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Boris vows to freeze his share of council tax as he cuts 100 jobs
Katharine Barney, Evening Standard10.09.08
Boris Johnson today revealed he would freeze City Hall's share of the council tax as he unveiled a cost-cutting shake-up.
The Mayor also said he wanted to streamline the Greater London Authority with around 100 job losses and savings of about £7.5 million next year.
He promised to cut "middle management" and focus on political priorities. Mr Johnson also pointed out the Mayor's council tax share, known as the precept, had risen from £122.98 in 2001/2002 to £309.92 currently.
Speaking to the London Assembly today Mr Johnson said: "The people of this city are feeling a serious financial squeeze. It is our job to deliver taxpayer value.
"It is our job to restore trust in the way we spend their money. That is why my budget guidance is that we work towards freezing the precept next year."
Mr Johnson also outlined a new structure for City Hall which will cut its departments from six to four.
They will be headed by two of his four deputy mayors, the director of communications and his chief of staff. The new "pillars" of City Hall will be finance and operations, communities and development, corporate affairs and environment.
Mr Johnson told assembly members he will focus on delivering a sporting legacy for the Olympics, cutting knife crime and reducing carbon emissions.
City Hall's current budget is £80 million, but Mr Johnson claims to have saved £2 million since he came into power in May.
Cuts already implemented include axing the free Londoner paper and slashing the £4.6 million cost of the Beijing trip by £1million.
He has also decided to cut costly schemes such as the redevelopment of Parliament Square and is likely to abolish plans for a cross-river tram.
Mr Johnson said: "Over the past eight years the Greater London Authority has achieved a great deal.
"But it has also doubled in size so it has lost sight of its key priorities. This reorganisation will envisage the GLA as more coherent and focused and will deliver better value for the hard-pressed London tax payer."
Mr Johnson said that City Hall originally employed less than 400 staff when the position of Mayor was created in 2000. This has been expanded to 800 posts although not all are filled.
He aims to cut the number to less than 700, although some of the posts that will go are already vacant.
A spokesman said the Mayor would cut "at least a layer of management". But he added the cuts would not come as a mass cull.
Instead, short-term contracts will not be renewed and with a staff turnover of 20 per cent, many people would not be replaced.
The main cuts will be made among administration staff including payroll and 20 per cent in the press and communications office. There will be some areas such as sport which are expected to grow. But Labour assembly members criticised the cuts as "nothing more than an act of smoke and mirrors". Group leader John Biggs said: "This is nothing more than a wellspun re-launch of a failed mayoralty."
Reader views (27)
Anyone can reduce spending by doing nothing which is what Boris is doing with his failure to procede with projects like the cross river tram and removing one-way systems which act as motorways and put bus users a distance from where they want to go.
Well NOGO BOJO will soon mean that congestion will be back to what it was BEFORE the post of Mayor was created!
He fails to improve public transport like Ken did and he fails to widen and upgrade roads so what are we paying to do?
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex
Its what Londoners voted for and what Londoners expect. By delivering on his election promises Boris is walking the talk and guaranteeing his reelection. Layhing off people is tough but all competent chief executives have to do it from time to time.
- David, London
Fair go, just a shame my bus travel costs have doubled :o(
- Tony, london, england
I just hope that the "Boris" moves North in time and sorts our wasters out as well!!
- Adrian Nash, Lancaster (South) England
As usual the same old "red ken haters" praise this action, I support this too but if you read the article by Boris it said I won't put the council tax up! This year and maybe not next year. but the olympics is going to cost more and more, the fares are increasing above inflation so when he saves this money where will it really be going.
- Kim, London Wimbledon
About time a politician listened to what the people want, and actually acted upon it. Well done Boris, if only there were more like you.
- Shirley, London
About time someone sorted them over paid town hall lot,
looks like Boris started something big lets hope others
will join in.
- Richard Southend On Sea, SOUTHEND ON SEA ESSEX
Well done Boris. Now is there any chance you can get your mate Cameron to do a bit of work. Lets have a Brown out campaign like the fox hunting and Iraqi anti war rally.
