Council Revenue Ideas (Merged)
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In a report due to go before Scrutiny this week, several ‘income generation’ ideas have been revealed – including proposals to introduce a pay & display style system at country parks and creating an estate agent service.
The report notes that many of these ideas aren’t being progressed at present.
If you were part of WCBC, how would you increase revenue?
Council Revenue Raise Ideas: Pay & Display At Parks & Estate Agency Services | Wrexham.com
@zinger 13634 wrote:
To my mind it isn’t so much about increasing revenue as much as not wasting what we have.
Agreed.
I suspect that the name of the game in the future is to farm out places like the Memorial Hall and the People’s Market to non-Council run bodies. This would reduce the Management costs but it would have to be looked into whether the benefits would outweigh the revenue derived. Same logic could apply on the Tourist Information Centre.
It was interesting that when the ‘Beach’ idea was bounced around (and then aborted because of cost) that a private sector individual actually explained that he would do it cost free- if allowed to charge the customers. Surely that is the way to go
Perhaps the first way to increase revenue is to not waste so much on services that are not needed. Whilst I like the idea of being traditional and having a Mayor, the cost is too high. I’m sure he has a driving license so can drive himself to and from events. Minimising the costs associated with the Mayor would be a good start
Also reducing the income received by top level council officials would help too.
Perhaps trying to get the housing department as a housing association would good too? More grants and funding are available to actually get the quality of housing stock up to standard that way.
Recycling in the town needs to be pushed and done more too. We have to recycle our residential rubbish, yet there’s very little in town that is recycled. Shops are not encouraged to do so and the bins in town are just regular old bins.
Just a couple of ideas that may or may not work.
The downside of blue sky thinking for raising revenue is we will be the ones paying.
More important to balance what goes out and what comes in already without expecting us to put our hands in our pockets.
For example, look at how much the pension provisions cost.
According to the Tax Payers Alliance £1 out of every £5 paid in Council Tax goes towards council pensions, in other words £200 out of every £1000 Council Tax bill pays their pension before services are even considered.
Before cutting services councils need to look at their staff costs, salaries, pensions, parking perks long before charging us to visit parks etc with our kids.
Time to reform local authority pensions – we can’t afford to pay them for you.
New Research: £1 in every £5 of Council Tax goes on council pensions | Home | The TaxPayers' AllianceTrouble is every time staff reductions are proposed its always the coal face workers that are in peril, the dinner ladies, lollipop ladies, adult social care workers etc and not the administrative bureacrats – is WCBC as lean as can be ?
Where does this get spent, how could it be spent differently and better, how does Wrexham’s economy perform and how can it be improved.
@wxm 11862 wrote:
Published “Cash Limited Budget”
Title in report – 2014/15 – (Last year 2013/14)
Environment – £27,742,681 – (27,836,381)
Housing & Public Protection – £3,859,917 – (4,439,333)
Adult Social Care – £41,889,801 – (43,176,763)
Schools – £76,730,326 – (76,386,663)
Lifelong Learning – £5,744,329 – (6,627,162)
Prevention & Social Care – £13,523,213 – (13,704,526)
Community Well Being & Development – £3,887,033 – (4,584,828
Assets & Economic Development – £4,570,725 – (5,088,289)
Finance – £3,604,416 – (3,974,098)
Corporate & Customer Services – £6,163,072 – (6,381,324)
Repairs & Maintenance – £2,167,623 – (2,167,623)Total Net Service Expenditure – £189,883,136 – (194,466,990)
Corporate & Central Expenditure
General – £26,959,059 – (27,180,150)
Council Tax Reduction Scheme / Welfare – £10,491,405 – (11,058,127)Total Net Expenditure – £227,333,600 – (232,705,267)
Katia is quite correct about this problem. Because the Council actually employs people to deliver its services and because those employees are subject to the vast pay rises of the Blair/Brown years, there is a structural payment problem. On the news today, you may have seen that there are intentions to strike over the pay offer that the Government has made to the public sector and it will be more than difficult to rebalance the private-public sector balance in Wales.
Sadly, even if there are lay-offs there will be huge severance packages and pension liabilities which will have to be paid for and though the rebalancing is necessary and desirable, it will be a bumpy expensive ride. The one rule of thumb that should be adhered to is if a service is already provided in the private sector then it is no business of the public sector to duplicate provision.
Wxm’s figures are very useful for comparing with other Councils. What we also need to help calculate what is going where and why are the stats on, for example, the cost of wages within each sector, pensions, and so on
Just read in the leader that the council are proposing to charge for parking at Ty Mawr & Alyn Waters. Is there anything this council won’t tax? These open spaces should be free and accessible to all and they are already paid for with council tax so why would the council charge more for them.
If you need more money, stop giving yourself pay rises, get rid of the ridiculously outdated mayoral role and get the councilors to pay for their own parking
The general reaction in the leader is that people would stop coming.
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