When we heard about Brighton & Hove Council’s competition to come up with money-saving ideas to help with austerity, with the chance to win £1,000, some of us thought it was a malicious piece of satire from Labour’s opponents on the council.
Some Unison members came up with ideas such as scrapping golden handshakes to senior officers, scrapping PFI payments to buildings we’ve already paid for such as Jubilee Library and putting income straight into the bank instead of letting private contractors collect it and keep their cut – or in the case of parking meter cash, keeping all £3.2 million.
Branch members were also keen to win the £1,000 and have planned to put it straight into Brighton & Hove Unison’s strike fund, seeing that as the best investment in our futures.
However, we can now reveal a money-saving scheme that can not only allow the council reverse the cuts made so far, but also fund a pay rise sizeable enough to make up for the last five years of below-inflation pay rises (AKA pay cuts).
So, with tongues firmly placed in cheeks, read on!
Brighton & Hove: Independence Or Offshore?
Some local anti-austerity campaigners were so disappointed with May’s election result that they declared “The Independent Republic of Brighton & Hove”. However, going “independent” is not necessary to remove ourselves from the slow decimation of council jobs and services which we are currently at the beginning of. All we need to do is emulate our more efficient business models in the private sector.
All we need to do is register the council as an offshore concern like those inspiring examples from the free market such as Starbucks and Amazon. Human Resources would need to give staff advice on securing bank accounts in Switzerland or elsewhere, where wages would be paid tax free. Alternatively, staff could all follow the route of many top earners, including until recently some top government officials, and have our salaries paid tax free to a “limited company”, further reducing tax liabilities. We believe that there may be many other tax loopholes that could be utilised to save the council money. By outsourcing our accountancy services we could recruit from the more efficient private sector – the unparalleled expertise in taxation.
Brighton & Hove Council employees, faced with a tax rate of 0% would not be greedy. Our research indicates that the majority would happily accept a pay cut of 10%, and 30% for top rate payers, as their take-home pay would still increase by at least 10% across the board. The total saving to the council would be at least 10% of the annual wages bill – or over £25m per year. Enough to stop all cuts. In addition to this, with tax no longer payable on any council income, the money saved could be used to reverse the cuts imposed in the last few years.
It has been pointed out by some sceptics that adapting ourselves to the new, deregulated international finance markets would soon backfire as our example would certainly be copied by everybody, depriving HMRC of most revenue. Those less charitable towards central government may point out that since they want to break all financial support and links to local government, this shouldn’t be a problem. However, some government departments, such as the Royal Family, MI5, The Ministry of Defence say that they could never be subjected to the uncertainty of the free market. (A MoD staff competition’s suggestions of “citizen-consumers” voting weekly which country’s monarchy or army they wished to have was rejected as “market madness.”)
It is expected that the government would be forced to close tax loopholes, thus preventing organisations and individuals “going offshore”. While this may disappoint staff hoping for their increase in real incomes for many years, the clampdown on tax avoidance and evasion could net HMRC with up to £120 billion annually. This would be enough to stop all cuts currently planned by central government, begin to reverse cuts made in the last few years, and give public sector workers a much needed pay rise.
Our proposal , however it turns out, leads to the type of “win win” solution often praised by management gurus. We hope that if the council’s competition doesn’t turn out to be a piece of satire, our entry is taken seriously. We would be joining the people of Crickhowell in Wales where the whole town is trying to go offshore and the BBC will soon be featuring it in a documentary. If implemented, we would be happy to donate the £1000 prize back to the council, allowing further service expansion elsewhere.
-
Recent Posts
Archives
- March 2021
- August 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- November 2019
- October 2019
- June 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- May 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
Meta