Council tax bill arrived the other day close to £3k, I live in a small house and local services are crap, it feels like a total rip off for what you get in return.
Councils got absolutely rinsed during austerity.
The first things to go were the in-house and back room functions. So stuff like highways repairs, care services etc all got cut and handed to outside contractors. They all then put their prices up and up so the council is now paying more (usually for a "bare minimum" service) for all of that than it ever did before.
Stuff like Legal, Procurement, Finance, HR all got cut to the bone so now everyone left is overworked, underpaid and burnt out.
There's nothing left to give, the only option now is "discretionary" charges. Green bin collection, bulky waste collection... People don't want to pay that so they dump it and then the council (or, contractors) have to go out and clear it up. Which costs more again.
It's a catch 22 of spiralling costs, worse service and the customer in the middle trying to dodge those costs.
My local Co-op just closed because they were getting so much stuff shoplifted.
But but, before we all feel sorry for local Councils, aren't they the most inefficient, cloth eared organisations since British Rail? Bit like the NHS. It doesn't matter how much money is thrown at them, they'll consume it and still be crap.
My local played a blinder recently and put themselves on a 4 day week cos they're so efficient they don't need 5. I can't be bothered to check if they're also reducing salaries & pens by 20% as I think I know the answer and can't bear the disappointment...
With both the NHS and councils the main problem is the same thing... an aging population and our blindness to the fact we need to be paying more to care and treat them. That and... back to the main topic of this thread... not only do they have to face and deal with the inflation faced by you and me, but inflation in health and care has been running at an even higher rate... everything they have to buy has gone up even more than everything you and I have to buy.
But but, before we all feel sorry for local Councils, aren't they the most inefficient, cloth eared organisations since British Rail? Bit like the NHS. It doesn't matter how much money is thrown at them, they'll consume it and still be crap.
Not really. Or not to the extent that the RW press would have us believe.
Some of it is inefficiency of course, you can never have a 100% efficient organisation, public or private. Some of it is "redundancies".
How much PPE or medication gets chucked out in the NHS when it's out of date? I have no idea by the way but the point is that you have all that stuff ready to go, not waiting around for a pandemic before discovering you don't have any and need to throw billions at scammers and grifters to get some.
Same in a council, you need that capability ready to go, not scraping around for resources last minute.
It's not wastage or inefficiency, it's resourcefulness. Although yes, it can easily be framed as wasteful if you want to claim you'll "cut costs" or "remove red tape".
Mebbies. However, I recall Blairski doubling funding to the NHS during his reign when productivity actually went down. It seems there was an explosion in middle management/PowerPoint operators/paper clip counters but effective delivery of MORE care? Not really. That coupled with the dodgy PFI funding for capital projects that have since massively increased costs and left organisations shorter in available funds to spend on plasters and Panadol than before the increase.
I don't buy that inefficiency is the sole cause of stockpiling/preparedness. Yes there's a cost associated with this and it should really be under 'insurance' in the P&L. I think this is (more often than not) used as a convenient excuse - see Covid. As the report is just out it seems timely to raise that the NHS didn't in fact do a great job. They survived by the skin of their teeth by not doing BAU stuff and largely concentrating on Covid thereby causing massive excess death in everything else. That's not being prepared, that's being reactive (badly).
Somewhat off topic though...😬
productivity actually went down
Depends how you measure productivity. Health results were up. Waiting times down. Patient satisfaction up.
A stretched service, where staff are burning the candle both ends and looking to go to Australia, where there is no contingency for a bad flu season, where people are waiting in corridors to be seen... could easily be declared to have "high productivity".
Somewhat off topic though..
Back on topic... health and care is facing high inflation. That makes things tighter for councils and the NHS. Even more so than for us. Some of that extra cost is being passed on to us in council tax rises (and fiscal drag when it comes to other taxes), which then makes things tighter for us.
There is no such thing as a cheap break away now.
Train booked in advance, walk into the hills, camp
but effective delivery of MORE care? Not really.
My bit of the NHS the improvements were noticeable and significant
My local played a blinder recently and put themselves on a 4 day week cos they're so efficient they don't need 5. I can't be bothered to check if they're also reducing salaries & pens by 20% as I think I know the answer and can't bear the disappointment...
I'm sure all the locals are up in arms about this - but many studies have found that people are more efficient on a 4 day week for the same pay...
It seems there was an explosion in middle management/PowerPoint operators/paper clip counters but effective delivery of MORE care? Not really. That coupled with the dodgy PFI funding for capital projects that have since massively increased costs and left organisations shorter in available funds to spend on plasters and Panadol than before the increase.
Having worked inside and outside the NHS for a couple of decades now there's probably nowhere else on the planet an organisation of equivalent size that manages on so few 'middle' managers. Certainly it's my experience that lots of managerial functions within depts are either senior nurses or doctors/consultants pushed into the role because they're either the most senior or the longest time-served, who frankly don't have the time, experience or know-how how to be managers and it's partly why the NHS is generally poor at managing its staff.
