Reform hike Council taxes after a promise to cut them.

[Badger11]

I hate Woke as much as the next person but I think Reform are in danger of overstating it's financial impact.

Often the stories you read in the papers about money being given to some woke issue by the local council are actually peanuts in relative terms. I don't believe there are big savings to be had on Woke.

Reform are actually missing the point if they want to slash council tax. The big savings are in scrapping final salary pensions and merging back office services with other councils. They also need to campaign on government directed spending which the council has no say over.

This of course would not make them popular with teachers and council workers etc.

 

[beak]

I hate Woke as much as the next person but I think Reform are in danger of overstating it's financial impact.

Often the stories you read in the papers about money being given to some woke issue by the local council are actually peanuts in relative terms. I don't believe there are big savings to be had on Woke.

Reform are actually missing the point if they want to slash council tax. The big savings are in scrapping final salary pensions and merging back office services with other councils. They also need to campaign on government directed spending which the council has no say over.

This of course would not make them popular with teachers and council workers etc.

I feel their on the wane now,they are being asked the hard questions and are represented by Tory ministers that the general public voted out. Tory Party rebadged.

 

[ASCPFC]

I feel their on the wane now,they are being asked the hard questions and are represented by Tory ministers that the general public voted out. Tory Party rebadged.

I don't think taking in a load of Tories was/is helpful either. I'd have told them to do one. "You made your bed now lie in it".

 

[ASCPFC]

I hate Woke as much as the next person but I think Reform are in danger of overstating it's financial impact.

Often the stories you read in the papers about money being given to some woke issue by the local council are actually peanuts in relative terms. I don't believe there are big savings to be had on Woke.

Reform are actually missing the point if they want to slash council tax. The big savings are in scrapping final salary pensions and merging back office services with other councils. They also need to campaign on government directed spending which the council has no say over.

This of course would not make them popular with teachers and council workers etc.

Teachers wages and conditions are so poor that only the pension is the one thing they look forward to. It's not a massive pension either. Nor is it for the average Council worker. Top brass, yes - what a surprise. The biggest culprit there will be the NHS. Teachers just don't get that good pay, nor do average Council workers. After twenty years it's ok. Still not great by any means. There are already recruitment and retention problems in education for pretty obvious reasons. You want to supervise a class of modern teenagers, take home a pittance and retire on the state pension? I'd give the average person about ten minutes in a classroom before they either lose it, or just walk out.
I used to lecture in education, I told a class of five hundred teachers that half would be gone once teaching practice started. That I could tell a lot just didn't have what it takes. I was correct; I was well used to it.

 

[Badger11]

Teachers wages and conditions are so poor that only the pension is the one thing they look forward to. It's not a massive pension either. Nor is it for the average Council worker. Top brass, yes - what a surprise. The biggest culprit there will be the NHS. Teachers just don't get that good pay, nor do average Council workers. After twenty years it's ok. Still not great by any means. There are already recruitment and retention problems in education for pretty obvious reasons. You want to supervise a class of modern teenagers, take home a pittance and retire on the state pension? I'd give the average person about ten minutes in a classroom before they either lose it, or just walk out.
I used to lecture in education, I told a class of five hundred teachers that half would be gone once teaching practice started. That I could tell a lot just didn't have what it takes. I was correct; I was well used to it.

Final salary pensions is one of the largest council expenditures. I didn't say it would be popular.

 

[ASCPFC]

Final salary pensions is one of the largest council expenditures. I didn't say it would be popular.

Nothing to do with being popular. Since 2015 teachers don't get final salary pensions anyway. But what you're talking about is robbing the lower paid of their pensions whilst higher ups have contractual pension guarantees. Cutting teacher's pensions will actually cause a proper strike and then an exodus from the profession. And place more stress on a profession that is stretched to the limit. What has been given, cannot be ungiven anyway - so it's pretty much a non starter. Councils get easily enough council tax yet waste it. Councils are some of the worst run organisations I've ever seen. The corruption is off the scale too. At every level. I presume you've worked in the area - it's pretty unmissable. Stop the corruption and I can only imagine how much would be saved.

 

[Hrolf The Ganger]

The thread title is completely incorrect. Reform did not promise to cut council tax. Another media lie.

 

[beak]

Final salary pensions is one of the largest council expenditures. I didn't say it would be popular.

I believe the Council pensions are sixty over eighty instead of other pensions which are forty over sixty,giving them an automatic increase on their fellow workers.