt, incompetent and don't take the (difficult) decisions necessary to put UK back on a sustainable path. There's too many people with their hands out and not enough paying in / taking responsibility for themselves and their life choices.
It’s so incredibly stupid to cap council revenue while legally mandating them to provide services.
That's right-wing economics for you - penny-pinching and pound-foolish!
Stupid might be one way for it, devious might be another.
Services fail
Councils get the blame
The government gets to keep more of the publics tax money since they don’t pass it on.
People have short memories. Many of the councils that are struggling now are the ones that had money in the Icelandic banks that failed. Whilst they report that most of the money came back some years later, it did a lot of damage in the interim. Debts built up and essential jobs got delayed.
Any recovery was stalled when Covid closed down shops, offices closed due to working from home, and extra people went on council tax relief.
The collapse is inevitable.
And all completely pre planned so as to offer us all a 'Solution' I dread to think what the 'Solution' will be? It will be the end of all our freedom as we know it.
This video sort of explains why the Tories haven't been using this as a major weapon against labour. When you consider 13 years of Tories and a 46% reduction in government grants.
Waste and incompetence from local councils is a huge factor. My local council, Bristol (BCC) spent £100million, yes one hundred million pounds, on refurbishing a concert venue, £30m plus on a failed energy firm and has put taxpayers on the hook for other redevelopment schemes, yet funnily enough they don't have enough money for the day to day running of the council and plead poverty. Oh yeah, our dearly beloved Bristol mayor found some spare change to go on a taxpayer funded jolly to cop28.
£100 million sounds quite reasonable for a large concert venue which is well-attended. But I'm guessing it wasn't?
Not surprised labour councils bankrupt, they bankrupt the country when in government
Much of that money will have been from specific grants provided for that purpose, not generally available money.
Now that brings up the point that councils probably shouldn't need to be constantly competing with each other to get grant money for specific things when they desperately need more generally accessible funds but that isn't an issue caused by council but the government.
@@SteveB182 money tree solves everything 😉
@@jamiecook8239 meaningless catchphrases are unhelpful
It's a shame you didn’t cover the huge variations in how much different Authorities charge Citizens. For example that Band 4 domestic rates at some of the 114 Councils are way lower than many poorer regions who have managed to balance the books.
Here's an idea. Should a council declare bankruptcy, then ALL councillors should forthwith be sacked immediately with the loss of all accrued benefits, investigated and charged for the misappropriation of public funds and never again be allowed to hold any form of public office. After all, the same applies to any private individuals whose companies go bust...
Sounds the an excellent idea, maybe bring in some ideas the Romans had.😁
If the blame goes back to central government, shouldn't you fire the MPs and government in charge too?
That’s not entirely fair. There may be competent councillors who are being overruled by the incompetent majority.
its not exactly that simple
the problem that led to bankruptcy could have started decades ago - it just boils over now, because for the last decade, due to low interest rates, they would have just keep borrowing money, and now that interest rates shot up their finances topple down
so who's to blame? those in charge now, those who were in charge decades ago and allowed the problem to rise, or those who throughout the last 10 years tried to solve the problem by borrowing more and more money?
councillors change every elections - but the problems might have been brewing for decades.
take Birmingham council - it went bust last year due to the settlement, but the court case started over 10 years earlier, and the wrongdoing had to happen even earlier
so its not exactly those currently in charge who are at fault for it
@@mikez2779 You got a dog in the race by any chance?
The Birmingham one is rather interesting, the equal pay claim is because male dominated refuse workers were being paid more on the same grade than other council staff in female dominated departments like adminstration, due to some union deal. It is a situation that few councils would find themselves in because refuse workers are typically employees of a private contractor, not council employees, and therefore they are not bound by any equal pay legislation since the contractor can pay their employees what they like.
Private employers are bound by equal pay legislation in theory, however one of the advantages that the private sector has in general is that they can choose which laws they want to obey based on a financial judgement of the likely fine, an option not really open to councils, only to Westminster!
