Please Mr. Starmer, Can I have some More?

Every 1% of council tax collected is roughly equivalent to £1.25m in terms of cash received by LBN.

Looking at the figures for collection, we see that when she inherited the post, the collection rate was 96.2% under Wales. Not brilliant, but reasonable, hovering just below the London average.

Then it began to decline, dropping six points. And there it has hovered, between 89%-90% for four years.

It is unreasonable to expect any council to collect 100% of council tax, poverty, bankruptcy and dishonest residents mean that this will never happen.

It is reasonable to expect that, having inherited a system that works, that it is not squandered; but that appears to be exactly what Fiaz has done. In each of the last four years, if Fiaz had simply maintained the work done under Wales, Newham would have brought in between £24m-£30m more cash.

Just think, if she had been a little more careful we might not have had to contend with a 10% council tax hike this year and she might have been spared the embarrassment of having to go, cap-in-hand to Whitehall for a bail out.