Budget Special 2010/2011
Monday November 2, 2009
Council tax is set to fall by 3 per cent for the fourth year running...
If a Budget Council meeting approves the proposals at meeting on 24 February 2010, residents in Hammersmith & Fulham will see their council tax bills drop for the fourth successive year.
When council tax demands go through letterboxes in May next year, most council taxpayers in other London boroughs will be charged hundreds of pounds more than four years ago. But H&F residents are set to see average bills £122 cheaper than they were in 2006/07. If other London boroughs increase their council tax by 2.6 per cent, which has been the average over the past three years – a typical H&F taxpayer will be around £600 better off than the average Londoner.
Council Leader Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh says: “All councils have a duty to respond to the perfect storm of social and economic challenges caused by Britain’s toxic debt mountain which is fast approaching £1.4 trillion."
The news comes at a time when a series of opinion polls show residents’ approval ratings continuing to rise rapidly. The Government’s official watchdog – The Audit Commission – also judges the council to be among the best in Britain.
So how is it done?
Better services for less money - the detail:
Lowering debt
By selling assets we no longer need and minimising new borrowing, we have reduced our debt burden by a staggering £24 million, saving the council more than £2.9 million a year in reduced debt payments.
Competition
By introducing competition to £90 million of council services, we have saved £5 million a year. While saving money, we are improving the quality of services. For example, since the street cleaning contract was awarded, 93 per cent of our streets are cleaner than the national standards, up seven per cent.
Cutting waste
Reducing the number of staff employed at the town hall and cutting the costs of our office space has produced major savings, with more to come. We are looking at more efficient ways of working, such as enabling more people to get services, such as parking permits, via the internet, and buying our supplies more cost-effectively.
Fewer staff
Overall, the number of staff employed by the council has fallen by over a 1,000 posts. Around 600 of these were from efficiency measures with the rest coming from market testing and subsequent outsourcing. We have cut policy advisor posts. Staff are working harder and their productivity is up. Better ways of working mean we need fewer people to provide the same, or better, standards of service. For example, we have brought together all our human resources staff into one central team, and reduced the number of staff.
Cutting printing and publicity costs
We have saved £300,000 on the cost of producing our newspaper for residents, H&F News. This has been done by raising more money from commercial advertising and by using cheaper paper. By out-sourcing our printing and getting printing firms to quote more competitively, we are saving 20% on the costs of our leaflets and brochures, saving another £300,000.
Reducing office costs
Council staff work from a large number of different offices all across the borough. We have made savings by concentrating staff in fewer buildings, saving money on rents, business rates, heating, lighting and security. We are also expanding home and mobile working, to reduce office costs even further, saving £1.1million.
Cutting energy costs
For many of our offices, automatic switches now cut the lights whenever the offices are empty. We have installed solar panels on the town hall roof and we are buying our energy more cheaply.
Closing under-used services
Some services were expensive to run but benefited very few people and we have closed or reduced these. They include Sands End public laundry, where alternative commercial services are available at a better price and the staff canteens which were used by very few staff.
H&F Advice
By setting up a one-stop-shop for all social care and support services, we have saved £350,000, as well as making it easier for residents to use these services. We have a single point of contact, rather than having to make separate applications to a series of individual services.
H&F Direct
H&F Direct provides a fast transactional service to residents for council tax, housing and education benefits, business rates, housing charges, penalty charge notices, resident parking permits. Headcount has been reduced from 227 in 2006/7 down to 149 in 2009/10 and costs have reduced by 29 per cent or £3.6 million so far despite workload increasing from 2,000 callers needing assessment for benefits per month to 8,000 callers in last 9 months. Staff have been multi-skilled and online processes developed to process council tax payments, parking permits and housing benefit claims. 70 per cent of parking permits are now paid online.
Using IT to do things more efficiently
When people report problems, make payments or apply for services via the internet or over the phone, rather than by coming into council offices in person, it costs the council less. Many people prefer to do business with us on-line or by phone, so expanding the range of services available in this way is popular with residents. This, together with huge improvements in how we handle public enquiries and service requests, has netted a saving of £4 million.
And we are spending more too:
Cleaner streets
93 per cent of streets in the borough have less litter than the recommended national standard according to the Tidy Britain Group.
First new library in 40 years
The new Shepherds Bush library, worth more than £2 million, was built at no cost to the taxpayer, thanks to negotiations to secure major funding from the Westfield shopping centre.
More beat bobbies
The council and local businesses are putting an extra £4million over two years to put more bobbies on the beat in Fulham, Hammersmith and Shepherds Bush town centres.
Parks
Our multi-million pound parks investment programme includes major revamps for Normand Park on Lillie Road, Shepherds Bush Green, South Park and Bishop’s Park. Since market-testing grounds maintenance, three of our parks have been judged to be among the best in Britain and have been awarded Green Flags.
Schools
More than £175 million is due to be injected into secondary schools through the Building Schools for the Future programme to support the council’s vision to make H&F a borough of opportunity.
Services for vulnerable people
We are spending an extra £1.2million on services for elderly and disabled people, including more money for Freedom Passes.