Its also communists infesting our institutions. Equal outcomes and fairness are too different things. Refuse worker is a harder job than an office administrator, its fair that they should be paid more.
Its communism to pay everyone equally regardless of the job.
@@conradharcourt8263 Indeed they are, but in this case it's not a case of the private sector ignoring the rules, because as long as they pay their male and female refuse workers equally or based on non protected factors like seniority (what few of them there are) they are compliant. In this case because the refuse workers were council employees, to be compliant they had to be paid the same as other council employees on the same pay grade, but they weren't.
Why they didn't pay refuse workers a higher grade, I don't know, it does seem on the surface that would have avoided the issue, but there was probably something else preventing that.
@@conradharcourt8263 Yes private sector employers are bound by equal pay laws for those they employ. But if a council have say outsourced their refuse collection to Biffa and their school meals to Compass, the school cook (or the union, if there is one, representing her/him) can't bring a 'equal pay for work of equal value' claim against Compass because Biffa pay their operatives more. Birmingham City Council unlike many other councils didn't outsource many of it's services so being the employer of both the school cook and refuse collector were liable for equal pay claims which currently stand at more than £800m.
The Birmingham equal pay case is ridiculous. If the workers that sued the council wanted to be paid more they could go do the hard work of collecting the bins.
Great reporting as always TLDR. This is a really sobering story.
They need to do more to explain this issue because it’s bigger than people think
Austerity/Thatchernomics are to blame. Govt hindered councils' ability to raise taxes on the wealthy and large corporations who used govt infrastructure/resources at a greater rate than ordinary people and small businesses
This video is so informative and very helpful, thank you for explaining so clearly!
I had someone say to me the other day "funny how they're all Labour councils going down" and I just replied with "yeah, it's almost like the Tories are doing that deliberately to make people think Labour are bad with money, when in reality, the Tories are chronically underfunding Labour councils".
NOT the Case though IS it! Just the usual Tory propaganda.....A large group of "Blue Wall"councls in the South of England informed the Gov few weeks back, that unless they get MORE funding, to meet increased costs due to inflation etc....they TOO are at risk of Bankruptcy....they are having to cut back on essential services having already closed services not legally obliged to offer for the elderly and families, Libraries and other facilities funded by councils.....Its an Absolute SHITESHOW! And Tories using as usual as another of their Culture war issues......
Do you have proof of that?
So labour not to blame for selling UK gold cheep to China, causing the biggest rise in debt UK seen since WW2, giving billions of tax pay money to millionaire bankers for free, bankrupting the country, causing biggest rise in house prices,...etc, when labour in government?
How many muslim households pay council tax?
... as many households as non Muslims paying council tax??
It's stories like this that make me think that the UK may be more right wing in most policies than even the US. At least in the US if a municipality goes bankrupt, the state has to take over their finances and services
Deregulated, rather than right wing. The state certainly is more willing to intervene when necessary in the US compared to the UK.
We've turned into a mini US in the last decade. Just the NHS to finish off now.
@@Besthinktwice It happened in Rotherham after the 2012 CSE scandal when the council leaders were seen as unfit and government appointed commissioners were brought in.
Ah, ok, I got the wrong impression from the video
Economically it is right now, biden did a huge stimulus early in his presidency and the country is reaping the benefits. Whereas the tories foolhardedly clung on to their austerity ideology and it keeps dragging everything down
Thank you for the explanation.
Councils are running out of money because they have to pay over the odds for the services they are meant to provide themselves but unable to due to their incompetent “talent” they continue to hire. Just look up what they actually spend money on in a bit more detail, it’s shocking.
