3.9% - The Case for the Defence

One of the issues which sometimes comes up on the doorstep, and indeed when meeting people on the street, is the latest council tax increase of 3.9% and the fact that is was the largest increase in Scotland.

Not surprisingly the question being posed is why the increase was not smaller and what is the money being used for?

Without exception, each time I have explained the reasons behind the increase and the necessity for them, the people that I have spoken to have accepted my explanation and although still not happy with the increase do understand that it was necessary for it to happen.

So, what were these reasons?

The bottom line is that the council had to face up to liabilities which the previous Labour administration had known about for up to five years yet had put not one penny aside in reserves to meet these liabilities. When the Conservative administration took over there were NO reserves whatsoever laid aside for future liabilities. The lack of prudent financial management was staggering.

South Ayrshire Trading Standards have an excellent ongoing initiative called “Don’t Bury Your Head in the Sand” which encourages people in debt to get help from our money advice centre not only to pay off their bills but to better manage their finances so that it doesn’t happen again. The Labour Party could do a lot worse than to make an appointment and go along and seek help.

There were three main reasons why we needed to set a realistic council tax rate.

1. The New Schools Project – We are building several new schools, one of which is Prestwick Academy. This project was started four years ago and a substantial reserve should have been built up to pay for the equivalent of a “deposit” on the project. Guess what? Not a penny put in reserve to meet this known liability. This year’s 3.9% increase includes 1% which is ring fenced to help pay for this “deposit” otherwise the rise would have been 2.9%.
2. Equal Pay – Several years ago the council agreed that where there was an inequality in pay between the sexes this would be addressed and compensation paid to employees, the vast majority of whom were women in relatively low paid jobs, who had suffered because of this. Shamefully Labour had done nothing about this. In it’s first Budget the Conservatives announced that we would right this wrong and so far we have paid out almost £6m in compensation. We were able to borrow this money and repayments of approx. £1.2m per year are being spread over 5 years. This £1.2m equates to just over 2% on the council tax.
3. Job Evaluation and Single Status – This is very similar to equal pay and addresses the inequities of two people doing very similar jobs but being paid at different rates. Once again, the previous Labour administration had known about this for several years but had put not one penny aside to pay for it. The cost of this will be several million pounds which cannot be borrowed and had to be included in this year’s budget.

I hope that although you do not like the 3.9% increase that you do agree that with the staggering debts that we inherited as a result of Labour’s disgraceful neglect of future known liabilities and lack financial management that we did pretty well to restrict the increase to 3.9%. To have gone any lower would have been irresponsible and would have been putting election success and self interest before integrity and responsibility. I for one could not have done that.