Dec 2008 11

Council Spending Uncovered: Councils spend average of £1 million a year on publicity22

  • Average council spending on publicity rises to £971,985
  • Total Town Hall publicity bill £430 million
  • The average local authority spent twice the amount on publicity than it did in 1996-97

In December 2007, the TaxPayers’ Alliance produced the first ever examination of the growth of town hall spending on publicity over the last decade, which is itemised in the annual accounts of the 450-plus local authorities in the UK.  It found that councils had doubled their spending on publicity, creating a £450 million publicity machine, at the same time as doubling council tax.  A year later, in the midst of the economic crisis, the first paper in the new Council Spending Uncovered series updates the data for the last financial year, with information on every local authority. To read the full report, please click here (PDF).

Councils are required by Part II, Section 5 of the Local Government Act 1986 to “keep a separate account of their expenditure on publicity”.  Publicity is defined by the Act as “any communication, in whatever form, addressed to the public at large or to a section of the public”.

Key Findings: 

  • The average local authority spends almost £1 million (£971,985) on publicity. 
  • The total local authority publicity bill is now over £430 million.
  • The average local authority is spending twice the amount on publicity than it did in 1996-97:

-In 1996-97, the average local authority spent £429,887 on publicity;
-In 2006-07, the average local authority spent £954,023 on publicity;
-In 2007-08, the average local authority spent £971,985 on publicity.

  • There are 6 local authorities spending more than £5 million on publicity.
  • There are 69 local authorities spending more than £2 million on publicity.
  • There are 133 local authorities spending more than £1 million on publicity.
  • At least 225 councils have increased their spending on publicity since the 2006-07 financial year.
  • The 20 councils spending the most money on publicity accumulated an over £100 million bill.
  • There is one local authority, Birmingham City Council, that spent more than £9 million on publicity.
  • However, at least 217 councils have decreased spending on publicity, collectively cutting over £25 million from their budgets and proving that councils can cut unnecessary spending.
  • The top 20 councils to cut publicity spending in real terms saved taxpayers nearly £13 million versus last year.

Read the full report here (PDF). 

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

"It is incredibly disappointing that, despite the economic downturn and the loss of millions in Icelandic Banks, local authorities are still spending nearly half a billion pounds a year on publicity. Whilst we salute the 217 councils who have cut spending on publicity, the 225 councils who have increased spending should hang their heads in shame. In the middle of a recession, councils need to cut back on propaganda and spin doctors and deliver savings to taxpayers."

Related Posts

  • http://www.bodyproject.co.uk Nick Taylor

    So should councils not spend money on communication? For example there is a whole lot of difference between social marketing and publicity. This is a very poor piece of work by you and needs more considered research rather than this cross between The Sun and Daily Mail expose or uncovering.

  • http://www.bodyproject.co.uk Nick Taylor

    So should councils not spend money on communication? For example there is a whole lot of difference between social marketing and publicity. This is a very poor piece of work by you and needs more considered research rather than this cross between The Sun and Daily Mail expose or uncovering.

  • Bob Dowling

    Have you got table A6 in spreadsheet format for downloading?

  • You are all idiots

    You lot are a joke.
    You come up with this crap claiming councils are wasting money on publicity but forget to mention most of it is on job ads.
    I’m minded to put in FOIs to all councils asking how much of our money YOU waste with all your stupid FOIs and expose you people for what you are…leeches on our taxes.
    Grow up – or refund the part of my taxes you waste with your silly games.

  • You are all idiots

    You lot are a joke.
    You come up with this crap claiming councils are wasting money on publicity but forget to mention most of it is on job ads.
    I’m minded to put in FOIs to all councils asking how much of our money YOU waste with all your stupid FOIs and expose you people for what you are…leeches on our taxes.
    Grow up – or refund the part of my taxes you waste with your silly games.

  • James

    Interested to know if there is;
    a) A correlation between spending increases in the last 11yrs, and whether the councils shares the same political allegiance as the incumbent government.
    b) A link between high spending and boroughs with a challenging social setting.
    I would be amazed if neither of the above prove positive.

  • Steve Robson

    censor check

  • Victoria Streeter

    This is a pretty shoddy piece of work aimed at getting cheap headlines. TPA needs to define what it means by publicity and compare its results against inflationary rises in the cost of advertising, salaries,print production etc. to have any meaning. If TPA doesn’t like LAs forking out for publicity, it should devote effort to pursuading local newspapers to go back to reporting council meetings and keeping people informed, like they used to.

  • Steve Robson

    I think you’ll find that all their work is shoddy, aimed at getting cheap headlines. Good quality research and the truth is too complex and would show that some Councils are doing a good job against challenging circumstances which would be a nightmare for the TPA.
    There are some right wing thinktanks who do more impressive quality research, but they fail to get the cheap headlines.