Yep. Nailed it. 👍🏻
As an American, there's a couple of things I find perplexing about this. We have property tax, which is somewhat equivalent to council tax. The greater your property valuation, the more tax you pay. Renters never pay property tax (at least not directly). Property owners pay property tax. In most US states, local sales taxes (equivalent to VAT) fund state and local government. Some states rightly see sales tax (VAT) as highly regressive, so they eliminate sales tax altogether (there is no VAT basically) and instead increase the tax on property owners and business owners (these states have the fairest tax systems). When I look at the UK tax system, it seems profoundly regressive because VAT is so high (2X the typical sales tax in the US) and renters pay council tax (property tax). How do you justify making renters pay property tax? I'm also curious what the sources of central government funding are -- is the decline in government funds sent to councils connected to a decline in government revenues and which revenue sources have declined?
The country is awash with money, but it is going to the wrong things, and the wrong people.. Ridiculous projects like the HS2 rail project for instance which is costing billions of pounds! It only takes a couple of hours to get to London from the North of England and vice versa, and most business people are working via the internet while on the train, so what is the great urgency to cut a few minutes off the journey at such a vast cost? Also the housing market is deliberately manipulated to keep the cost increasing of both buying and renting. Housing benefit is paid out, costing again billions of pounds which goes into the pockets of landlords to make them rich - all at taxpayers expense. The housing market should be government controlled and buying and renting costs controlled by law. This would result in rents coming down to reasonable levels, and a flood of houses coming back on the market which would relieve the housing shortage we have at moment. Houses should simply be places to live and not a commodity to buy and sell to make money.
Prices of new properties are ridiculous and simply a scam. It does not cost a fraction of the asking price of new housing to actually build them. Something has to change. But greedy human nature is in the way!
@@petercollins7848HS2 is a fundamentally good and much needed infrastructure project. It's not about cutting journey times from Manchester to London by 20 minutes, it's about increasing capacity. Slow commuter and freight services always end up slowing down faster intercity trains.
The UK's railway infrastructure is also hampered by it's Victorian-era design working against fast and reliable service.
Railways are BY FAR the most energy and land-use efficient form of mass transport, both of people and of freight. We will never achieve proper net zero carbon emissions without an excellent train network that people are convinced to use. It will also enable us to significantly reduce the number of lorries on the road, this cutting pollution/emissions and allowing road traffic to flow better. It would have benefitted us all if the bigger initial plans were followed through with.
It would have levelled up the north by better connecting the major northern cities together AND connecting them to London.... If they didn't keep scaling it back.
It has, however, been managed appallingly. But if done right, and with the continued proper funding, you get a reliable service like the shinkansen that becomes the pride of a nation and pays back the economy through increased growth and reducing overall carbon emissions.
UK Central Government tax revenue is the highest it has ever been.
In my opinion they have starved and therefore weakened local government to ensure the supremacy of central and are now overseeing a unfolding crisis as more and more local councils fail.
"How do you justify making renters pay property tax?"
Because they can either pay it directly themselves, or pay a higher rent, and the landlord using the extra money to pay the council tax.
The person living in the property always pays, whether they own it, or rent it.
@@rafaelcosta3238 can a landlord own a vast portfolio of property and pay zero property tax on any of it? None of the payments nor the paperwork are his concern? Is that how it really works? Is the system rooted in some medieval pre-democracy form of taxation? I've hear landlords in the UK talk about paying tax. What kind of tax are they paying, if not property tax?
To add about local councils, it looks like Kent county council is likely going to have to issue a section 144 later next year.
For those who aren't into local council things Kent is almost a poster child for sensibly run councils. Pretty much doing everything right and they're still about £500m short of what they need.
This government has spent the last decade systematically ruining this country.
Where's the money gone? Squirreled away into the bank accounts of the bigwigs or wasted on vanity projects.
Good news is that this makes it easier for Reform and Rejoin (depending on your Brexit stance) next year at the GE.
The local council where I live lost a vast quantity of money through allowing developers to add clauses to contracts that inhibited their own developments and then to be sued after the fact.
Which council is this?
@@pragueuprising560 I would rather not say but the case involved a company called Slough estates that built a town in Hertfordshire’s shopping centre.
If you google Slough estates sues council the articles will be there.
