Tag: business rates

What are 10 invoices paid by Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority totalling £4,758,470.23 for?

What are 10 invoices paid by Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority totalling £4,758,470.23 for?

What are 10 invoices paid by Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority totalling £4,758,470.23 for?

                                

Below are ten A4 images of invoices I requested during the 2015-16 audit of Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority (that goes by the name of Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority).

They are in order from Mersey Waste Holdings Ltd, Veolia ES Merseyside & Halton Limited, FCC Recycling (UK) Limited, Wirral Council, JLT Speciality Limited and Liverpool City Council.

Some are for payments made to do with contracts, the one with Wirral Council is to do with a loan (MRDF stands for Merseyside Residual Debt Fund which MWDA’s share of the former Merseyside County Council’s debts), insurance and business rates to Liverpool City Council for the Gilmoss Waste Transfer Station in Stonebridge Lane.

Amounts for these invoices are for £2,136,797.83, £1,253,141.93, £650,990.21, £472,906.96, £182,600, £37,741.30 and £24,892 (total £4,758,470.23).

However, a good proportion of that ~£4.8 million is VAT as well as a small amount of insurance premium tax. Interestingly one of the invoices shows they are already processing kitchen waste in February 2015, which is part of a 6 week Wirral Council consultation on introducing kitchen waste collections to the Wirral as well as changes to the green bin collections.

I will point however that the costs of dealing with waste on these invoices is at the county level of Merseyside (possibly with Halton added too). Wirral Council’s share will be a fraction of what the total costs are).

Matters involving the current consultation by Wirral Council on food waste and changes to the green bin collection were recently the subject of a call in public meeting (26th July 2016) when opposition councillors requested that the Cabinet decision be reviewed. You can watch footage from that meeting below which discusses the proposed changes to the green bin collections and proposed new food waste collection.

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Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Wirral Council) 26th July 2016 Call in of Cabinet decision on consultation on green bins and food waste

0 Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority Mersey Waste Holdings Ltd £2136797.83 Landfill Services Contract Page 1 of 1 February 2015
0 Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority Mersey Waste Holdings Ltd £2136797.83 Landfill Services Contract Page 1 of 1 February 2015
1 Veolia ES Merseyside and Halton Limited £1253141 93 Waste Management and Recycling Contract Page 1 of 2 March 2015
1 Veolia ES Merseyside and Halton Limited £1253141 93 Waste Management and Recycling Contract Page 1 of 2 March 2015
2 Veolia ES Merseyside and Halton Limited £1253141.93 Waste Management and Recycling Contract Page 2 of 2 March 2015
2 Veolia ES Merseyside and Halton Limited £1253141.93 Waste Management and Recycling Contract Page 2 of 2 March 2015
3 Veolia ES Merseyside and Halton Limited £6509901.21 Waste Management and Recycling Contract Page 1 of 2 February 2015 min
3 Veolia ES Merseyside and Halton Limited £6509901.21 Waste Management and Recycling Contract Page 1 of 2 February 2015 min
4 Veolia ES Merseyside and Halton Limited £6509901.21 Waste Management and Recycling Contract Page 2 of 2 February 2015
4 Veolia ES Merseyside and Halton Limited £6509901.21 Waste Management and Recycling Contract Page 2 of 2 February 2015
5 FCC Recycling (UK) Limited £472906.96 Interim Waste Services Management Agreement Page 1 of 1 February 2015
5 FCC Recycling (UK) Limited £472906.96 Interim Waste Services Management Agreement Page 1 of 1 February 2015
6 Wirral Council £182600 MRDF 2nd instalment 14 15 Page 1 of 1
6 Wirral Council £182600 MRDF 2nd instalment 14 15 Page 1 of 1
7 JLT Speciality Limited £37741.30 Comined Liability Insurance Page 1 of 1
7 JLT Speciality Limited £37741.30 Comined Liability Insurance Page 1 of 1
8 Liverpool City Council £248965 non domestic rates Gilmoss Waste Transfer Station Page 1 of 2
8 Liverpool City Council £248965 non domestic rates Gilmoss Waste Transfer Station Page 1 of 2
9 Liverpool City Council £248965 non domestic rates Gilmoss Waste Transfer Station Page 2 of 2
9 Liverpool City Council £248965 non domestic rates Gilmoss Waste Transfer Station Page 2 of 2

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Are the cuts to Wirral Council’s budget really as bad as politicians have told us?

