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5 months ago
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A list of the best and worst councils in England has been revealed.
Data published by a new agency, the Office for Local Government (Oflog), lays bare the huge variation in public sector efficiency.
Some council recycling rates are twice as good as others while some councils fail to process half of planning applications on time but others are not late on a single one.
Oflog was set up last year to improve services by providing performance data on local authorities.
Its findings - published ahead of the local elections on Thursday - show that since 2021, six have declared themselves in effect bankrupt, the Times reported.
Fifty owe at least ten times their core budget and 34 are spending more than £1 in every £3 they receive in tax and government grants on interest payments.
Oflog measures councils in 27 categories for five main areas: waste management, corporate and finance, adult social care, planning and roads.
Bottom of the list was Labour-run Nottingham council which declared itself bankrupt in November. It was in the bottom five per cent for waste processing, financial management and roads, the paper said.
It was also in the bottom 25 per cent for planning and the bottom 40 per cent for social care. It only recycled a quarter of waste, while the best recycled nearly two thirds.
Nottingham had three times as many complaints upheld per 100,000 population as Chorley, Exeter and Lancaster.
The council - whose chief executive, Mel Barrett, is paid £191,000 a year - managed to collect a lower proportion of business rates than almost every other council.
Top of the list was Torridge council, on the north Devon coast, which was rated highly for almost everything. Last year it did not have a single complaint upheld by the local government ombudsman.
It ranks in the top 5 per cent for waste processing and financial management and has one of the best planning departments. As a district council, it is not responsible for social care or local roads.
Torridge is run by independent councillors and led by Steve Hearse, who is paid £109,000 a year.
A third of councils face local elections this week.
In September last year, Birmingham council declared effective bankruptcy as it faced a £760million equal pay claim
Of the ten worst performers, six are controlled by Labour, one by the Conservatives and three are in coalition.
Of the ten best councils, six are in coalition or are run by independents and the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives run two each.
The TaxPayers' Alliance said the best-run councils were 'rays of sunshine amid storm clouds of trouble' and the worst had to do more to improve.
Joanna Marchong, from the group, said: 'In order to achieve a high level of public sector efficiency, the worst-performing councils should look towards the best to ensure that they adopt sensible and worthwhile changes.'
The Local Government Association (LGA) said that there were already mechanisms in place, such as its Inform benchmarking system, to help councils to learn from each other.
Abi Brown, of the LGA, said: 'Councils continue to face huge financial challenges, with individual authorities facing competing demands on budgets that are often unique to their local area and specific circumstances.
'While councils continue to transform services, it is unsustainable to expect them to keep doing more for less in the face of unprecedented cost and demand pressures.'
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