The Daily Telegraph reports today that council tax bills could be reduced by £40 a year if local authorities cut back spending on areas such as publicity and pensions.
The TaxPayers' Alliance has compiled figures showing councils spend more than £400 million on publicity, £1.9 billion on senior management and £4.3 billion on pensions a year.
Cutting costs in those areas by 10 per cent would generate £660 million to ease the council tax burden, taking £40 off the average Band D bill of more than £1,100. The figures could be even higher as they have been calculated using 2006/7 data for councils in England and Scotland.
"Councils should not feel the need to promote themselves," the group says in a report issued today. "They should employ fewer press officers."
Surely, though, part of a council's services is communicating the services they offer, how tax payers can contact them, and where taxpayers money is going?
Also, while I admit I don't know a lot about running a council , senior management and pensions schemes must be indispensible to the running of councils - worth £40 (maybe more) a year in my eyes.
Or perhaps council press officers need to communciate why taxpayers are forking out £40 a year each to keep them in their jobs?
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