@@alexandermoody1946 Did this happen in 1996?
@@pragueuprising560 yes, so not recent news although the moral of the story is read the contracts you may be inclined to sign.
@@alexandermoody1946 Usually the councils are the ones writing contracts, so I am surprised by this story- although things have probably changed a lot since then.
As someone who lives in one of the listed areas (hopefully for not much longer though as I worked in the NHS as an Associate Practitioner for the last 3 years plus have nearly completed my IBMS portfolio, I also started a Masters in Biomedical Science in September, luckily out of the listed areas and noticed a stark change in the city), I can say the area I call home is a genuine *hithole, borderline dangerous!
So you are about to become a big earner who would pay more tax and the first thing you are doing is taking that money somewhere else.
I'm not having a go as I totally get it but can you also see how that leads to localised issues when it's not divided nationally to even things out?
@@TheWebstaff you try growing up in Slough… not having a go either but Slough is a dangerous area to live in now. Up until maybe 10-15 years ago it was fairly decent but even the high street is closing down and being converted into flats…
No town centre = no money coming in. It isn’t getting better and will only get worse…
@@Andrew_BIakeDo what you need to do. It sounds like you've worked incredibly hard to get yourself on the path to a better life, and it is up to the country, its government and its population to get its act together - not the individual responsibility of one or two persons. A massive congratulations on your Masters as well, that is no small feat!
Yet the government decided to cut NI instead of providing funding to councils.
The bankruptcy in Birmingham is much more involved than a failed, expensive IT system and equal pay settlements. The fact is after several months of forensic accounting investigations (post bankruptcy declaration) Birmingham still cannot get a handle or transparency on their accounts receivable and accounts payable. Furthermore the council can’t even get an accurate head count as to how many people work for them. It’s a total mess that goes back years of bad leadership and grafting. It is overwhelmingly evident that corruption has taken place in Birmingham, latest example are the various taxi firms that made Millions off of questionable contracts with the city. It will take years before the forensic accountants can map out just how bad Birmingham is/was managed.. Second city in population but number 1 for incompetence.. The failed leaders need to be held to account, but sadly we all know they never will :-/
The reason councils are going bust is they are paying the rent and rates of millions of people including migrants and asylum seekers. When I was a child in the 50s there were no rebates whatsoever. My father was an ex-coal miner who had chronic asthma and silicosis so he couldn't work. There was no elaborate benefits system as there is today so trying to survive was difficult. Many times we hid behind the settee to hide from the rent man on a Monday morning. Times were very hard but we managed. The people of today are very well-off. Nobody goes without. They have food banks now where young women and men go to get their weekly provisions with the latest mobile phone in their hand. I wish we had food banks in the 50s. We had to do without. There weren't many obese children then. I believe people should take responsibility for their children, we depend on the state far to much.
Small shop closures will certainly deplete Council funds. Get Amazon to pay 😂. Silly me, they put their money into Tax Havens
A lot of small companies use Amazon as a shopfront since they can supply warehouse space and delivery probably at a cheaper rate than having a physical shop themselves.
In our area a lot of small shops closures has had more to do with shop owners retiring or landlords selling the properties to developers thus forcing out the shop owners by not renewing their leases.
Older properties might need money spent on them to keep them in good condition, it probably makes better financial sense to sell to a developer who will knock it down and build anew.
Just like everything else with the Tories, they run it down until it fails.
The reason for the deficits is not due to any centralised factors, but is instead due to a rampant growth in unnecessary bureaucratic practices. Many of these local councils have had to onboard new decentralised responsibility and to so so they have created new jobs for the administration of such
Labour managed to accumulate £782m of debt in Slough and were subsequently replaced - this meant the council became the third-highest debt per capita amongst unitary authorities. Imagine how much of your London-level council tax would go every month to debt service with the current 5%+ rates. Labour would have been nearly £1bn in debt if it had carried on down the path of buying properties - since 2016 the council’s borrowing had quadrupled to £760m in order to invest in several major capital projects every year. Pathetic.
