Council Tax Efficiency Information

From April 2009 the Government introduced a requirement for all councils to publish details of their value for money/efficiency gains on their council tax bills and in the accompanying leaflet. There is a prescribed format for presenting this information, which is provided by the Secretary of State for Communites and Local Government. All public authorities have to achieve efficiency targets. For Waverley council tax bills Surrey County Council and the Surrey Fire and Rescue Service targets also have to be published. From April 2010 Surrey Police Authority targets also have to be published.

Background

Waverley has a long record of prudent financial management and has a well- established medium-term Financial Strategy, which incorporates the impact of the key factors on the Council's finances. 

In recent years Waverley has had to achieve a difficult balance each year between agreeing a prudent and sustainable budget and setting a council tax level that is considered not to be excessive. To achieve this balance, Waverley has had to make significant reductions each year in its budgets. These reductions have been a combination of cost cuts, efficiency savings and additional income.

Under the previous efficiency regime, covering the period 2005-06 to 2007-08 inclusive, the Government required local authorities to deliver efficiency improvements of 2.5% per annum. Waverley's target was £1.6million over this period Waverley significantly exceeded this.  

The Government's New Value For Money Regime

The new regime sees efficiency being called 'Value for Money' and it covers the 3-year period 2008-09 to 2010-11. All Councils performance is now measured using a National Value For Money indicator (known as NI179) that must be reported to the Government twice each year, once in October to report the forecast for the coming year and once in July to report the actual gains achieved in the previous year. The headline savings target is 3% each year.

Waverley's Published Target 

The savings are cumulative and Waverley will need to have achieved and reported £2.2million of value for money gains by the end of the 3-year period.  

Whilst there are no penalties imposed by the Government for not achieving the efficiency target, the Government expects local authorities to achieve this level and the Audit Commission, who monitor Waverley's actions will raise any concerns it has with the Council in its Annual Audit Letter and its annual Use of Resources assessment.

What is Efficiency and Value For Money? 

Efficiency is not about making cuts, but about raising productivity and enhancing value for money. Efficiency gains enable a release of resources for reallocation elsewhere e.g.. from administrative functions to frontline services, such as street cleaning or they help to keep Council Tax levels down. Where we gain in efficiency, we must be able to demonstrate that there is no loss in quality of service. The following gives some examples:

Things that count as efficiency Gains :-

• Reduced inputs for the same or improved outputs
• Reduced unit costs to meet increased demand for service
• Increased demand for service and better income collection
• Reallocation of inputs from a lower priority to a high priority area so that overall service effectiveness for a particular client group improves
• Withstanding the impact of inflation

Things that don't count :-

• Any action that leads to a reduction in overall effectiveness of a service
• Imposition of new or increase charges to the public or businesses
• Transfer of costs and subsidies to other public sector organisations

The major efficiency savings that Waverley made to achieve the £930,000 were: - 

• Reductions in staff expenditure £640,000(Senior manager posts homelessness, Environmental Health)
• Reduction in contract costs £70,000 (Street Cleaning)
• Reduction in the cost of materials £100,000 (Postage reduction by using clean mail which saves 10% on normal postage costs)

Page owner: Maria Clinch-Bird. Last updated: 05/04/2011 16:59