Council Tax in York – value of exemptions published

Student accommodation costs taxpayers £18 million over 5 years.

The York Council has published a table showing the amount of Council Tax not collected over the last 5 years because of approved “exemptions”.

The amount not collected totals £34 million.

By far the largest proportion of this is accounted for by student occupied accommodation. This accounts for around £18 million of the total. Central government claims that this is recognised in the grant distribution formulae which is aimed at equalising resources between different Councils (and is effectively funded from income tax). However the precise make up of individual central government council support grants is largely opaque.

 The figure is likely to re-energise the claims of those who feel that student accommodation should attract either Council Tax or Business Rates payments.

Other reasons why properties did not attract Council Tax liability included:

  • Empty and unfurnished property (£4.5 million)
  • Awaiting probate (£1.9 million)
  • Student halls of residence (£1.7 million)
  • Occupation by members of the armed forces (£2.9 million)
  • Property occupied by people with a mental handicap (£2.3 million)
Council Tax exemptions click to access

Council Tax exemptions click to access

Footnote
There are three main reform options for Student flat exemptions

1. Charge each student Council Tax with benefits (rebate) available to those on low incomes. This is essentially the position at non-student occupied private sector lettings. OR

2. Levy Business Rates on exempt student occupied properties. Some private landlords might qualify for small business rate relief. OR

3. Make the additional grant, that central government says it pays Councils with a high student population, entirely transparent. Residents should be able to understand and audit the assumptions behind the figures. OR

4. Leave things as they are which means that some residents – who may have no more income than many students – may pay more for local public services subsidising, not students, but private landlords.

There is a good argument for 3 above given that most landlords do pay tax on their incomes and it is a system that should be easy to implement.

Foreign trips – delay in publishing information criticised

Following our story yesterday some correspondents have criticised the Council for failing to keep its “transparency” web site up to date.Expenses

The web site is aimed, apparently,  at telling taxpayers what expenses are being incurred.

  • Council officials foreign travel expenses are now published on their web site. There have been no entries made since May 2014 Click here
  • Senior officers expenses – including the cost of air travel but not destination and journey purpose information – are published separately although there have been no updates since June. Click here
  • Summaries of Councillors expenses are now only published annually.

The York Council seems to be struggling to publish information that it is required by law to provide click

Foreign trip curbs to be introduced by York Council

Opposition Councillors move to reduce travel costs as taxpayers complain

The concerns expressed by many York residents, about the amount being spent on foreign visits and travel by both Councillors and officials, are to come under the microscope.

Cannes Nov 2012

The move comes after Labour lost overall control of the Council.

In the main the initiative is aimed at the payment of travel expenses incurred directly by the York Council but it has been suggested that this will be extended to cover other organisations that the Council has representation on and, in particular, those that receive significant Council grant funding.

Any new process will not put an outright ban on travel.

Rather a case for foreign travel will have to be considered by a public session of the all party Urgency committee (which meets each week). The expectation is that the aims of any travel will have to be identified and, later, that a note will be published indicating what was achieved by the trip.

The move is part of a raft of changes being proposed by opposition Councillors which could transform the way that the York Council does its business.

They aim is to make the Council more open and more sensitive to local residents views.

A key feature would be an end to “behind closed doors” decision making meetings.

The costs of foreign – and indeed UK – travel, have been a cause of criticism ever since Labour took control of the Council in 2011.

Previous stories – Click link to access

Cabinet approves £25,000 jaunt to Cannes

Labour Councillor’s Strasbourg trips

Shamed Labour Councillors publish expenses claims

York MPs travel expenses

York Councillors travel expenses exposeds

Foreign travel fails to broaden Social Services report

Labour Cabinet runs up £4000 travel bill.

More about foreign trips

York Council spent £5747 on trip to Cannes

Day out in Scotland

Day out in London

Lendal Bridge Inquiry to be revived

£162,000 refunded so far to motorists who were illegally fined.

It looks like the Labour Councillors who were responsible for the £1.3 million Lendal Bridge closure fiasco will not get away scot free.Lendal bridge notice

In August, when Labour still had a Council majority, they voted not to undertake a review of what went wrong with the trial closure.

Now a report, suggesting that a full and open inquiry into the failure should take place, is to be considered on 12th November.

  • Residents will be eager to learn how a scheme, that was obviously failing only one month into the trial, was  allowed to continue for another 6 months.
  • They will be expecting the legal advice received by the Council at each stage to be made public.
  • They will want to know what secret meetings took place and how they influenced the Councils position.
  • They will look very carefully at the public statements made by officials and Council members in March and April 2014 – after the enforcement arrangements had been found to be unlawful – and which gave the impression that the cameras were still being used for enforcement purposes.
  • The committee will also no doubt wish to look in detail at the costs that were incurred, not least those that accumulated during an ill considered attempt to appeal against the decision of the Traffic Penalty Tribunal Adjudicator

Most of all they will be looking to the Council to remove its arbitrary December deadline for refund applications – from those fined unlawfully – and to finally agree to write directly to all those affected telling them of their right to claim a refund.

So far 7,783 refund claims have been processed.

To date a total of £162k has been refunded as part of the refund process.

However, we understand that some claims have been refused and information about how many – and why – is urgently being sought by LibDem Councillors.

Income from the Lendal Bridge trial totalled £1,378,000. There was administrative expenditure totalling £527k which primarily covered the cost of processing penalty charge notices. As part of the year end accounts the Council made provision of £708,000 to cover the refund penalty charge notices.

