Well, tbf, you can’t really cut taxes and raise services, but you _can_ cut services and still raise taxes. It’s called ‘corruption’.

I work for a local authority, and the level of incompetence is appalling. Most of the upper management I know just simply do not car enough, and are happy to watch things deteriorat as long as they get paid. There is no internal audit and poor behaviour is not reprimanded whatsoever.

They have plenty of money for war but not for the people of this country

WHY is there no accountability. WHY are these council leaders not before a judge WHERE HAS ALL OUR MONEY GONE!!!🤮

Our county council is spending £8M on low traffic neighbourhoods (20 mph zones, cameras, large wooden plant pots in the middle of the road) despite local consultation turning up a resounding 'no' from residents. Now essential services will be cut for vulnerable adults and children and we're all facing council tax rises. Bravo.

We need to collectively call for full financial transparency. Our governors have consistently swept the idea under the rug but we, as tax-paying citizens, should have the right to see the accounts every year and discuss them. Why won't the govt do this, what are they hiding?

corruption’.corruption’.corruption’.corruption’.

Broken Tory Britain

This country is going down the pan in terms of looking after it's citizen but still thinks it's a significant player on the international stage and is the only stooge to its big brother the US.

You need to tax the super rich. They saw their wealth increased enormously while the rest of the UK is in destitution. Roads collapsing, school collapsing, more and more people go to food banks, NHS crumbling, more and more obese kids who cannot afford real food. this has become a third world country.

14 Years of Nothing, Tories out!

No matter how poor they make us, one day we'll find the money for pitchforks.

I've lived in the same place for 20 years. in that time the council tax has nearly doubled, and the population of the town has more than doubled. there are no more schools, less play areas, , no new dentists, about half as many GPs. local community centres have been turned into flats, local pubs have been turned into flats, local leisure facilities have been turned into flats. none of the new flats have adequate parking areas. Local mental health facilities for adults have been shut down, local mental health facilities for children have been shut down, the local family planning clinic has been shut down. The local library has halved in size, the market place is empty, the only shops on the high street are now charity stores and bookmakers. local community-led businesses (friendly local game store, local wood shop, community cafe) have all gone bust. How is that with twice as many people, paying twice as much council tax, we're getting less than half the services we were?

Why dont MPs take a pay cut to help the country they have taken so much from?

This is a fucking disgrace

Ukraine needs money guys

Didn't Rishi move money from poorer councils to make richer ones better? It seems the real problem is the government giving more funds to some areas instead of addressing the specific issues in each council.

This government has let councils rot😮 People are paying for nothing in return.

Its strange. When i was growing up pieces like this were about either African or eastern countries on the brink of debt, where countries were failing. Welcome to Tory Britain. Since 2010 the Tories have destroyed any prosperity the UK ever had.

Just ask all those billionaires who built their basement pools in London townhouses how they are doing with their tax breaks.

I’d rather stuff their 2% National insurance tax cut. I’d rather have decent services. I don’t want a bribe thank you very much. I think at this point, the Tories are designing a sh-t parcel, to pass to the next government.

Council cut services while they give themselves big pay rises. Around 60% of the council tax we pay goes the pensions for retired council staff and councillors. No longer fit for purpose and 100% not value for money.

Time the ppl of London put there foot down and hold the government to ransom

Being told by 999 to call a taxi as your own ambulance. How fantastic!

Brexit isnt keeping them out. Its keeping us in

Stop the Tories!

In my area councils have been forced to sell buildings, parks, playing fields by central govt (apse). Most departments have become tiny sections in a new combined dept. Council emergency reserves have been spent. This austerity was to pay off national debt, national debt has significantly increased in last decade, so where has the money gone central govt?

Yay we have 6 billion to send to Ukraine for war but nothing for own home

It really is like the Tories want to provoke a revolution.

The reason is 14 years of Tory government. Still, working class people would vote for them. The question is why do these people feel let down by Labour or alternatively why are there so many people who are irredeemably stupid.

What about all the millions they’ve spunked in Birmingham on an IT system overspend? Where’s that gone? As for these “equal pay” settlements…. would any of the people who’ve got those payouts have even asked without bloodsucking lawyers etc. We’re fast becoming a third world country, maybe we can do an appeal to those countries we seem to have endless funds for.

And yet councils still pay extortionate fees for large tier 1 consultants and spend big on technology that delivers very little

Utilities going up 300%, that money isn`t going back to the public purse like it once did.. Bus companies aren`t even owned by english companies anymore..

Council tax will be like mortgage waste of money and drain on my finances.

They should ask energy suppliers for some funding .

To pay for all those brand new homes they have just purchased for migrants casting millions and millions the Birmingham council paid and there in the north east I would stop paying my bill

You know, I am beginning to suspect these Tori policies may not be up to snuff

UK has more money than ever before in history (currently about $3.2 trillion GDP) and yet everyone is skint AF :)

Conservatives are toast at the next election.

