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Council tax

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View SW19 CPFC's Profile SW19 CPFC Flag Addiscombe West 17 Feb 23 8.51pm Send a Private Message to SW19 CPFC Add SW19 CPFC as a friend

Originally posted by Willo

I departed Croydon in the late 90s never to return.

In terms of the Council, I had a dear friend who was a Labour councillor.Over the years we enjoyed many tipples and many bouts of jocularity and hilarity.I reflect with fondness the times we had together.

We never discussed politics and even though he was a councillor in my ward I never once voted for him, given that he was on the opposite side of the house to me ! Some Conservatives who also knew him well and imibed with him for many a year used to cast a vote for him and a vote for the Conservative candidate. I always voted for the 2 Conservative candidates!

Noted.

That does surface an interesting segue into the stupidity of partisan politics – if he was a far better candidate than your own, I assume you'd still have voted for your 'own' worse one, despite it being completely illogical to do so, and to the detriment of the voters themselves.

Shows the benefit of not being wedded to one party and being able to vote objectively. Imagine being forced to vote for one party for your entire life. Madness

 


Did you know? 98.0000001% of people are morons.

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View cryrst's Profile cryrst Flag The garden of England 17 Feb 23 8.52pm Send a Private Message to cryrst Add cryrst as a friend

Some posters dissect everything don’t they !

 

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View SW19 CPFC's Profile SW19 CPFC Flag Addiscombe West 17 Feb 23 8.54pm Send a Private Message to SW19 CPFC Add SW19 CPFC as a friend

Originally posted by cryrst

Some posters dissect everything don’t they !

That is sort of the point of a forum

Edited by SW19 CPFC (17 Feb 2023 8.54pm)

 


Did you know? 98.0000001% of people are morons.

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View SW19 CPFC's Profile SW19 CPFC Flag Addiscombe West 17 Feb 23 9.18pm Send a Private Message to SW19 CPFC Add SW19 CPFC as a friend

Another helpful article from Inside Croydon, Dec 2012, on the funding gap between ourselves and Lambeth, along with detail around the cuts made.

[Link]

Summarising

Despite having 60k more residents, Croydon recieved £95m less funding

'Lambeth, with a population of 289,177, receives a total of £229.72 million in central government formula grant (£206.206 million), the preventing homelessness grant (£2.975 million) and early intervention grant (£20.529 million).

Yet despite having a population of 60,000 more people, 349,241 (according to council official figures), Croydon receives £134.262 million (formula grant: £116.006 million; preventing homelessness grant: £1.125 million; and early intervention grant: £17.131 million).'

Croydon – £332.17 per head, Lambeth £713.08 per head

Funding per pupil – Croydon £5,345.00, Lambeth £7,397.59

To top it all off, the funding formula was reduced leading to a further £36m cut between 13-14, leaving a deficit to lesser populated lambeth of...

£113m per year. And this was 12 years ago.

Allegedly other councils were able to negotiate positive changes to their formulas, Croydon was not.

Labour certainly piled on the pain from 2014 onwards but it's pretty clear that running at a 50% deficit to a council with a much smaller population for 12 years isn't exactly a minor contributing factor.

The population gap has since widened to 70k between us and lambeth, although the funding per head gap is still about the same. Slightly down from a tiny 53% to just 48%. Making progress!

For reference, that's £226 per head vs. £431 per head. Considering cost of living and accounting for inflation since 2012, that is an absolute disgrace for both councils, but far worse (48% worse) for Croydon.

 


Did you know? 98.0000001% of people are morons.

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View SW19 CPFC's Profile SW19 CPFC Flag Addiscombe West 21 Feb 23 7.31pm Send a Private Message to SW19 CPFC Add SW19 CPFC as a friend

Woking council likely to issue a 114, £2bn in debt, planning for £2.4bn by 2026.

[Link]

...Woking was committed to increasing its debt levels to £2.4bn by 2026, with much of the increase linked to its town-centre Victoria Square redevelopment, which includes a new shopping centre and a trio of tall residential and commercial towers.

I'm sure there will be more...

 


Did you know? 98.0000001% of people are morons.

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View Teddy Eagle's Profile Teddy Eagle Flag 21 Feb 23 8.01pm Send a Private Message to Teddy Eagle Add Teddy Eagle as a friend

Originally posted by SW19 CPFC

Woking council likely to issue a 114, £2bn in debt, planning for £2.4bn by 2026.

[Link]

...Woking was committed to increasing its debt levels to £2.4bn by 2026, with much of the increase linked to its town-centre Victoria Square redevelopment, which includes a new shopping centre and a trio of tall residential and commercial towers.

I'm sure there will be more...

Four council owe over a billion.


[Link]

 

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View SW19 CPFC's Profile SW19 CPFC Flag Addiscombe West 21 Feb 23 10.04pm Send a Private Message to SW19 CPFC Add SW19 CPFC as a friend

So the outcome of cutting funding too much appears to be councils forced to get creative in an attempt to make up the deficit rather than fall back on the nuclear option of aggressively raising council tax. Councils are not specialists in identifying or managing investment opportunities, and nor should they be forced to be.

Both Croydon and Woking have subsequently dabbled in the property investment games over the last decade and have come unstuck. I'd be interested to know Wokings funding per head and per pupil figures.

Their projected debt pile makes Croydons appear manageable.

 


Did you know? 98.0000001% of people are morons.

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View Grumbles's Profile Grumbles 22 Feb 23 8.20pm Send a Private Message to Grumbles Add Grumbles as a friend

I do suggest everyone double checks their council tax band. It could cost our brilliant Labour Council millions.

 

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View Grumbles's Profile Grumbles 22 Feb 23 8.23pm Send a Private Message to Grumbles Add Grumbles as a friend

Originally posted by SW19 CPFC

Another helpful article from Inside Croydon, Dec 2012, on the funding gap between ourselves and Lambeth, along with detail around the cuts made.

[Link]

Summarising

Despite having 60k more residents, Croydon recieved £95m less funding

'Lambeth, with a population of 289,177, receives a total of £229.72 million in central government formula grant (£206.206 million), the preventing homelessness grant (£2.975 million) and early intervention grant (£20.529 million).

Yet despite having a population of 60,000 more people, 349,241 (according to council official figures), Croydon receives £134.262 million (formula grant: £116.006 million; preventing homelessness grant: £1.125 million; and early intervention grant: £17.131 million).'

Croydon – £332.17 per head, Lambeth £713.08 per head

Funding per pupil – Croydon £5,345.00, Lambeth £7,397.59

To top it all off, the funding formula was reduced leading to a further £36m cut between 13-14, leaving a deficit to lesser populated lambeth of...

£113m per year. And this was 12 years ago.

Allegedly other councils were able to negotiate positive changes to their formulas, Croydon was not.

Labour certainly piled on the pain from 2014 onwards but it's pretty clear that running at a 50% deficit to a council with a much smaller population for 12 years isn't exactly a minor contributing factor.

The population gap has since widened to 70k between us and lambeth, although the funding per head gap is still about the same. Slightly down from a tiny 53% to just 48%. Making progress!

For reference, that's £226 per head vs. £431 per head. Considering cost of living and accounting for inflation since 2012, that is an absolute disgrace for both councils, but far worse (48% worse) for Croydon.

Good post.

I've started advocating that Croydon is too big to be a single borough and requires splitting. Not what the existing political regime wants but probably for the best.

 

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