The Local Government Association has reacted angrily to the Taxpayers' Alliance's latest claims over council funding. The organisation claims that with ‘simple and modest' savings, councils could cut council tax by 3.5%, shaving £40 off the average Band D bill. The Taxpayers' Alliance has focused specifically on cuts to publicity, middle and senior management, and ‘gold-plated' pensions. A 10% saving on all three would reduce expenditure by £660m, it claims. ‘Local authorities of all parties could make meaningful council tax reductions, if they saved a modest 10% in these non-priority areas,' said chief executive of the Taxpayer's Alliance, Matthew Elliot. But the deputy chief executive of the Local Government Association, John Ransford, pointed out the Treasury recently called councils the most ‘efficient and effective' part of the public sector. ‘Saving 10% on what councils spend would lead to savage cuts in vital local services,' he said. ‘The elderly and vulnerable would receive worse care and leave millions of people without the necessary information to know where to get services that they have paid for through their council tax. ‘Hard-working frontline staff would be condemned to a paltry retirement.'