Are the cuts to Wirral Council’s budget really as bad as politicians have told us?

Are the cuts to Wirral Council’s budget really as bad as politicians have told us?

                        

The information for these tables I’ve used from a Department for Communities and Local Government policy paper which has an explanatory note on how these figures are calculated. Spending power refers to the overall money available for to local councils combining how much they have from Council Tax, business rates and government grants.

Local Authority 2013-14 Spending Power (adjusted) (£ million) 2014-15 Spending Power including Efficiency Support Grant (£ million) Change £ million Change %
Knowsley 198.784 187.589 -11.194 -5.6%
Liverpool 571.351 540.223 -31.129 -5.4%
Sefton 271.588 260.465 -11.123 -4.1%
St Helens 176.510 168.318 -7.832 -4.4%
Wirral 328.860 315.035 -13.825 -4.2%
Merseyside Fire 67.863 64.048 -2.816 -4.1%

The population covered by each is different though, so here is a table showing the spend by dwelling.

Local Authority 2013-14 Spending Power (adjusted) per Dwelling 2014-15 Spending Power including Efficiency Support Grant per Dwelling (£ per dwelling) Change £ per dwelling Change %
Knowsley 3,058.35 2,886.12 -172.23 -5.6%
Liverpool 2,636.01 2,492.39 -143.62 -5.4%
Sefton 2,164.67 2,076.01 -88.65 -4.1%
St Helens 2,193.15 2,095.64 -97.51 -4.4%
Wirral 2,250.35 2,155.75 -94.60 -4.2%
Merseyside Fire 107.10 102.65 -4.44 -4.1%

But what about the Shire I can imagine a politician saying (seemingly forgetting that the Shire is better known for being a fictional place inhabited by hobbits in a fictional world invented by JRR Tolkien)? There are five types of shire, shire unitaries with and without fire, shire counties with and without fire and shire districts. The change in their spending power collectively of each type of shire varies from a 1.2% drop (for shire counties with fire) to a 2.9% drop (for shire unitaries without fire). So yes, in percentage terms the cuts to shires’ budgets are less than the drop in Wirral’s spending power.

However it’s important to note that the spending power of shires was to start with much lower per a dwelling to begin with than Wirral’s. These range from £296.22 per a dwelling for shire districts compared to Wirral’s £2,250.35 to an average of £2,028.61 per a dwelling for shire unitaries with fire.

But what about North Dorset (which seems to be the favourite council for certain Wirral politicians to compare Wirral to)? Well North Dorset has about a fifth of the dwellings that Wirral does. Its spending power for 2013-14 is £7.729 million (2.4% of Wirral’s). Its cut is 2.8% of its budget. Personally I hardly think it’s a fair comparison (although I very much doubt that’ll stop Labour politicians using it).

If we compare Wirral Council to other Merseyside councils (plus the fire authority), the cuts to Wirral Council aren’t exceptional or extraordinary. If we rank the cuts as a percentage to the five councils on Merseyside (plus the fire authority) the cuts to Wirral Council’s budget only come out at fourth.

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Economy and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee 7th November 2011 Part 2 Paula’s presentation on Invest Wirral, business angels, social enterprise, planning, business rates, schools, DASS (Department of Adult Social Services)

Paula Basnett continued by saying that there were the business forums and businesses were increasingly contacting Wirral Council more and more. Under the new structure, they would go out to see businesses, agree an action plan and bring in support from sector experts (not local authority employees). From referral to action plan, the relationship manager would agree the needs and requirements of the business. The action plan would go to Paula. This support was for two types of businesses, those with five or more employees with a turnover of over £100,000 and micro-businesses with one to five employees and a turnover of £100,000 or less.

