Along with many other Brent Councillors, I recently got an email about the effect of the government's foisting of Council Tax relief on to local authorities.
There seem to me to be two essential questions. Firstly, did central government give Brent a reasonable choice in adopting a local scheme or not? Secondly, did Brent follow a considered process in trying to minimise the problems caused?
As I understand it Brent is one of the worst affected authorities in London. Simply adopting the national scheme, on the much lower funding provided by central government, would result in a £5.5 million shortfall. That could only be made up by spending cuts, and £5.5 million is a lot of money. For example, it is more than the entire libraries budget. No one in the Council has much appetite for more cuts than we already have.
Remember central government is expected to give us another £65 million of cuts over the next three years. It is widely predicted that many local authorities will simply collapse.
The second question is did the Council try to deal with this sensibly, and I think we did. As an Executive member, I was asked to join an informal working group of members and officers. It included Cllr Mo Butt, when he was still Lead Member for Finance. He stayed on when his successor as Lead Member for Finance Cllr Ruth Moher joined. It also included Cllr Zaffar Van Kalwala as a Scrutiny Chair with a particular interest in Council Tax issues. Therefore we can say the problem got a lot of political attention as well as input from senior officers such as the then Finance Director. I think that group produced useful results.
Far from the suggestions in press reports, a court summons is very much a last resort. As well as a general publicity programme in the Brent Magazine and specific communities, the Council has been specifically contacting individuals. This was both by phone and on the doorstep. Anyone in difficulty should contact the Council as soon as possible, and agree a payment plan.
It is not the intention of the Council to make anyone's life difficult, but the Council itself is being put in an impossible position.
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