Latest news with #councilreform
BBC News
2 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Gloucester City Council job listing criticised as 'manipulative'
The advertisement of a job for someone to "convince the public" of a new council system for Gloucestershire has been criticised as "manipulative".Gloucester City Council (GCC) is hiring a communications officer to help promote the idea of creating a "thriving Greater Gloucester", as three reorganisation options are considered for the county's council Chambers, leader of the Conservative group on GCC, has submitted a formal complaint for the advertisement to be Hilton, Liberal Democrat leader of the council, said the post would help inform residents and involve them in the reorganisation. What are the options? At the moment, Gloucestershire is a two tier authority, meaning council services are split between the county and districts, The Local Democracy Reporting Service option, preferred by Gloucestershire County Council and Tewkesbury Borough Council, is for the whole county to become a single unitary authority with a population of about 650, second option, put forward by five of the county's seven MPs, is to create two unitary councils, broadly divided between east and then there is a third option, being put forward by Mr Hilton, which has been described as the Gloucester involves creating a Greater Gloucester authority comprised of the city and surrounding villages in the "hole" of the doughnut. A second authority would then be created in the outer "ring" of the doughnut. The communications role at Gloucester City Council to promote the third option has a listed salary of between £32,115 and £35, Chambers said of the advertisement: "This isn't communication, it is manipulation."The use of the word 'convince' in the job description says it all. "This role isn't about informing and listening to residents' opinions, it's about spinning a narrative and selling a political agenda using public money."Labour group leader Terry Pullen said he was also astonished by the job listing."The salary for this brand new job will be £35,000 but we do not know how this is going to be paid for, other than coming from council taxpayers' money," he added. 'Gloucester deserves better' Mr Hilton said the role would inform, engage and involve residents in a conversation which would shape Gloucester's future."The Greater Gloucester proposal is one of several options being explored in a county-wide conversation around local government reorganisation."With all the discussions so far about local government reorganisation, not one proposal has involved asking the public what they think. "We believe Gloucester deserves better."The three options have been suggested in response to a call from Local Government Minister Jim McMahon in February 2025 for ideas on how a single tier council structure could be councils involved in local government reorganisation have until November to submit more detailed proposals.
Telegraph
12-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Rayner's ‘mega councils' to cost taxpayers billions in pension payouts
Angela Rayner's 'mega councils' plan could lead to billions of pounds in gold-plated pension payouts for town hall bosses, a Tory peer has warned. Labour wants to abolish more than 100 councils in the next four years to make local government more efficient. But it means thousands of council staff could be in line for six-figure pension payouts if they are made redundant or choose to retire early. If a council employee who is over 55 retires early, an automatic penalty of around 40pc of the pension built up so far is applied. If they are made redundant, the council must pay the full sum without any reductions for early payment. This is on top of any severance payment. Lord Fuller, a Conservative peer and former chairman of the District Councils Network, said the Government 'appeared to be sleepwalking' into a payout with 'multibillion-pound implications'. He told The Times: 'The total cost of a pension for a 55-year-old senior council officer who joined after school could realistically reach half a million pounds. It only takes 2,000 people out of 1.8 million local government workers to be in that category to reach £1bn. 'The Government has made these announcements without any consideration of these pension costs. In their haste to decimate what's left of the Conservatives in the shires, they could be writing themselves another billion-pound black hole to be filled by already hard-pressed council taxpayers.' England has 21 county councils and 164 district councils sitting below them. Responsibilities are shared between the two tiers of local government. However, ministers believe the structure is inefficient. Ms Rayner's plans involve merging county and district councils in some areas to create larger, single-tier unitary authorities. A report by accountancy firm PwC, commissioned by the County Councils Network, estimated that unitary authorities could save between £20m and £25m a year. While the report factored in one-off redundancy costs of hundreds of millions of pounds, it did not identify pension costs as an individual issue. There are no government-held estimates of the costs, however, minutes from the local government pensions committee showed that officials acknowledged 'the numbers were indeed substantial'. Cash-strapped local authorities have struggled to balance their budgets while keeping up with gold-plated pension contributions. Almost £1 in every £4 raised in council tax is currently spent on funding the schemes, analysis shows. A Telegraph investigation earlier this year found 7,609 ex-council workers enjoyed a pension of more than £50,000 a year. Of those, 203 receive more than £100,000 – almost three times the UK's national average wage. It comes as council tax was increased by an average of 5pc for the new financial year, with almost half of properties in England now facing bills of at least £2,000. A government spokesman told The Times: 'This is speculation and no decisions on proposals have been made. Our ambitious reorganisation plans will be locally led, putting more money in working people's pockets and saving significant taxpayers' money to be reinvested in public services.'
Times
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Times
Angela Rayner's council overhaul will cost taxpayer billions
Angela Rayner's plan to abolish scores of councils will cost taxpayers billions of pounds in pay-offs to high-ranking officials, ministers have been warned. Ministers aim to get rid of more than 100 councils within the next four years to make local government more efficient. But officials in Rayner's department are concerned there will be 'substantial' extra costs because of the generous structure of local government pension scheme, under which councils must pay long-serving officials hundreds of thousands of pounds each for being made redundant. Lord Fuller, the Tory peer and former chair of the District Councils Network, said there would be 'multi-billion pound implications', although there is not thought to be a centrally- held estimate of the costs. England has 21 county councils, with 164
