Council Spending Uncovered 1: Publicity

• NEW SERIES TO REVEAL HOW COUNCILS REALLY SPEND THEIR MONEY
• AVERAGE PUBLICITY SPENDING DOUBLED TO £1 MILLION SINCE 1997
• TOTAL TOWN HALL PUBLICITY BILL £450 MILLION A YEAR

With council tax bills having doubled over the last ten years, the TaxPayers' Alliance has launched a new series to review expenditure by local authorities in all corners of the UK and highlight areas of spending that could and should be reduced.

The Council Spending Uncovered series challenges the claim that Town Halls are short of money by publishing figures that will allow council taxpayers to decide for themselves whether their local authority is spending their money wisely.  These figures have never previously been compiled in one place because the TPA is the first non-government body to have collected the accounts for all 450-plus councils.

The first paper in the Council Spending Uncovered series examines the increase in town hall spending on publicity over the last decade, which is itemised in the annual accounts of all councils. 

Key findings

• The average local authority spends almost £1 million (£985,000) on publicity.
• The average local authority is spending double the amount on publicity than it did in 1996-97:

- Without taking account of inflation the average local authority spent £430,000 on publicity ten years ago.  The average spend today is a 130 per cent increase on that 1996-97 figure. 

- In today’s prices the average local authority spent £550,000 on publicity in 1996-97.  The average spend today is an 80 per cent increase in real terms on a decade ago.

• The total local authority publicity bill is £450 million.
• There is one local authority, Birmingham City Council, that spends more than £10 million on publicity.
• There are 8 local authorities spending more than £5 million on publicity.
• There are 73 local authorities spending more than £2 million on publicity.
• There are 141 local authorities spending more than £1 million on publicity.
• The total spend on publicity is not broken down in a uniform way in the various local authority accounts.  It is possible, however, to identify 44 councils that spend at least £1 million and 4 councils spending at least £2 million on staff recruitment advertising – despite the increased use of websites.  If all local authority accounts provided a full breakdown of publicity spending, the number of councils spending at least £1 million on staff advertising would almost certainly increase.
• The doubling of average publicity spending per local authority in the last decade is extremely  disappointing.  There are, however, a number of councils that are actually spending less on publicity than ten years ago. For example:

- Hammersmith and Fulham Borough Council spent £669,000 on publicity in 2006-07, down 11 per cent from the £751,000 spent in 1996-97. 

- In 2005-06, however, the council spent £1,030,000 on publicity, meaning that the 1-year fall in spending was 35 per cent. 

- If Hammersmith and Fulham can reduce publicity spending by 35 per cent in one year (in part by allowing advertising by local businesses in council publications) make other efficiency savings and reduce council tax by 3 per cent, then it must be possible for other councils to follow suit. 

Matthew Elliott, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said:

“It’s important for council taxpayers to see just how their hard-earned money is being spent by town halls.  With council tax doubling in the past decade, it’s extremely disappointing that councils have chosen to double their publicity budgets over the same period.  With the internet cutting the cost of communication, it shouldn’t be difficult for local authorities to find savings in this area and bring council tax down.”

Click for full report:

Download Council Spending Uncovered, No. 1: Publicity (PDF)

Click for regional tables, to be read in conjunction with the full report above:

Download East Midlands Regional Table (PDF)

Download East of England Regional Table (PDF)

Download London Regional Table (PDF)

Download North East Regional Table (PDF)

Download North West Regional Table (PDF)

Download Northern Ireland Regional Table (PDF)

Download Scotland Regional Table (PDF)

Download South East Regional Table (PDF)

Download South West Regional Table (PDF)

Download Wales Regional Table (PDF)

Download West Midlands Regional Table (PDF)

Download Yorkshire and the Humber Regional Table (PDF)

Comments

[Curly]

Excellent report and good job in highlighting the scandalous waste of our cash.

Whatever happened to good local councillors who could explain policy without the need for expensive spin doctors?

[rhys]

Well done for bringing together this information. It was with some interest I checked my Council of Charnwood in the report. Nice to see it is no near the top!

Keep up the good work - with things like this it should help make councils more £ efficient!

[Barbara Lockwood]

Good to see you are all keeping on the ball,
Thank you for the spending on publicity scale; no doubt our EDPress will refrain from printing same in our local papers,FOI where?
At least you can dominate coverage in National papers and TV,this is what we need.
I thank you for leaflets that have all been delivered, I do hope those who understand the sleize and corruption politicians and councillors with their cavalier attitude and greed are forcing on many of our population will SUPPORT us in 2008.
Best regards and a Happy Christmas to all.
Barbara F.A.C.T.

[Alan Cavill]

Whilst we in Blackpool have no objection to analysis of what we spend money on I do believe misinformation on this scale can not go without comment. Of the £3.7 million this Council spends on "publicity" (and by the way the figure you have used is a category defined by legislation that must appear in our accounts) £2.27 million is spent on promoting Blackpool as a seaside resort, if we did not do this we would be seriously at odds with the wishes of most of our Council Tax payers; £925,000 is spent on notices that we are required to place in newspapers etc by legislation eg for temporary road closures (newspapers deliberatley charge a levy on these kind of notices because they are required by statute and we cannot avoid placing them); £390,000 was used on placing job adverts in magazines and newspapers and £121,000 was used to provide information through press releases etc to the people of Blackpool - that is less than 5% of the figure you have quoted. Hope this is helpful and clarifies the situation in respect of Blackpool.

[Corin Taylor]

Alan, have you actually read our report? If so you'll see that we say on the first page that it's a legislative requirement for councils to list publicity spending in their annual accounts. We even provide Section 5 of the 1986 Local Government Act's definition of publicity. So please read our report first!

This 1986 Act is extremely helpful to those of us who believe in open and accountable government - it allows taxpayers to compare councils across the country, and it does seem as though Blackpool is performing rather poorly. Blackpool council is not spending 5 per cent of £3.7 million on publicity, as you claim; it is spending £3.7 million on publicity, as recorded in the council's annual accounts. That's a figure that we think is too high, but ultimately it is for taxpayers in Blackpool to decide.

Blackpool's council tax (excluding Parish Precept) has doubled from £580 in 1998-99 to £1,176 this year. As numerous studies from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Help the Aged and others have shown, the levels of council tax are now so high that pensioners and low income families are struggling to pay council tax bills.

Alan, do you really think that Blackpool council should not find some savings in that £3.7 million publicity budget? Hammersmith and Fulham council, for example, are spending 11 per cent less on publicity than ten years ago and I don't think they are hearing any complaints from residents. Many councils need to get their priorities straight.

[Robert Shatwell]

My local council, Woking Borough Council, has aquired a £80m debt. I have been trying to find out what this debt has been used for and how much we council taxpayers are contributing in order to finance it. The council keeps hiding behind part 2 and excluding press and public from finding out this info. Is there any way I can get this information?

The council seem intent on bankrupting our town as , in addition to the above, they are planning on borrowing a further £70m to £100m in order to progress a development of 150 homes on a contaminated site within the flood plain.

We have just had a monstrous development called "The Canopy" which was £1.2m over budget and cost in total £3.6m, a refurbishment of the car parks at a total cost of about £3.5m, with budgetry overspend of £1.4m and a development called "The Lightbox", (known by locals as "The S....box") at an unknown cost due to part 2.

Is it any wonder we have one of the highest council tax bills in the country? What can we do to curtail council spending when everything is done in secret?

Robert A. Shatwell, 11, Lime Grove, Woking, Surrey, GU22 9PW tel: 07818441148