Efficiency guru, Sir Peter Gershon, has warned councils will face a crisis if they try to raise council tax in order to pay for the approaching crisis in public sector pay. Speaking at a joint Vertex/The MJ debate at the SOLACE conference in Belfast last week, Sir Peter said taxpayers would not be willing to pay for the increasing shortfall in liability of local government pensions when their own pensions were falling. He also claimed council efficiency would have to get even tougher – and the current government would not allow a ‘slash and burn' approach to services. ‘For all councils, there will have to be even more clarity over which services need to be kept.' He added: ‘Everything a council does needs to be subject to contestability.'
