Government doesn't add up
Discussion
Worth the read > Daily Telegraph Blog
What we suspected all along.
What we suspected all along.
Richard Preston blog said:
Much easier to grasp, and equally alarming, is the flaw in the formula used by the Department of Communities and Local Government to distribute over £20 billion of central government taxes to 456 local authorities in England (the Revenue Support Grant for councils, police authorities, fire services).
Two academics were asked to investigate inequities in the system and made a startling discovery when they left an authority out of the calculation, put the money it was due back in the kitty and then reran the calculation as if that authority had never existed.
'Think of a mother of an extended family that has tea together every Sunday,' Prof Stone writes. 'Routinely, as if to a formula, she cuts the cake into the same unequal portions, one for each family member -with an extremely thin slice for grandmother. One Sunday, granny is sick and cannot join in. Would that make any substantial difference to the slices the others get?
'When the researchers left out Bolton - one of the large authorities -the proportions of the now somewhat larger cake for the remaining 455 authorities changed only slightly. However, when puny Wokingham - the authority getting the smallest grant of under £8 million -was left out, the consequences were surrealistic. For example, Thames Valley Police lost £14 million while Birmingham gained £38 million! That means that a number of authorities would be asked to accept appreciably lower funding so that some authorities, such as Birmingham, would profit from an overall increase in the size of the cake. Come in, Ombudsman!
Two academics were asked to investigate inequities in the system and made a startling discovery when they left an authority out of the calculation, put the money it was due back in the kitty and then reran the calculation as if that authority had never existed.
'Think of a mother of an extended family that has tea together every Sunday,' Prof Stone writes. 'Routinely, as if to a formula, she cuts the cake into the same unequal portions, one for each family member -with an extremely thin slice for grandmother. One Sunday, granny is sick and cannot join in. Would that make any substantial difference to the slices the others get?
'When the researchers left out Bolton - one of the large authorities -the proportions of the now somewhat larger cake for the remaining 455 authorities changed only slightly. However, when puny Wokingham - the authority getting the smallest grant of under £8 million -was left out, the consequences were surrealistic. For example, Thames Valley Police lost £14 million while Birmingham gained £38 million! That means that a number of authorities would be asked to accept appreciably lower funding so that some authorities, such as Birmingham, would profit from an overall increase in the size of the cake. Come in, Ombudsman!
Same deal with the NHS - made up figures - even the people making them up state they shouldn't be used.
http://www.civitas.org.uk/wordpress/2009/06/failin...
http://www.civitas.org.uk/wordpress/2009/06/failin...
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