Red tape costing taxpayers £4.5bn
Author: Daily Telegraph - Nov 20, 2009
Households in Britain are paying £4.5billion extra in tax so that local authorities can produce paperwork to prove they are hitting centrally-imposed targets, research shows.
The Local Government Association (LGA), which commissioned the study, is demanding that ministers cut back their red tape demands with the resultant savings spent on front line services.
It claims that removing "data burdens", such as performance indicators, would save £400 million a year, while another £250 million could be cut from running costs by handing back more responsibilities to councils.
Margaret Eaton, chairman of the LGA, said: "Billions of pounds of taxpayers' money is being spent on needless bureaucracy. We need a bonfire of red tape so that taxpayers' money can be freed up to protect front line services.
"Things need to be done better and cheaper. If we are to repay the large public debt, we simply cannot afford the same amount of excessive central activity and control of local services.
"The recession is forcing everybody who spends taxpayers' money to think about how they can do more with less."
The LGA, which represents more than 350 councils in England, also said £1.5 billion could be saved by reducing the running costs of seven Whitehall departments which councils deal with.
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