PFI funding at the beginning saw some pretty ropey contracts handed out when managers (see above) within the NHS didn't have a scooby about how to draw them. Towards the end they were some of the tightest. The overall spend on existing PFI contracts is currently about 2% of the overall NHS budget, so they don't generally leave Trusts or other NHS services short of funds - not least of which is that they are completely different budgets anyway. If you feel that you could manage a good portion of the NHS estates for less cash, I'm pretty sure Wes would love to hear from you.
Wot Nickc said - Its a very efficient service with too few and too poorly trained managers. Its a lovely trope to bash the NHS with the nonsense about too many middle managers and yes there are some stupid posts created that are wasteful but overall one of the key things to improve it would be to employ and train better managers.
enigmas
Having serious discussions with my partner over whether we want to have a kid, and how the heck we'd actually afford it.
You'll absolutely never afford kid/s but you will make it work if you accept it's a terrible idea from a financial perspective but there are so many other prospectives where it could come to define you and your partner's lives in a positive way.
I really, really didn't want children but 'nature finds a way' and now he's 28 and I can't imagine life without him or the 2 grandchildren.
Admittedly my 2 year old grandson, aka Patient Zero has tried to kill me again with whatever form of botulinum he currently has, that necessitated a pretty urgent dose of antibiotics for me.
I'm still here though Luca, I'm still here, you baby faced assassin.
If you feel that you could manage a good portion of the NHS estates for less cash, I'm pretty sure Wes would love to hear from you.
Predictably I'm too busy complaining and riding to actually DO anything productive...🙃
Our local PFI hospital had an entire floor shut (as in never opened) as it was budget constrained due to its provision via PFI. I know these are all little anecdotes or maybe even edge cases but there does seem to be a lot of them...
I've worked with the NHS a number of times (IT Consultancy) and they are joint first as the most impossible organisation to make any progress with. Mainly due to 'management' being in constant conflict with 'medics'. We couldn't even get two Trusts to agree on something(s) very, very basic when they were geographically right next door to each other. <sigh>
Not really. Or not to the extent that the RW press would have us believe.
Some of it is inefficiency of course, you can never have a 100% efficient organisation, public or private.
I have worked my whole career in private companies. Only one of them would I consider to be "well run" - it had a remarkably small number of middle and senior managers. The place I am at now seems to be *entirely* middle managers - I'm not sure I've bumped into anyone that actually designs or makes the widgets we sell.
My point is either a) all this stuff about the public sector being crap compared to the efficient private sector is rubbish or b) only badly run places are stupid enough to give me a job.
I'm not sure anyone has said one is good 100%, the other bad 100%.
Sadly public orgs are directly subject to the vagaries of the current Govt, its priorities and whatever it wants to appear to be all over this week. To some extent, you don't get this in private co's but obviously they are indirectly affected by today's Govt's whim and whimsy. They're also obviously affected by senior management's obsession with 'the city' and shareholders which often has a negative impact on the smooth sailing of the ship.
Often (not always) you do get the sort of employee who is happy to be institutionalised in public sector orgs. Often these are not of the human dynamo type and usually a RPIA to interface with as a 'service user' - gah!
Not trying to insult anyone here it's just my experience that public sector and specifically local govt workers would often find it difficult in the private sector.
Depends where in the private sector doesnt it. Most employees in private sector companies struggle if they end up somewhere very aggressive
Oh, and the UK has horrible productivity as there hasnt been enough reinvestment, so the economy is effectively running down. The austerity period post 2008 did a lot of damage. The fix is not very easy though as you need a lot of government intervention , but it has to happen as too much of the UK doesnt have the economic strength to support its desired standard of living.
Even Liz Truss recognised but her cure was the exact opposite of what works
If you want to reduce your food cost use farm foods if you have one nearby sell lots of branded stuff so many bargains to be had, butter for example last night 10 blocks of Graham's found everywhere in Scotland for £10 no security tags to be seen Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons must be ripping us off, I avoid Lidl now unless Im tempted for a croissant or two and Aldi I'd give them a swerve
a strange dichotomy. You want more care (however that is measured) whilst being better prepared for unpredictable 1 in 100 yrs scenarios. More care sounds like “more nurses” (etc) but it might actually by using the nurses (etc) you have more efficiently by having more appropriate managers dealing with management and clinical staff free to do patient care. Or even to entirely redesign some areas of service delivery - something which clinical staff should obviously be stakeholders in but are probably not good people to lead or deliver.Mebbies. However, I recall Blairski doubling funding to the NHS during his reign when productivity actually went down. It seems there was an explosion in middle management/PowerPoint operators/paper clip counters but effective delivery of MORE care? Not really. That coupled with the dodgy PFI funding for capital projects that have since massively increased costs and left organisations shorter in available funds to spend on plasters and Panadol than before the increase.
