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Councils urged to cut PR spending

Written by Adrie van der Luijt

Monday, 28 April 2008

Local councils should spend less on glossy brochures and press officers, the TaxPayers' Alliance has said.

If councils cut publicity, management and pension costs by just 10 per cent, they can cut council tax by an average of 3.5 per cent, or around £40 off an average Band D bill.

The TaxPayers' Alliance claims in its "Ten Per Cent Challenge" report that councils in England and Scotland spent over £400 million on publicity in 2006/07.

They also spent £1.9 billion employing managers earning over £50,000 and over £4.3 billion on employer pension contributions. The total of the three expenditures is therefore £6.6 billion.

Saving just 10 per cent on those three areas alone would therefore reduce expenditure by £660 million. In the same year, council tax collected in England and Scotland totalled £18.7 billion, excluding fire and police precepts.

Saving £660 million from that total would allow councils to reduce council tax by 3.5 per cent.

The average Band D council tax bill in 2006/07 (including both the district and county council where relevant but excluding the GLA and fire and police precepts) was just over £1,100. A 3.5 per cent reduction would equal around £40.

The full report provides detailed breakdowns for the savings that can be made by each local authority in England and Wales.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said that council tax had doubled in the last decade and was now so high that it tipped many families and pensioners over the edge.

“But it doesn’t have to be that way. Local authorities of all parties could make meaningful council tax reductions if they saved a modest 10 per cent in these three non-priority areas,” he added.

Andrew Allum, chairman of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said that the 10 per cent savings could easily be achieved if local authorities focused resources on “the real priorities”.

“We hear repeatedly that councils are cash-strapped, but there is a lot they can do to reduce costs, cut council tax and better serve their local residents,” Allum added.

The TaxPayers’ Alliance argued that councils should not feel the need to promote themselves to the public and should issue fewer glossy leaflets that nobody reads, put up fewer annoying adverts on billboards and employ fewer press officers.

“It would be very straightforward to cut publicity costs by 10 per cent and still convey needed information about local services to residents,” the Alliance said.

It also called on local authorities to follow the lead of Hammersmith and Fulham and recoup printing costs by allowing advertising by local businesses in council publications

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