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My council just hiked tax by 4.99% — you won't believe what they're wasting millions on

2025-02-21 00:00:00.0 每日快报-政治原网页

Tory councillor and Express journalist has her say on council tax rises (Image: Getty)

I am livid — but quite honestly not one bit surprised.

What unfolded in our town hall on Wednesday night was something that in the coming weeks will be replicated across the country.

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Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had vowed not to put taxes up for working people (Image: Getty)

Middlesbrough has a Labour-run council and, as a Conservative councillor, I did of course try my best to stop the budget from being passed. But it was all to no avail.

The Labour councillors were positively gleeful as they passed their budget that they’ve now dubbed their "Growth Budget". Yeah! growth of Middlesbrough residents' council tax bills! It would be funny if the whole thing wasn’t so tragic.

Of course it’s essential to say that it’s so very easy to shout from the sidelines and berate the councillors who are running the show, while offering no real alternatives. I have been in their position when I was deputy mayor of Middlesbrough and setting a balanced budget is no easy feat. But although we always had the option of setting it at the highest, we always tried our very best not to.

The biggest challenge is social care and the dreaded issues surrounding children’s services. The average cost per external placement for a child in Middlesbrough is around ￡5k per week per child. In fact we were once quoted an external placement that cost as much as ￡30,000 per week for one child. Yes, you did read that correctly.

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But when it comes to councils, in my opinion at least, there are always places you can look.

My biggest bugbears with Middlesbrough Council spending - and of other UK local authorities - are twofold. Firstly, it’s the wages of staff.

I have long been very uncomfortable with the eyewatering wages commanded by town hall fat cats. Each year the Taxpayer’s Alliance releases a list that makes a very sobering read. Our chief executive is paid ￡166,000 a year, which is just short of Keir Starmer’s ￡172k.

At Middlesbrough Council there has also been a huge surge in the amount staff being paid over ￡50k a year since Labour took office.

I know that people make the point that without awarding such salaries, you just won’t get the level of expertise required. Well the hard truth of that is that we don’t. Councils are bumbling along more than ever - and in the private sector those hefty pay packets are at least connected to performance. Don’t achieve your targets and you’re unceremoniously dumped - and rightly so.

Secondly is the extortionate amount that councils, including mine, are haemorrhaging on external consultancy fees.

Bearing in mind gripe number one of the crazy pay of the top level of staff, my second is even more infuriating. Surely if your staff are so brilliant then spending a bloody fortune on external consultants is a shocking move?

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Vast fees are handed over to these companies and they’re never held accountable before they skip off to the next idiots willing to pay them big bucks.

At Middlesbrough Council it’s transpired that in the last year we shelled out more than a million quid for these people - and next year we plan to do the same. Awful stuff when you're passing on maximum council tax rises.

I have apologised to my residents, who are once again needing to put their hands in their pockets to fund the luxuries of a few. But sadly they’re not the only ones who will suffer.

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