Dec 2008 09

A council is not a bank3

Iou First there was the shock of learning that local councils had placed – and then lost – millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money in Icelandic banks.  Now we learn that Lancashire County Council, believe it or not, has been lending money to other councils.  To be precise they lent Birmingham City Council almost £8 million this year.  Contrast this with the saving Lancashire County Council could have made if they had taken up our 10 per cent challenge.  Yes, by cutting 10 per cent from three areas of non-essential spending, they could have saved £8 million to return to the taxpayer in lower council tax.  Instead they increased council tax and decided to play around with £8 million that was eventually loaned to another council.

Talk about priorities!  This council made a choice to lend to another council rather than give Lancashire taxpayers their money back and they should be held to account on that.  But having lost £10 million in Iceland and now doling out money like some back street loan shark, Lancashire County Council clearly isn’t putting local taxpayers first in this economic crisis. 

If you live in Lancashire you can email the leader of Lancashire County Council, Cllr. Hazel Harding, to ask why Lancashire County Council would rather lend your money out to other councils than give it back to you in lower council tax. 

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  • Steve Robson

    You deleted my comment. I didn’t know you believed in censorship too?
    It was:
    I know right wing people struggle with some basic concepts, but I’m surprised you haven’t heard of cash flow. Or do you think that the Council should only collect tax, charges and government funding on the very day that they are going to spend it, even if its big capital payments or the payroll. Do you not think that will be a costly administrative burden to organise.
    Do you manage your cash flow that way at the TPA, because if so, I’m sure the world would welcome your positive suggestion about how to achieve such a balanced cash flow position. It could be a little change for you from moaning, actually doing something positive. For Christmas perhaps.
    If you don’t have a positive suggestion, I think you should write to Lancashire and congratulate them on managing their money well.

  • http://www.taxpayersalliance.com Moderator

    Mr Robson,
    We are happy to have debate and even criticism (however poorly informed) on this site, but we will not tolerate personal abuse. You have previously expressed sexist opinions on this site and the fact that you have opted to remove the abusive sections of your comment before reposting suggests you are well aware what was unacceptable about your comments.
    Please do not resort to abuse again, or you will be barred.
    Moderator

  • Steve Robson

    You will need to define abuse in the light of many of the extremely personal and vitriolic comments carried on your site. Are they only abusive if not aimed at public sector employees?
    I also think “poorly informed” is an interesting way for you to describe comments you do not agree with. Surely, the TPA is “poorly informed” not knowing that Councils will by definition have incoming resources and outgoing resources at different rates (aka cashflow). I was just trying to inform you of that. You may then realise that what Lancashire are doing is good and worthy of your praise.
    I must admit being called sexist by a Right Wing website moderator is really something; the world has changed.