Arrogance and Incompetence: The Real Reason Your Council Taxes Have Shot Up

You may have heard things along the lines of “it’s the government’s fault”, or “It’s Robin Wales’ fault, (he only left a balance of £54m and we’ve used it up!)”, or “we have great plans about how we spend your money”.

What our mayor does not tell you is the following. Back in the days of the Wales regime, the council had a collection rate of 96% for council tax. Not the best in the country, but reasonable.

Nor is she likely to tell you, unless you submit an FOI, is that this collection rate has dropped from the mid-90s to 89% in three years.

We have estimated that Newham raises approximately £750,000 for every 1% of additional council tax. With the increase in housing in Newham, the figure may actually be closer to £1m, but we have erred on the side of conservatism in our estimates.

In cash terms this means that Newham is losing an additional £5.25m (it could be £7m) each and every year simply because of the incompetence and arrogance of the incumbent. 

‘Incompetence’, it speaks for itself, trashing a system which had a good record of collections and replacing it with one which fails to do its job properly.

‘Arrogance’, because the regime is not bothered about its failures, they have a tap that they can turn on for as long as they need to fill the coffers made empty by their failures. That tap is the honest tax-payers of Newham, they can be squeezed to make up for the failings of the Fiaz regime.

The mayor continues to cry poverty but much of Newham’s financial difficulties can be traced back directly to her. Over the course of her term in office we estimate that the council will lose between £15m-£25m in uncollected taxes.

It appears that the cabinet she has amassed around her has no interest in sorting the problem out. There is no evidence that any of them see it as a problem. Let’s see if the back-benchers have any more backbone and concern for Newham’s honest residents. 

It is interesting that over the course of a decade Newham taxpayers had no hikes in their council tax. Over the course of three years it has been hiked by almost 20%. What changed three years ago to make this happen?