My local council asked for £6 million - denied. Ukraine asks for £3000 million - approved. The money is there the government just sont want to help it's people.
I'm far less concerned by the money going to Ukraine, which is a good use of it, than the hundreds of billions the Tories have wasted on Brexit, the Kami-Kwasi budget, dodgy PPE, public-private contracts to enrich their mates, fraudulent Covid loans, the ridiculous Eat Out to Help Out scheme, the ridiculous Rwanda scheme and other far-right nonsense and corruption. We can afford to support Ukraine, we just can't afford the Tories.
The main issue we have is that people still think of any form of government as, ‘us and them..’
Usually in the form ‘labour vs tories.’
Then each takes a partisan view on why their team is better and it’s all the fault of the others - or to try to make it more believable, okay, it’s a little bit our fault, but it’s mostly therirs.
Breakdowns like this video make it worse. It seems legit and most hear this sort of thing all the time and so form their opinions on this sort of information. But most of these type pets of videos deceive by omission, themselves presenting credible data from a partisan view.
the truth is that the people believe that there is justice in a corrupt system. No form of government has money. It only collects money. And none of that collection comes form anyone that works for that government, it has to come from outside. Yet, most are more than happy to go along with governance that bloats at great expense to the bottom line. Most homes run a tight ship on the purse strings. We go without to ensure we can pay the gun to the head council tax. Yet the same care and dedication we exercise over our purse is not reflected in the money we are forced to hand over. And all government mismanages finances and by stepping outside of the remit of what a gov should really be, it’s hard for the folk to see the wood for the trees.
Look around the world at what most other people pay in taxes and how much more we are asked to give over, at the barrel of a gun - we’ll at least until a few years ago.
Does anyone really think we need so many mps? So many councillors? So many erroneous job titles?
The state of councils is telling, when they do ‘cut’ . Often leaving untouched the programs that are lining their own pockets.
The fella that walk Infront of the tram like it wasn't heading towards him ... Hats of 😅😅
The country is awash with money, but it is going to the wrong things, and the wrong people.. Ridiculous projects like the HS2 rail project for instance which is costing billions of pounds! It only takes a couple of hours to get to London from the North of England and vice versa, and most business people are working via the internet while on the train, so what is the great urgency to cut a few minutes off the journey at such a vast cost? Also the housing market is deliberately manipulated to keep the cost increasing of both buying and renting. Housing benefit is paid out, costing again billions of pounds which goes into the pockets of landlords to make them rich - all at taxpayers expense. The housing market should be government controlled and buying and renting costs controlled by law. This would result in rents coming down to reasonable levels, and a flood of houses coming back on the market which would relieve the housing shortage we have at moment. Houses should simply be places to live and not a commodity to buy and sell to make money.
Prices of new properties are ridiculous and simply a scam. It does not cost a fraction of the asking price of new housing to actually build them. Something has to change. But greedy human nature is in the way!
When same pothole is being repaired every other month with cold patches, when they pay private landlords 1 - 2.5k rent for 1 bedroom / mo to sustain those on benefits. When it costs 20K to install a security post. When every single project ends-up costing x2 x3 its original estimate. No wonder they are short on cash.
Yes blame the people that have to split an ever decreasing amount of money rather than the people at the top strangling those councils for their own benefits. Someone without a job living on benefits is not your problem, the people taking billions out of our economy for themselves are.
@@Wozza365 Those on top are not forcing the councils to do reckless spending. Saved money is earned money. Pouring more money onto a reckless spender is like feeding a drug addict with more drugs. Sure unmotivated budget cuts do harm, but the underlying fundamental problem comes before that.
@@chrise202they literally are though. They cut funding as you can see in the video whilst costs have been rising and made councils have to borrow money to splurge on speculative assets in order to break even.
