It has been budget day for Hull City Council and it hasn't gone too good. We will have a 1.9% Council Tax increase and 450 jobs will be axed.
it was a couple of years ago i remember the same tale of woe being spewed across the local newspaper and my advice is still the same, when it comes to axing jobs you've got to keep your oranges and let your lemons go, in short, the people that aren't pulling their weight.
Opposition groups in the Council did appeal for a freeze on Council Tax, it wasn't to be and Hull City Council don't seem to have a strong point for finance, however other Council's in the region seem to be able to freeze their council tax, but why?
You have to look at the raw economics, compared to say the East Riding, there is comparative more wealth there than in Hull, demographically one ward in Hull is considered to house it's richest residents, where the East Riding has more wards where it's wealthiest reside.
Having more wealthy people does increase your chances of being able to recoup taxes, but there are social issues that need to be addressed. Hull City Council also needs to to actually recoup taxes and rent arrears from it's housing stock, there is one thing to be compassionate and Hull does have that, but there is also taking the piss.
The Council is there to govern the city, not to be people's friends and this is where the line is blurred between compassion and just turning a blind eye. Councillors in Hull need to be more confident in their abilities, i've met a few of them and compared to my own skills which i'm confident about, some of them don't seem to be as confident.
With the fact that Hull does actually receive more money than some of the neighbouring authorities in the region, the city should be able to manage quite well. This might be causing some of the problems in the Council, Councillors that just aren't confident to make the big decision and would rather take the easy option.
It makes a compelling case for cities to be stress tested, can they hold up to a series of tests and if they can't and are clearly having trouble balancing the books, then there should be support to get the books back on track. The ECB (European Central Bank) has been issuing stress tests to banks in case of financial crisis.
Stress testing Hull might just come up with some pleasant results and it might just be a case of adjusting some of the services. Not all the time do stress tests result in job losses, just a bit of tweaking.
