Elliot Keck is Investigations Campaigns Manager for the Taxpayers’ Alliance
It’s the oldest story in the book: supposedly cash-strapped councils looking to line their pockets with new and innovative ways to raise funds without the need to abandon pet projects or resort to politically painful council tax rises. Sometimes the methods used are honest and upfront, as in the case of Westminster City Council’s “Community Contribution”, a scheme for Westminster residents to make a voluntary payment beyond their council tax obligations and which has raised £1.5 million for the local authority. Sometimes the methods are wildly risky investments which cost residents tens of millions of pounds, as in the case of Nottingham City Council’s Robin Hood Energy.
A recent case which hit the headlines was the Taxpayer Alliance’s investigation into low-traffic neighbourhoods. Our research found that just 15 London councils slapped fines worth close to £100 million on drivers who violated these novel schemes. It was covered across the spectrum: from the Daily Express and the Daily Mail on one side, to the Daily Mirror on the other.
Now, low-traffic neighbourhoods are, in principle, not a bad thing. Anyone who has spent time in the Netherlands can hardly fail to see the benefits of more cycling; wider pavements and a merciful absence of cars. The idea is that traffic is restricted to major roads, with side streets in a neighbourhood restricted to residents and local businesses. Sometimes this is applied on a broader scale, to local high streets. Walthamstow Village is a notable success story.
The problem is that the good intentions that councils have claimed when embarking on these projects appear secondary to the chance to use local motorists as cash cows. Largely implemented under the shadow of the covid pandemic, which drove traffic down as we were locked indoors, they were sprung on local residents often without proper consultation and without a long-term plan of how to bring neighbourhoods with them. Aggressive fines were then slapped on drivers who got caught out by these completely new and untested schemes, with almost one hundred million pounds potentially taken out of people’s pockets.
And they were often enormously unpopular. In Ealing, seven out of nine LTNs have now been removed after a backlash.
This is all part of a larger, UK and London-wide, programme to make it safer for people to walk and cycle, with a £2 billion package announced in May 2020 by the Department for Transport and further funding pledged by the Mayor of London and TfL. But critically, what these grants reveal is the extent to which the UK is starting from scratch: like it or not, we are a car-dependent country. Even in London, before the pandemic, more than one in three journeys was by car, a number that ticked up during covid. Given the extent of industrial action, it may tick up again. It will require a long term transformation in public infrastructure to move away from driving.
So when councils levy whopping fines of up to £130 if not paid immediately, residents are right to be suspicious about the real intentions of local authority bosses. It looks like a plan to punish drivers and avoid the need to get tough on waste and make the difficult decisions councils will need to make to get their balance sheets in order.
And with the government lifting the ceiling of Council Tax increases without the need for a referendum to five per cent (including the social care precept), the need for councils to get tough on waste has never been greater. In another TPA investigation recently, published in the Daily Star, we discovered that over £860,000 had been spent on air freshener in three years, a figure likely to be a significant underestimate due to the number of councils that couldn’t disaggregate the data.
The lesson here is that small items of excessive or unnecessary spending really add up. It’s a reminder to councillors that no item of spending, no matter how seemingly insignificant, should avoid scrutiny. In this case, questions should be asked about whether air freshener is really needed at all and, if it is, whether councils are receiving the best value. A rigorous and meticulous approach to spending in this way is sure to find savings. If that means a freeze to council tax, even for just one year, residents will thank you.
With more than half of councils charging over £2,000 per year for a Band D Council Tax bill, a number surely set to climb next year, it is vital that local authorities are held to account – and hold themselves to account. As the UK’s waste watchdog, we will always call out bad behaviour but we will welcome positive developments too. In Nottinghamshire, the county council reckon they can save £2.2m a year by installing energy-saving LED bulbs, a move we applauded. If your council is saving money, or wasting it, be sure to get in touch.