Sensible levels of yearly immigration, and heavy investment in manufacturing high quality goods is required, - and that would just be a band-aid. Imagine if most of the £billions we're spending each year on America's proxy war in Ukraine, housing the migrants, and sustaining the seriously overbloated civil service, were instead spent on, I dont know, - building a semi-conducter chip factory, local small scale nuclear power stations, or harnessing tidal power??? But that's never going to happen, because the "regional branch managers" that now seem to be running this country into the ground, are only interested in their short term investment plans. - They want their returns now! The days of looking ahead and building a productive future, are well and truly over, - they want their money now, and that's why we all feel like we're being fleeced, because we are. Sunak recently gave Moderna £12 million of hard earned taxpayer money to build a factory in the UK, to produce the ****** that doesn't work.., why? Because his wife is heavily invested Moderna. btw, His father-in-law has just been given the exploratory licences, by Netanyahu, to start looking for the fossil fuels under Gaza, with his new friends BP, - hang on??? What??? Yep, they're making off like bandits, while we all fight amongst ourselves over problems they've imported, and Marxist nonsense theyve been funding and pushing. They're all Fabians now, they saw how stinking rich Blair got,bwith his dodgy wars, etc, and now they all want their cut. Guy Fawkes anyone???

Too many lazy staff providing mediocre services, along with fat cats at the top earning far too much money.

Does the word mismanagement come to mind ?

The country has been governed atrociously. It's absolutely shocking.

It's called lining ones own pockets

They Have Money For War But Can't Feed The Poor.”

The Tories have been in charge for 14 years, why are people still blaming immigrants? The immigrants aren't the ones in parliament cutting services or raising taxes.

Any council going bankrupt needs those responsible to be removed then remove the tories, let's not forget we got unlimited money for war, this is just unacceptable in Britain!

Yet councillors vote themselves a pay rise year on year. Diversity projects have had endless pots of cash thrown at them as councils dare not decline them incase they face a discrimination law suit against them . Too many "pet" projects and wasted money on mismanagement of services . Too many outsourced jobs going to companies overcharging councils for the services the councils used to provide, and still could if they got rid of this toxic 'subcontracted' culture. If the councils used common sense and kept things ' in house ', had their own workers and departments , then in the long run they could save millions . It is OBVIOUSLY unsustainable to raise council tax by 20% over 2 years . This is NOT serving the public , it is robbing them. Most people are struggling to pay the council tax as it is , living hand to mouth , not being able to put food on the table or heat their homes . Yes, a radical shake up is needed . I think sacking off these outside firms and cutting endless managers would save a lot of cash. Its only a matter of time before more and more people risk going to jail through non-payment or cant-payment .

The corruption in this country is pathetic

Net Zero Services. Net Zero Houses. Net Zero Freedom.

End all food and drink deliveries into the Borough of Westminster. Stop feeding the beast.

Sounds a bit like austerity is just trying to get shifted from national to local level.

simple answer put solar pannels on all buildings that help the community in the uk so community centres sports centres swimming pools hospices librarys police stations fire stations etc it would help by climate change energy security savings on bills for the next 20 years extra jobs as people started to fit the pannels a nhs hospital in swansea is saving 10,000 a week in their fuel costs

They have enough money for wars

The waste in councils all over the land is astronomical. The folk who work there wouldn’t know about productivity if it slapped them in the face . Get them All working harder !!!

Time to change who you vote next time otherwise you’ll get them same tactics

Local councils need to lose the obsession with box ticking. My local council (Labour) just wasted £1,000,000 on a 'cyclops junction' to 'encourage cycling'. As a cyclist, i can say that there was nothing wrong with the junction as it was, but they can say that they now have a cyclops junction and tick the 'encourage cycling' and 'save the environment' boxes, so yippee 👍🏻👍🏻 The junction is on a bus route and left hand turns are now so tight for buses and HGV's that they have to swing out into oncoming traffic 🤦🏻‍♂️

Can anyone please tell if any of council boses has there wage cut or bonuses taken away ?

tories out

Tories out !

Stop paying for war and feed your people

Our cash is syphoned off to defence contractors via Ukraine. It would be questionable otherwise, if BAE took the money from coffers, so they had to create a case for this large money laundering scheme, aka the Ukraine cause.

We will end up paying a standing charge for no services at all!

Government don't have money to fund it's people but they've money to spend on war in abroad 😂

Get brexit done, vote tory, suffer the consequences, now repent your bigotry

The taxes go into greedy people in high places

Birmingham council, please post on your website all the information that shows what you have been spending the money on. Everything!!!!!