I just hope people realise this: if the council spends more we will have to spend less. Have it your way
@@Wozza365 it's not just that there is less money. Outsourcing to the private sector is not financially prudent. The lowest bidder is almost always going to do a bad job or revise the cost mid project. The state should employ people directly to deliver public services.
Because the UK is going bankrupt with national debt at same size as the economy.
Insolvency is being unable to pay the debts.
National debt is fucking fictional, the same way profits in investment banks are fictional. Ever since governmental debts were turned into bonds they became a financial asset, being traded around like stocks.
So making debt and just printing more money(which the uk unlike other eu countries always could do) is only a problem if too much goods and services are consumed to a point that it causes high inflation
And you'll keep voting for them.
@@jasonhaven7170 "them"
Do you mean voting in general? Because you realise there will still be a government if you don't show up to vote. In fact, as many people didn't vote as voted for the Conservatives in the last election.
@@jasonhaven7170it's not like Labour have any different plans.
Do you want red shit or blue shit? Same results.
They still won. @@DrSpooglemon
Business rates are in effect relinquished to central government, and redistributed as grant payments based on complex formulas. But as the business rates & grant payments are net off against each other, it does appear the a LA may keep them. In 2011, business rates collected was ~£21.5bn, but ~£25.5 was distributed with Revenue Support Grant. I managed the fortnightly payments & collections for 3 years.
Explain why people in social care have salaries of over 200 k please why are the bureaucrats who add inefficiencies to the system paid so well
too many people in admin, telling others what to do, and not enough people doing things ... that is why councils fail, speaking from personal experience of someone who lived in Ealing for years and seen services going down the drain with council tax going up every year
Were you working in the council at the time?
didn't say i worked at the council, but i knew people who did, one close friend, everyone just gets promoted in the council and then just stays there until retirement, get to managers levels, and then you have no budget for people doing actual work because the managers need their pay, and i lived in Ealing for 15 years, moved out at the end of last year @@pragueuprising560
This is also happening in the NHS - 5 managerial positions when 1 would do ... and repeat!
@@davelister2961 Do you work in the NHS?
What about excessive wages and gold plated pensions .top council bosses getting more than prime minister
2 advert interruptions in a 9 minute video is unacceptable.
Council spend money in stupid places on top of not getting enough. Scarborough (now North Yorkshire) gave a 9m loan to a company to make a water park (rather than revamping the council run one) now said park has gone bankrupt and the council will have to take over its running. Becuase it is the only swimming pool open to the public.
On top of this social care is not even throughout all councils. Seaside towns suffer from higher old age and social care costs than inner cities - but payments dont make up for this
Having a swimming pool or feeding the less privileged.
I know my choice.
@@SaintGerbilUK well Scarborough now has a food bank Christmas tree provided by Tesco while the council still buys Decs so that tells you everything
A couple of years ago, all the councils got together and sent a letter to the government, warning them that this was going to happen if they continued their policies. The government ignored them, and low and behold what all of the councils said would happen is happening. I know a COO of a charity, and they've been told that the councils are starting to go bankrupt which have long been recognised as extremely well run. That's when they expect something will finally be done about this, because it will be impossible to blame those councils. (Why the charity COO was told this was basically because the money going to charities to provide services are pretty much all that they have left that they are legally allowed to cut.)
This is tory austerity, isn't it great 🤨
Is it though, debts up, tax is historically high.
It's not austerity it's just running out of money since nobody can manage a budget anymore.
@@SaintGerbilUK So with "austerity" Tory policies, it all came to this. Now imagine a second if there had not been any such policies?
@@SaintGerbilUK or they've wasted and shoved too much into offshore accounts.
@@pritapp788 We would be even more in debt and the pound would be entirely worthless.
@@jonathantatler Claims without evidence, I'd be happy to talk about what you can actually prove?
Worked in child protection in one of the UKs largest local authorities for over 10 years. When austerity really kicked in and central funding was massively cut there was a brutal cull of staff, as outside of statutory services staffing is one of the biggest costs of any council. Lots of social workers and support staff were let go. Our Childrens Social Care subsequently failed an Ofsted inspection, and like a huge number of other councils the government was forced to give us a grant to employ agency social workers from a private company to deal with backlogs and ensure we could meet our statutory obligations.