We can all subscribe to wrist bands and tea shirts. At least we can show at some stage wee Gordy will have to answer for his scorched earth policy towards England.
- Mike, London
'Dhanraj, basildon, essex' says that "the cuts will be counter productive as more is put on already hard pressed administrators."
Erm, Boris said the cuts are mainly going to come from the Press and Communications Office.
Could Dhanraj explain how spending less on spin and PR is going to make services worse?
Good on Boris for these proposals.
- Robert Cunningham, Harrow, London, UK
Give it 2 years, and the staff numbers will be back up to at least 600.
Ps - Jools - actually am quite happy to see my tax money going up in smoke for fireworks for NYE - all the other councils seems to have banned them, and at least the london ones you can see from anywhere (halfway down the old kent road for example where I live).
Hope Bojo keeps some frivolity at least - makes for a cheap Night out -and boy aer we going to need some cheering up this year.
- Jc, se1
I doubt that there is a council in the UK that isn't overburdened with interfering officials in pointless non-jobs. They should all be purged, with any saving being either refunded to taxpayers, or diverted to tangible frontline services.
Well done Boris for leading the way!
- Keith Lonsdale, Doncaster
Well done Boris, it's what the majority of Londoners want to hear - value for tax payers money!
- Suzy, London
At Last. A politician who wants to reduce bureaucracy and waste and build a leaner fitter administration. Good on you Boris ! I like everything that you have done so far- absolutely brilliant.
- Michael, London
Looks like Johnson is putting a lot of staff to the sword; the cuts will be counter productive as more is put on already hard pressed administrators. Perhaps he should also get rid of some of his Deputy Mayors doing his job for him.
- Dhanraj, basildon, essex
Good on Boris to remove the dead weight and eliminmate useless positions created by Red Ken.
- Brandon Thomas, London SW7
How about cutting the number of Deputy Mayors, and letting the real Mayor (Simon Milton) get on with his job?
- Fresh, London
Cutting staff and saving money is fine. However if they are providing a service that is still required, you end up spending more money on temporary staff to fill the gaps as has happened throughout the civil service. Cutting development schemes is another matter the short term financial gain results in a long term deterioration of the City. The Mayor should be trying to improve the City, he should be the champion of such schemes.
- Mick, London, England
The Mayor needs to keep up spending on transport, even if all the cosmetic improvements to tube stations is deferred.
It is about time the Overground across south London got the go-ahead, to give a complete orbital rail route, without having to go into central London.
- Jon, London
Boris Johnson's proposed action is long overdue.
- David, East Grinstead
Well done Boris for rolling your sleeves up and getting into the deadwood and Labour party flunkies that Red Ken left behind. Good news for London.
- Joe, London
The GLA has doubled in size, not even the most entrenched city hall fat cats can be surprised that rationalisation has been proposed.
- Scott, london
Go for it Boris!
- Mark, London
Good for Boris! And when he's at it, can he find a good home for frivolities that duplicate other bodies - such as London's 'embassy' in Brussels, or the 'climate change observatory'.
The money that Ken Livingstone wasted on various vanity projects didn't grow on trees, it came from many hard-pressed London families who are struggling to pay their mortgages and fuel bills.
In particular I felt that setting off tons of fireworks was indefensible, given his green pretensions. This is another area where Boris can stop our money going up in smoke!
- Jools, London
That is good news
- William, London
So what's the difference between "operations" and "corporate affairs"? Why two separate departments?
- Roy, England
"He has also decided to cut costly schemes such as the redevelopment of Parliament Square and is likely to abolish plans for a cross-river tram."
Which, apart from being good schemes that would improve the city, come from TfL's budget, not the GLA, so are irrelevant to this article.
- Tom, London
With the chaos at City Hall, and voluntary redundancy packages up for grabs, 100 staff will be just a fraction of the number desperate to to escape.
- Steve, London
