Hi LibbyI don't doubt for a minute that Acton and park Royal has a strong community. I appreciate that you and others didn't agree with our decision at the time to return to people their own money, but i would point out that we were not alone in wanting to do this. Every single labour cllr at the time voted for that decision as people at the time were struggling, and we all felt it was right to give them back their own money. Every member of the current Labour cabinet voted for it, with the exception of Cllr Hitesh tailor, who wasn't a cllr at the time. I have cut and paste info from a report on how the £6m cashback worked. there were huge benefits to this and it represented Value for money too. The VFM Premium initiative has gained national recognition. It was short listed in the national Local Government communications awards 2010 in the Value For Money category and is currently short listed by the Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation awards in the Excellence in Innovation category. Other benefits that have been realised as a result of the initiative include: • A 12% increase in the number of people paying Council Tax by direct debit which is generating the Council savings of over £60,000 per year. Similar campaigns at other London councils have resulted in increase in direct debit payment of one to two per cent. • Improvements in customer records, have resulted in more accurate billing and therefore improvements in collection rates. • As a result of data-matching to ensure accurate payments, individuals with more than one property, and false claims for single person discount have been identified. • A number of potential benefit fraud claims are being investigated by Audit. This has resulted from investigation of instances where Post Office vouchers were not cashed, and reviewing cases where vouchers were cashed by benefit recipients outside the borough. This work has been highlighted by the Audit Commission as an example for good practice. • Further to the development of ICT systems that can manage Post Office transactions, discussions are on-going to switch benefit and other cheque payments that will reduce Council expenditure, reduce fraud, and give customer the benefit of the full value of the cheque (rather than part if cashed at cheque cashing companies). • Following developments as part of the project to link geographic references to all Council Tax properties to allow monitoring of encashments, further business and customer facilities have been displayed so that accounts with arrears can be displayed, and Ealing services and facilities can be displayed graphically for customers. • 33,374 people (97%) of the people without direct debits redeemed their £50 at Post Offices in Ealing (with a value of nearly £1.7 million) and it is likely that a large amount of this would have been spent locally. • Council tax arrears were reduced by £900,000 through direct credits of £50 to their accounts. This would have assisted with customer’s budgeting 7. Impact on the local economy Again, it is difficult to quantify the extent of the impact the VFM premium had on the local economy, but there is evidence that this was beneficial: • A survey of businesses found: o 82% said that the Spend Local initiative was a good idea o 67% said it was well promoted o 29% said they definitely had increased business as a result of the initiative Comments included “Extend this brilliant idea much longer” and “Well done Ealing Council”. • Both Council Tax and Business Rates collection at 31 March 2010 are top quartile in London for the first time. • Business Rates arrears have reduced by £736,000 at a time of national economic difficulty
Colm Costello ● 5283d