Our thanks to Graham for this. He writes:

“As a taxpayer I have growing concerns about how council tax money is being used, particularly in large local authorities, and how little scrutiny there seems to be around senior public-sector pay and accountability.

Birmingham City Council is a case that continues to trouble me. This is the same council that declared itself bankrupt following very large equal-pay settlements, funded by the taxpayer. 

Press reports have stated that a highly paid executive director (with a salary reported at up to £233,915) was “away from work for a period of time,” while the role itself continued to be carried out by another individual. 

The council declined to comment further, citing personal circumstances. While personal privacy matters, this raises reasonable questions about governance, value for money, and whether taxpayers are receiving appropriate accountability for senior salaries funded by compulsory taxation.

What frustrates me most is that these issues rarely seem to result in consequences for those at the top, while ordinary residents face ever-rising council tax bills and reduced services. There appears to be an entrenched culture in local government where financial mismanagement is absorbed by the taxpayer rather than corrected at source.

I believe these examples reflect a broader issue: a lack of accountability in public bodies, where ideology, bureaucracy, and weak oversight combine to produce outcomes that are unfair to the people footing the bill.”

—————————-

If you’d like email notifications of our new blog pieces, please enter your email address in the box near the top of the right-hand column and click ‘Subscribe’.

We shall shortly be posting this piece on our X channel.

Our YouTube channel is here.