 Separately the report confirms that the Adjudicator has still not dealt with an appeal against his decision on Coppergate. No camera enforcement of the Coppergate restrictions is currently taking place.

Cllr Andrew Waller – the new chair of theEconomic & City Development Scrutiny Committee  which will consider the report next week –  commented:

(more…)

Loss on Huntington Stadium concert confirmed as £187,000

Event only took £12,000 in ticket sales

The York Council has finally revealed that it lost an astonishing £187,000 on the concert that it staged at the Huntington Stadium on 4th July.

It spent £82,000 on artists fees and £94,000 on “infrastructure costs”

An “event management fee” of £18,000 was also spent

The Council went to extraordinary lengths to try to hide the scale of the failure with several Freedom of Information requests knocked back on largely spurious grounds and others still outstanding

With Labour now having lost their majority, officials have been ordered to reveal the full figures.

The mistakes will lead to renewed calls for the Cllr Crisp – who is responsible for Leisure activities – to resign.

She had been awarded a “medal” for her work on the event.

The costs given to leading Councillors were:

"Grand Departy" costs click to enlarge

“Grand Departy” costs click to enlarge

NB. The Labour Cabinet on 1st October 2013 set a budget for the Tour de France of £1,664k, to cover the cost of the event, funded from a variety of sources.

The outturn shows that the final cost of the event totalled £1,827k. In addition there was an up front payment of a “hosting fee”.

Links (click)

Cllr Keith Aspden, Lib Dem Group Leader commented:

 “There are serious questions to be asked as to how the council lost money on the Tour De France. The botched camping plans and the last-minute decision to hold a concert at Huntington Stadium have lost taxpayers £33,000 and £187,000 respectively.

“The Liberal Democrats argued all along that Labour needed to produce a proper public business case backed-up with detailed financial plans for these events. Instead Labour shrouded the plans in secrecy and took decisions behind-closed-doors without proper public involvement or opposition councillor scrutiny.

 “Given this, it is unsurprising that these council organised events have lost money and will now worryingly hit the communities and neighbourhoods budget by £60,000. 

 “Despite the mistakes made by the Labour run council, I am pleased that overall the Tour De France has had a positive impact on York businesses and the wider Yorkshire economy.”

What’s in a name?

confused1The York Council courted controversy in 2012 when announcing that it was setting up a £28 million Economic Infrastructure Fund (EIF)

The controversy centred on the Labour leadership’s decision to add around £20 million to the Council debts by borrowing much of the fund (the rest was to come from the governments “new homes bonus” deal).

Now a report has been published on the Councils “equalities” plan which shows a somewhat cavalier approach to history and consistency.

We are now assured as aprt of a report on “equalities” that the £28 million has been invested in an “Economic Inclusion Fund (EIF)” !!

The fund is actually being used to pay for projects such as:

  • Refurbishment of Kings Square
  • Acquisition of an “Arts Barge”
  • Tour de France start
  • Newgate market refurbishment
  • New City centre bus stops
  • Holgate Road bridge into the York central site (“bridge to nowhere”)
  • Paving a small section of Fossgate
  • Paving the entrance to Hungate

 

Very little of this expenditure has contributed to a reduction in “inequalities” in the City.

When the Council comes to discuss the plan, no doubt someone will point out that the Equalities plan is already over 12 months behind scheduled.

Inventing links to existing – borderline reckless – capital expenditure decisions is disingenuous in the extreme.

More about those foreign trips

It seems likely that one of the consequences of Labour losing their grip on the Council – and its PR staff – will be more openness about what is happening.

Secrecy has shrouded the costs – and objectives – of foreign trips made by both Councillors and Officials since 2011.

Nationally the consequences of events such as MIPIM are increasingly under the microscope.

2 more Councillors quit Labour in York

Broken rose

Two more Labour Councillors (David Scott and Ken King) have sensationally quit the Labour Group at tonight’s Council meeting.

It means that, as we approach the Westfield by election poll next week, the number of Labour Councillors has fallen to just 21.

The opposition parties at the Guildhall can now muster 25 seats, with the prospect of adding a LibDem gain in Westfield to the total.

Either way though Labour have lost their majority.

The 2 former Labour Councillors are understood to have highlighted the authoritarian Leadership of James Alexander and his ruling cabal as the reason for their decision

The change should open up the way for all party participation across all committees and even  the decision making “Cabinet”.

It will make it difficult to spin news releases to the advantage of the Council Leadership and the culture of secrecy at the Guildhall and West Offices should be swept away.

The next couple of weeks will be a major test for all the Group Leaders at the Guildhall.

The City does need a robust process as it approaches important decisions on at least two key issues;

  • How to further refine the Local Plan &

  • What budget to set for next year.

It is difficult to see how the present Labour Leadership can survive the events of the last few hours.

The Councillors who quit have apparently also vowed to lift the lid on some of Labour’s behind closed doors tactics.

 

Childrens Trust hold successful event at Foxwood Community centre

Click for details

Click for details

The Childrens Trust held a successful fund raising event today at the Foxwood Community Centre.

It is a great shame that the Council decided to withdraw their financial support from the community centre earlier in the year

Hopefully whoever is elected to represent the area on the Council at the by election on 16th October, will make one of their first priorities getting the grant – which paid for a part time caretaker- restored.