I don't buy that inefficiency is the sole cause of stockpiling/preparedness. Yes there's a cost associated with this and it should really be under 'insurance' in the P&L. I think this is (more often than not) used as a convenient excuse - see Covid. As the report is just out it seems timely to raise that the NHS didn't in fact do a great job. They survived by the skin of their teeth by not doing BAU stuff and largely concentrating on Covid thereby causing massive excess death in everything else. That's not being prepared, that's being reactive (badly).
Somewhat off topic though...😬
I’ve not read the Covid report but the headlines of “the NHS nearly collapsed” didn’t immediately sound like they were blaming the nhs (rather than the DHSC: the two are very different although the public may conflate them)
I was looking at the stats ( in the papers!) for the likely cost of a govt. handout to help with heating costs later in the year. ( I think it said £8 billion!)?
I would have thought the money would be better used to invest in energy projects to the benefit of all over the long term and into the future.
I would have thought the money would be better used to invest in energy projects to the benefit of all over the long term and into the future.
I said exactly that last time we had government handouts, when the thing in Ukraine kicked off. If they had spent that money on insulation/double glazing/wind farms/whatever rather than temporarily subsidising fossil fuels where would we be now?
Also, if you spend £8bn on solar farms or whatever how many jobs does that support? How many does an £8bn bung to the energy companies support?
After a recent storm we were cut of power for a while not the energy companies fault. A terrible storm and terrible conditions to carry out repairs as well. You could see them working day and night in freezing wet windy conditions. Working hard.
They did repair after a day or two and did the main priorities first as well.
Our local What's Ap groups were alive wiith how we could claim compensation , not a huge amount of money per household really ,but they were like leaches wanting to claim .
No wonder our bills go up.
What a society we have become.
We couldn't even get two Trusts to agree on something(s) very, very basic when they were geographically right next door to each other. <sigh>
They are often independent in a way that baffles me. Sometimes it feels like if one ICB or Trust does a thing one way, the neighbouring ICB/Trust will do it another way, just 'because' Example: In Warrington there's a pathway for "non-specific suspect cancer" which means that if you suspect but there's none or vague symptoms just want to check, there's a single point for referral within oncology for that. Doesn't exist in Manchester, literally next door...
ather than temporarily subsidising fossil fuels where would we be now?
Some folks would be dealing with CCJ's from energy companies, but with new double glazing fitted?
Can't believe nobody has pulled OP up on the horrible AI-generated writing.
But that aside, it's true workers have been getting shafted for years. Particularly since 2010 and labour have sadly only carried on the attacks, but the real damage is done by right wing rhetoric which convinces people we can't tax the rich or big business, leading many workers to actually vote for this very outcome.
Where it all ends I don't know but surely the squeeze on workers can't go on for much longer. Surely people will wake up and see that they're being taken for a ride soon.
we can't tax the rich or big business
If it was that easy or consequences free it would have been done by now. The really damaging right wing (and left wing) rhetoric was the Brexit nonsense, if we want to seriously tax the rich and big international companies being part of a bigger trading block would have been a major advantage.
Surely people will wake up and see that they're being taken for a ride soon
Nope, as demonstrated in many elections over the last 15 years. A huge percentage of people are just very not bright. The rich own most of the news/ communications channels and can get the herd to vote as they tell them to by lying and blaming some other random group
> delete <
we can't tax the rich or big business
If it was that easy or consequences free it would have been done by now.
If the government were interested in actually solving the problem it would have been done by now. But they're not.
The tories literally exist to serve the interests of the rich so they're never going to do it, and Labour in their current form don't appear to have the balls to do anything but maintain the status quo.
Meanwhile other comparable countries manage to achieve much lower rates of inequality just fine.
Surely people will wake up and see that they're being taken for a ride soon
Had a similar discussion many times about what it would take for people on mass to say **** this bullshit and stop playing ball. Not happened yet!
Anyway we can all sit back and watch celebrities going on holiday (when you can't afford to). Celebrities lecturing us on what's right, wrong and reasonable, while they get chauffeured to and from work all expenses covered. Celebrities doing jobs/businesses paid for by production companies for fake jeopardy entertainment purposes. Showing us how to do shopping properly (coz too thick to do it right). Martin dodge the bullets, 4d chess, purchasing strategy, saving show is actually considered entertainment/a necessity (I know who would have thought it). Millionaires let's play house. The worlds best hotels/houses/holidays/holiday homes/cars with a celebrity host to show you what you could aspire to/could of won. Middle class/celebrity how to tidy your house for working class thickos.
Got the measure I'd say. Good old fashioned condescending with a dash of contempt and I've not even mentioned the everything's fine people who help to keep the wheels greased.