The New Brighton conference had brought business angels with money (a bit like Dragon’s Den) looking to invest in businesses that couldn’t get help from banks with their projects. There was a business angels network and a new focus on social enterprises. She said social enterprises were a business and make a profit, the only difference was in the commercial sector that the profit went to owners or shareholders but in as social enterprise it was given to who the social enterprise supports.

Paula also detailed help and advice they give businesses in the areas of development control, business rates, planning permission, schools (entrepreneurship) as well as support to schools. She said there was a SME Project Manager, Micro-business Manager, Business Angel scheme and Social Enterprise Team.

She said they were also working with social enterprises with their business plans specifically to do with working with the Department for Adult Social services.

Cabinet 1st September 2011 Part 4 – Referral from Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee – Local Government Resource Review

The Cabinet then considered a referral from the Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee on the Local Government Resource Review following its meeting of the 12th July 2011. Cllr Phil Davies said it was a committee referral and the minute from that meeting was included. The response was that Cabinet agreed with all actions, proposed comments and supporting the SIGOMA response about authorities with lower levels of income from business rates. His concern about business rates was that it left Wirral in a difficult position. Ian Coleman reported to Cabinet about the localising of business rates. Mr. Coleman said there had been a consultation in July but eight annexes had not arrived. There would be a report to Cabinet on the 22nd September. A consultation response was required by early October. Cllr Phil Davies asked if they were active through SIGOMA. Cllr George Davies said he sits on SIGOMA, the facts had been resolved so that no-one would be adversely affected in the first year. It would be in the second year that Wirral would be the loser. Ian Coleman confirmed this was correct. Cllr George Davies thanked him. Cllr Phil Davies pointed out the meeting with the Minister on Tuesday and that details would come back to the next Cabinet.

Cabinet meeting – 14th April 2011 – Election Special Edition – Part 7 – Budget, Governance Statement, savings & PwC, Local Government Resource Review

Cllr Holbrook said he welcome the announcement regarding the Enterprise Zone and referred to Wirral Waters. The amendment was agreed.

Item 4 – the Annual Governance Statement was agreed.

Item 5 was the Contracts Review. Ian Coleman said that Wirral Council were to engage PricewaterhouseCoopers to look at the fifty largest contracts. The credits would expire in June and it would lead to savings to the authority.

Cllr Green said he shuddered regarding engaging consultants. However in this case it was credits versus cash. Ian Coleman said that if the contract was extended he would have to come back to the Cabinet. Cllr Green said to tidy up, as set out in paragraphs 3.1 to 3.4 he wanted to make sure skills would be transferred. Item 5 was agreed.

The local government resource review was also introduced by Ian Coleman. He explained the outcome of negotiations with the government in this area and the Department of Communities and Local Government. Cllr Green said that Wirral Council needed to nail its position to the mast regarding what was in Wirral’s best interests. He said we need to be absolutely crystal clear where we stand.

Cllr Holbrook said the revised recommendation gets us on the front foot as well as widening the network of groups influenced. Cllr Green agreed.

The recommendation is below:-

“2.1 That Officers and Members, as appropriate, undertake detailed work and proactively make representations to influence Government, with the aim of securing a fair and rebalanced funding formula to tackle Wirral’s underlying problems and provide adequate resources for local services.

2.2 That input be made to collective lobbying through bodies such as SIGOMA, LGA, Liverpool City Region, other Councils and representative bodies, as appropriate, to promote the case for equalisation, seeking to ensure that those local authorities with a low income from business rates and a high level of Government Grant support are not adversely affected by the proposed repatriation of business rates.”