Councillor Stephen Greenhalgh explains how
Hammersmith & Fulham have cut Council Tax
by 3% two years running...
Trying to be an effective council leader of an inner London borough has been the greatest challenge that I have faced. I believe that you need the orderly, rational mind of a manager, the creative soul of a leader and the canny art of a politician.
We have been able to cut council tax by 3% two years running and deliver better services. Cutting council tax and improving council services requires the mind of a manager first and foremost. In our first budget Hammersmith & Fulham residents saw their council tax bills go down for the first time in a decade. Now we have announced a repeat of our first budget by combining lower council tax with more cash for things that matter to residents. The council is pumping in £1.5million as part of a £4million over two years to pay for round the clock beat policing in our town centres as well as spending more on schools and adult social care. This has required a combination of political determination and teamwork between councillors and council officers.
H&F council has managed to produce substantial savings by competitively tendering council services, cutting waste and bureaucracy and by introducing new ways of smarter working.
We are committed to competition and market testing council services. Over the next three years £90 million of in-house council services are to be tendered which is half our total net budget. This should yield at least £5 million of efficiency savings without impacting frontline services. For example, grounds maintenance for parks and open spaces has been awarded to Quadron, saving up to £200,000 while improving the quality of the service. The result will bring about improvements to grass cutting, tree maintenance, weeding and the planting of shrubs and bulbs. Likewise, street cleansing and refuse collection services have been tendered and a contract awarded to Serco, again improving the quality of service through measures like same day recycling and general refuse collection, with a saving to the taxpayer of £900,000.
We have waged a war on waste. Our very first move as a new administration was to cut 10 personal advisers to Cabinet members - at an immediate saving of over £300,000 pa. There had been more advisers than there were Cabinet Members! Meanwhile, more than £4m has been saved in agency costs in the first two years, reducing the budget from £24m to £19.6m. Whilst the Taxpayers’ Alliance lambasted local government for spiralling expenditure on communication, they highlighted H&F as an example for other local authorities to follow because we have cut expenditure on communications. Cuts in spending include a £300,000 saving on the Council’s newspaper, partly from increased income on commercial advertising, and £300,000 saving by contracting out print services. We are now spending less on communication than we did ten years ago.
Smarter working has also paved the way for a reduction in office space, saving taxpayers £468,000. Savings have also been made in backroom operations – for example by allowing people to renew parking permits online. Overall the council’s award winning Customer Access Strategy has delivered £4m in savings while substantially improving our service to customers.
How has this been achieved? Preparation, planning and execution which all require the mind of a manager.
Preparation for this budget started before we were elected and so we were able to announce that we were tendering our refuse collection, street cleansing and grounds maintenance services the day after the election.
Planning started in earnest in June at an away day between Senior Officers and the Cabinet. We continued with a series of budget meetings throughout July and August in which every area of expenditure was challenged.
Execution was the hardest part. Despite a series of local media headlines that railed against "Tory cuts", we have stuck to our guns. By setting up a vacancy management panel we have slowed recruitment and used natural wastage to make £4 million savings in our first year of administration. We introduced far stricter financial controls and challenged the dominance of the Trade Unions by modernising many of our HR practices that were undermining the ability of managers to manage. A consistent 'value for money' message has been communicated to all levels of council staff in a series of road shows with the council leader and chief executive.
Here is a last word of advice. It is important to have the mind of a manager but not to become a manager. That is the job of your chief executive and chief officers. This is hard but you must trust your officers because without the support of your officers you will achieve nothing.
Councillor Stephen Greenhalgh is Leader of The London Borough
of Hammersmith & Fulham and head of the Conservative Councils
Innovation Unit