I need to call Sky.
No you need to get with the fast broadband age and get a dodgy firestick/android box. No one I know pays for Sky any more. Mine costs me 40 quid a year for everything. Sky, TNT, Netflix, prime, Disney and everything else.
Water has definitely gone through he roof.
Had my bill recently, April 2026 - March 2027, £775.63! I live on my own, but as I don’t have a water meter, it’s apparently based on the rateable value of the house, set in the 1990’s… 🤷🏼♂️
Fuel now at $3 / Litre for diesel at some places and not far off for petrol. I just stuck $50 in to get me into work but there was no 91 so 95 - quarter of a tank (90l main tank, 45l sub). Chance in hell I'm gonna fill both tanks full!!! (Previously a full main tank for be in the region of $140!). 91 is currently around 2.40 so a dollar more per L than it was a couple of weeks back.
Guinness is $16 a pint (or 6 cans for $29)
The butcher's bacon I usually buy (smoked, nitrate free) used to be around $12 a pack. Now $30.
Lindt Chocolate Easter bunny's..... On sale. $20 each.
Think I'll be cycling in to work for the next few weeks.... And some!
Bit of a panic as the farmers have little fuel and rapidly declining fertilisers and need to start planting or next year we're going to be ordering in fruit and veg from across the world.
we're going to be ordering in fruit and veg from across the world.
And if there's a massive shortage of fuel how's it going to get to you?
Had to fill the car up yesterday. Diesel was until recently around £1.40 / litre here. Went to one place and it was £1.70 !
Ended up going to Tesco where I paid only £1.62 😰
Drove past the same petrol station later in the day and they'd upped it to £1.67 😭
Its also worth mentioning you cannot have a good secondhand car market when spare parts are so expensive or parts cannot be repaired. Which where the evolution idea goes wrong, the throw away society.
I run 2x Porsches, an old Peugeot and a Volvo. The key to cheap reliable sustainable long term motoring is to fix and maintain them yourself. Your father's did.
Learn who OEM is for your car (ATE - Volvo brakes, TRW - Porsche control arms, Valeo - Peugeot clutches etc etc).
Buy parts from Autodoc.
Some cars are just plain crap so do your research.
And if there's a massive shortage of fuel how's it going to get to you?
Ordering it, isn't the same as it being delivered. 😉
Anyway in 12 months time I'm sure this will have all blown over and although we haven't grown anything in the forthcoming 12 months.... We will be able to order bland tasteless out of season veg from some other countries poly-tunnels. Yay.
Had to fill the car up yesterday. Diesel was until recently around £1.40 / litre here. Went to one place and it was £1.70 !
Ended up going to Tesco where I paid only £1.62
Drove past the same petrol station later in the day and they'd upped it to £1.67
I'm working on a road race this weekend, had to fill up the race convoy vehicle I'm driving. OK, I'll get a refund from the race organiser in a couple of weeks but the upfront costs for volunteers in terms of travelling to the race, evening meal, fuelling the car etc are becoming insane.
I'm out of pocket nearly £250 across 3 races (one I'm on now plus two forthcoming races that I've booked train travel to and from).
Diesel was £1.72/l.
It is quite hard to 'cut back' when you've never had to do it. However This is where we are headed. Spend wisely, reduce, reuse and recycle is coming back into fashion. Grow your own, walk, cycle, take a bus (here in the Greater Manchester area it's £2 per journey).
I should write a book on how to make ends meet/How to still have a decent life with very little money. It's not easy giving up small luxuries, but it's amazing at freeing it can be.
Most of the wealthy people I know aren't particularly happy.
Most of the wealthy people I know aren't particularly happy.
True. This doesn't mean entering into food and heating poverty is the route to happiness.
I need to call Sky. Bill is pushing £120 p/m
Bloody hell!
Called Friday, lost my rag with the fella in India reading from a script so asked for them to cancel my subscription. Got passed to a very pleasant welsh chap and for the sake of 30 minutes on the phone, got the bill reduced to £80p/m. Shouldn't have to jump through those hoops every single time though - its almost an annual thing to call them and complain followed by the little dance about leaving them followed by an amazing cost save coming out of nowhere which they've "managed to do for me".
So yep, anyone with Sky, phone, threaten to leave, get a better deal. £440 p/a saving.
Shouldn't have to jump through those hoops every single time though - its almost an annual thing to call them and complain followed by the little dance about leaving them followed by an amazing cost save coming out of nowhere which they've "managed to do for me".
See also, car insurance.
My Mum had something similar with TalkTalk and after a load of round the houses with bills, technical info etc, she eventually got out through to someone who clocked her age and identified her as vulnerable or worthy of special care or something and from then it just clicked.
Bill reductions, free engineer visits if there's ever a fault. Now it all just works and she's gone from frustration at having to deal with them to praising how good they are!