These agency SWs cost the council approx 30% more than those directly employed by the authority, money that was coming out of taxpayers pockets and going to a private for profit company. Very very stupid. The cuts have been counterproductive in both greatly damaging the safeguarding services for the most vulnerable, and the whole money saving principle of the cuts in the first place.
Staff retention remains a problem years later as SW caseloads are over twice the recommended level.
Because they pay themselves £300k a year then get their friends on the books and pay them massive amounts, draining all the funds they get on bloated wages. Very much like the NHS does
I like non misleading headings. Instead of saying "can sunak fix the council bankruptcy" giving straightforward heading is to the point
they're well past the "can Sunak fix" headlines. We know the answer. He can't fix anything. Neither can the next guy. Not while the entire system of government and the accompanying social contract is seemingly in terminal decline.
I worked for a major company who councils paid to manage all their payments for rent, collections etc what I learnt was every council that was run fully by Labour were always in the red!
A Councillor working at Rossendale council, told me recently that they don't even have the money to pay the people who empty the bins. A basic service.
Quite worrying.
I live in Spain, my council tax has more or less been the same for the past 10 plus years. The streets are clean and the bins emptied. Several times a year the council give out vouchers to locals to spend in the local shops…. What a contrast.
Labour councils go bankrupt - TLDR still finds a way to put Sunak in the thumbnail. Great impartial reporting guys!
Well he IS the prime minister. And it's not just labour. While they were the majority of bankruptcies, they were 4 out of the 7. 2 Conservative councils went bankrupt and one lib dem went bankrupt.
I mean Sunak is the PM and the most recognizable face involved. Also most of the councils running deficits and going bankrupt are conservative and libdem.
When you're borrowing more to pay the interest on your existing debts then you're in real trouble, and that is what the UK is doing. The UK could not afford lock-downs, and the long term negative affects of those have begun to surface - in all sorts of ways
This is the truth that TLDR won't say.
I would upvote your comment a billion times if I could. Lockdowns were a reckless Chinese policy which the world copied stupidly. It doesn't matter for China as their economic statistics are carefully manip..., sorry, curated, so that the actual damage of lockdowns is never quantified. But for remaining parts of the world that actually have to balance income and expenditure, this can only result in bankruptcies, fewer services or higher taxes.
Thanks
I have been wondering this for years !
There many be other problems, but much could be solved with sorting out the culture in the public sector in the UK. In the UK public sector management recruitment is based upon the budget the candidate manages in their current role - bigger budget must mean a better candidate. If you manage a budget in the public sector and you don't spend all of your money, your budget is cut - run out of money the few weeks before the end of the financial year and you can use this to argue for a larger budget next year - thus it is actually in the interests of public sector managers to waste money.
I've seen it in the industry I work in, when you meet people who have worked for councils or the NHS , they just have no idea that you have to justify spending, and meet any outlay with an increase in performance/profitability. Every problem seems to have a solution in throwing more money at it - tricky problem? There must be some management consultant we could pay £25,000 a week to to solve it.
Right, must be that and nothing to do with the fact that council budgets have been cut by 40% in real terms for 13 years by the Tory central government! 🙄
So Tory Government has cut grant amounts going to councils. Then the Tory Government is to blame for all these councils going bust. Councils should not keep on raising council tax on households it's unfair since it's the fault of the Tory Government for cutting the grant amounts going to councils.
Thank you for making these. As an American, it's somewhat nice to know that as bad as it is here it could be much worse
If I heard it right, why would a Council borrow billions to build a Hilton Hotel, as part of a generation project surely the hotel company makes millions a year so why didn't they fund it
Normally with something like that, they will get the rates back and a cut of the profits. Iirc there were a few councils that invested in airports for similar reasons, which was great until covid happened