  • Call me Dave

    Guys, nice peice of work but can I suggest that you calculate publicity spend as a percentage of income. This is a far more useful measure to identify those local authorities who over spend.
    You should find that the spend ranges between 0.2 & 3.0% of gross income. It would then be a simple step to produce a cap of say 1% on publicity spending to control costs.
    I have to agree with some of the sentiment felt from previous posters. Many goods and services have doubled in price in the past 10 years – the research is easily defended as you have presented it.
    Please take my advice and work it out again as a percentage of income in order to hold this prfligate spending in check – I’m right behind you.

  • Steve Robson

    Why are you called “Call me Dave”?

  • Andrew Sharp

    Nick Taylor appears to get most of his income from the state, so that explains his comment.
    Those others who are against the TPA finding out how much councils waste much just like paying council tax I guess ;-)

  • Andrew Edwards

    I personally think that all the info supplied is reality, and no matter what think our Councils are doing with our money there are certainly some revealing facts in the full reports.
    So as for Nick Taylors remarks are concerned, l for one have found out some rather disturbing facts concerning Two of my Councillors and sheer abusive use of their positions.
    Well Don TPA

  • http://www.lowetrust.com Andrew Thomas

    The expenditure on publicity does not include the inflated costs spent on websites. The fact that any communications such as services offered and vancancies can be posted on a website, and with free internet access in any library, goverment and councils should be banned from spending on publicity. It is a total waste of money.

  • Arfur Towcrate

    You’re all a bunch of wannabe Thatcherite Tories, who in the unlikely event of having real influence (aka power), would quickly turn their backs on the not very lofty principles espoused on this webshite.

  • andrew good

    Oh dear. More of the same poor research from the TA. It reads more like the Daily Mail and lacks credibility . The TA could be a useful brake on the handful of silly Councils but yet again its “researchers” and leaders fail to understand the terrific value that British local government gives to citizens.

  • Justin Downes Residents First

    Who are all these weird people who want councils to waste even more money “communicating” ?
    I was jt founder of what is now the largest financial/corporate pr company in the UK so I always claim to know a little about waste in corporate communications.
    Steve Robson and Victoria Streeter can take it from me that there is vast wastage in council PR departments. Most local authorities could save a fortune by combining with their neighbours to share PR capabilities. Why they do not is a mystery to me.Maybe councils are just addicted to wasting our money. K and C are currently spending £3,000 a week on one consultancy working on one small traffic management project. Lucky old PR company !

  • Helen Peterson

    One council which needs investigating for waste is Mid Suffolk District council – check out environmental dept. – things like street lights in villages left on all night where no problems with crime, excessive cutting of grassy areas (up to 3 or more times a week on occasions), excessive road sweeping – sometimes on a daly basis where not needed at all! Also ripping out saplings from hedges just to make use of very expensive shredders and create wood mulch to sell to the public – I thought anything “owned” by councils actually already belonged to the public???!!!
    Also claim to be “accountable” to council tax payers for what their money is spent on!!
    Spent £100,000 on their own car park for their employees whilst charging residents to park in all “their” public car-parks.
    I’m sure there is loads more to be investigated with this council and others locally as no-one knows where all the council tax disappears to…

  • Helen Peterson

    How can the public access statistics for spending of each dept. of local council please??

  • Nick

    To answer the stupid critics whining about this research and FOI requests being a waste of money is simple: publish bloody everything. Don’t try to hide the fact the town hall chief gets about 160,000 a year and owns three houses (yes, Waveney, I am looking at you) but instead make it public knowledge so no one hasto go looking for it, or go to the courts for it. It is not the TPA that wastes the money but government efforts to hide what they spend our money on.
    When the day comes where decent people get a chance to say if they don’t want to pay tax then you can say it is wasted money. Until then that which is stolen from me had better be spent properly, and not on patio heaters, daimlers and job ads for domestic refuse disposal managers or business continuity advisors – something my company of fifty people wrote in an afternoon and got to run through when Soton CC ran out of salt for the roads due to the urgent need to post a blasted magazine through the door about how good they were.
    Councils do not offer good value and they *are* a waste of money. They have to tell us that they’re not because there is no other choice for the electorate. Until this is admitted and they stop wasting money and do more with a lot less they will forever be a useless expensive boat anchor that serves as nothing more than a paper pushing Dick Turpin.
    As long as I pay for these people’s tea, coffee, lives and bog roll I will shout and stamp and support others who do the same until the secrecy is shredded and every sheet of toilet paper accounted for. After all, that’s another £3 a month they flush away when I took a pay cut to keep my job and feed my children.

  • Disgruntled Ratepayer

    Interesting comments by Victoria Streeter about councils publishing what they do. Obviously she has never tried to obtain information from a council. Any secret society would be proud of what passes for information from my local council. Typically they “reply” to a request but dont answer the question and so a lot of time and effort is wasted when looking for information. Councils forget who pays their wages when it suits them.

  • Ajax

    I live in Kent, who’ve apparantly lost the most money in Icelandic banks. I’m looking forward to the upcoming litmus test, which will reveal whether or not anyone actually notices that council spending has been cut in half. I somehow doubt they will!