With the lowest council tax and highest CPA score in the country, Wandsworth LBC must be doing something right. Paul Marinko asked chief executive Gerald Jones and leader Edward Lister about the secret of their success There will be few councils shedding a tear as CPA disappears into the sunset and even fewer needing consoling should council tax ever face the axe. But there is one local authority which holds both these phenomena close to its heart. Wandsworth LBC has consistently managed to top the league tables for both its performance and its low level of council tax. While there will be mutterings from some that the borough has been a winner in the funding formula for years, there is no getting past the fact its position is not unique and its performance certainly is. The Tory-led London borough has consistently achieved the lowest council tax in the country and this year was judged the top performing authority in the CPA ratings, thanks to the Audit Commission concluding it was the only four star authority which was ‘improving strongly’ worthy of top marks for its use of resources. So what’s its secret? ‘I think it’s a bit to do with the ethos of the council,’ says its leader Edward Lister. ‘It’s driven the way we perform. It’s about the little things, if we get a new duty from the Government we say we have to absorb it.’ ‘We trawl through the budget every year and the assumption is it must be lower each year.’ But borough chief executive Gerald Jones admits some of the council’s success is down to luck. ‘We’ve had a lot of stability with chief officers and the administration has been unchanged since the 70s,’ he says. A landmark on the road to success was Wandsworth’s decision to lead the way on compulsory competitive tendering (CCT). The fact the council trail-blazed contracting out services has built up a confidence which has allowed it to make other savings. ‘We always avoid consultants,’ says the chief executive. ‘We always believe you’ve got to do it yourself,’ says Cllr Lister. ‘Wandsworth is not a fan of PFI (private finance initiative), we are always tight on borrowing and that is part of the key to lower council tax.’ Despite the large Conservative majority on the council – there are 51 Tory councillors to nine Labour members – many of the initiatives have been tough to implement. ‘CCT was emotive, but that’s how it is with new ways of doing things,’ says the leader. While the duo are careful to control how much they take on and are wary of extending their role too much, the relationship between officers and members has also been important. ‘We have a strong link between lead members and directors of services,’ says Cllr Lister. ‘It means the members have more understanding of the service.’ But there is something of a puritanical ethos among officers and councillors. ‘It requires discipline and adherence to the model,’ says Mr Jones. ‘It’s a simple commercial model and it’s about monitoring outcomes rather than inputs.’ And although the council has been quick to contract out those services it thinks are fit for the purpose, there is still a strong centralist agenda at the town hall. ‘Essentially all the services are centralised,’ says Cllr Lister. ‘It’s all in the town hall, which saves a lot of money and is much more efficient.’ So what of the future? ‘There’s far too much whingeing in local government,’ says the leader. ‘In some ways I feel sorry for government. ‘Local government is constantly being squeezed but that’s life.’ The pair agree that the biggest problem facing councils these days comes from Whitehall shunting over responsibilities from areas such as the health service to councils without matching it with funds. ‘They just give us responsibility for a bit and we have no control over making the whole thing work,’ says the leader. ‘Why not give it all to us and let us deal with it?’ Some councils are very good at bleating on about how good they are. Why hasn’t Wandsworth trumpeted its successes more? ‘People want a magic ingredient,’ says Mr Jones. ‘But there isn’t one. ‘We are giving them a long hard road.’ Well, at least it seems to work. n
