Newham spends more on Agency Staff than any other London Borough

Agency Staff and Spending Skyrocketing.

While the employment of agency workers in local government has been decreasing across London, for some reason in Newham the numbers and the costs have skyrocketed.

Agency workers are sometimes necessary to fill short-term gaps. They tend to be unpopular with accountants because they cost considerably more than in-house staff. And unpopular with clients and managers alike because there is no continuity.

In the second Quarter of 2019-20 the average number of agency workers employed by London boroughs was 355 per authority. In Newham that number was 677. When Mayor Fiazco took over the Newham number was 444. It has increased by 50% in a little over a year and there are no signs of this unchecked spending being halted.

When London councils are reducing the number of agency staff in their employ, Newham is increasing its agency numbers. When Mayor Fiazco took over, agency staff were around 10% of the council’s staff. Now that figure is 16.6%.

While London councils are reducing their reliance on agency staff every quarter, Newham is going in the opposite direction. When will it stop?

The average cost of agency workers across London was £5.04m per authority. In Newham the cost was £8.46m. This is £3m per quarter more than when she took office. There doesn’t seem to be any plan to reduce the overspend.

We have read Cllr Paul’s article and we know that the financial crisis that has hit Newham Council has nothing to do with him or Mayor Fiazco. Its all the fault of the Tories. And the last Mayor. Apparently leaving him balances in excess of £50m wasn’t sufficient. Yeh? The Tories have been in power for 10 years, for eight of those years Newham balanced its books, saved money and didn’t put up council tax.

What has changed? Only the people in charge.

During the last five quarters of the Wales administration, the cost of agency staff totalled £27.15m. A significant sum, but it is dwarfed by the £34.57m in the first five months of the Fiazco administration.

Mayor Fiazco and her in-house financial Czar, Cllr Terry Paul managed to spend almost £7.5m more than the previous administration. That equates to approx. £25m in the course of one mayoral term of office. Can Newham afford this calamitous pair?

Before Councillor Paul next complains about the evil Tory government, perhaps he should make sure that he puts a cap on his unnecessary spending before blaming someone else because he is in debt.

Why are the councillors supine? Perhaps we could ask some of our overpaid councillors to get their fingers out and begin to do the scrutiny that they are paid for.

We are not sure what additional benefits the people of Newham got for the extra £7.5m but if Mayor Fiazco or Cllr Paul would like to let us know, we’ll be sure to publish it.