This is my cultural homeland, if it fails there is nowhere on earth for me to go that I may call home. It has been weighted down by a self serving civil service who are so interested in maintaining the status quo that only benefits them and keeps the human rights lawyers with a steady stream of cases. they are happy that our democracy is at a standstill and we cant enforce change quickly enough to deal with the whole host of issues that we face today. The Lords are antiquated and they only serve themselves in blocking laws for their friends and are only appointed for insidious political favours to the serving government at the time, this is corruption and subsequent treason to us the many and the people. We don't make any money any more, we have no industry that isn't strangled by environmental legislation that is completely ignored by other nations and thus they are open for business when we are not, and we all sit there and wonder why we are all getting poorer. Immigration has become a huge financial and social burden which needs pointed out now as its just not financially viable unless you actually have a high level qualification that we need to help us compete within high level industry and technology, that what you call positive immigration that serves a purpose. I'm aware thats selfish by nations by their nature should be self serving for their people first or whats the point? our fisheries somehow belong to other nations yet their resources do not belong to us? hypocrisy! Somehow entering our country illegally is not breaking a law and we Taxpayers are bearing the burden to put these people in hotels rather than prison, or by simply denying them their illegal access in the first place. This country needs complete reformation one that may not be possible because our democracy is only for the self serving and not for the average person. We cant change laws anymore without going through 5 international courts paying millions to lawyers and self serving politicians who only say that which will get them re-elected into their gravy train positions the next time we vote no matter which party you think is best, they are all selfish and a cancer. The first parliament has been reduced to a political point scoring contest all paid for by the British people. There is a revolution coming to this country sooner rather than later when the people wake and realise that the country cannot continue on its current political course without the quality of life for the Briton falling year after year, its only going to get harder for you and your families whether you vote for reform or labour or the tories, sweeping change is what is needed by the lawyers wont let you have it, the civil service wont let you have it because they are making far too much money just the way that it is. please wake up to what is happening

But they have enough money for !s ra3l & Ukraine!!!

The way to fix this is to tie council tax to property value. If your property goes up in value the amount of council tax you pay goes up. You also need to double or triple council tax paid on second/third homes. Also make foreign investors pay a special tax on property they own.

Why is no one ever held accountable for anything..this government are absolutely horrific

Its okay everyone..... Rishi Sunak tells us the economy is on the right track!!!

How come there's billions for wars? But no money for here?! 🤷🏻‍♀️

See the Tories have broken everything

Every country in the world has spent money they never had...the day of reckoning is now here.

Councils were pushed into investment to bridge gaps in long term funding from the government. Councils don't have the knowledge to do this effectively, so this government was setting a lot of them up for failure

It's the consequence of an aging population that has for decades fought against a wealth tax, capital gains tax and voted in successive Tory governments who have given them tax cuts...

GPs? Don't they get £100k a year for three-day work weeks?

Shocking the way this country is going it's not the same anymore 😢 god help us

Im sorry but that can't be paid. Council do nothing.

Years of clueless councils making terrible business decisions and saddling the community with ongoing costs for decades to come. Bet their final salary pensions wont be cut.

Birmingham money is in the Pakistan real estate, this curruption has not being investigated we need this investigated. They stealing money in front of our eyes its disgusting we locals gets absulutely noting from this council

people will just move and Birmingham will be filled with people that cant afford to live there or can't leave there eventually. There wont be much left of Britain in 10 years, not the way we know it today.

There’s no point to these tax cuts. If council taxes are just going to increase to offset the reduction in government funding, then it makes no different to the taxpayer. This conservative government has truly broken Britain.

Brexit has cost £140BN so far, imagine if we'd spent that on public services instead.

I think we need the french to give us a few pointers in how to start a riot.....

Taxi driver: "We need tax cuts but also need more funding for public services" it almost sounds like you want to fund this with more borrowing, huh? Hypocrites.

cut the council executive wages 1,000,000 for 5 people and they got loads of them on between £60,000 - 220,000 look into there wages for all councils members avarage £150,000. look at there wages online or ask for there wage structure for there wages

Is this a so-called developed country?

Don't ever let anyone tell you the UK isn't dripping with cash. It's just all been funnelled further and further up the ladder. If you voted tory anytime in the last 40 years, give yourself a prize, you "won".

What taxes are all those retirees in Runnymede subject to anyway?

Everyone will be paying for insurance and if you cant afford it in debt and dumped for profit... if the nhs disappears

If you want tories running the country, their not cheap.

No money but we are giving £7.1 billion to Ukraine and then training 30 thousand a each year here in UK since 2015 how much is it costing us to put 30,000 Ukrainian civilians through 5 weeks of military training and we are funding Israel , but no money for local funding

Who are the council officials answerable to? Who can citizens reach out to, to have their decisions and actions investigated?

welcome to the real world without colonies and without their robberies

Immigration, immigration, immigration. We've finite resources in the country and we can't expect to take in mass numbers and expect efficient public services.

Because more money to be paid for genocide, ethnic cleansing and then financial support for settlers. Someone has to bear all this cost.

Secret bank accounts is why

not paying it simple answer