15 September 2006
A leading revenues official has criticised plans for local authority shared service centres, warning that the case for them has yet to be justified.
David Magor, director of the Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation, said it would be a mistake to rush into setting up shared centres without first considering potential problems.
People needed to look no further than the experience of customers with gas and electricity companies, with the Child Support Agency and the administration of tax credits to see that centralised services were not always in their interests, he told the Scottish conference of the IRRV at Crieff last week.
Magor challenged some of the proposals in the Scottish Executive's recently published consultation documents on a strategy for the centralisation of services such as council tax collection, revenues and payroll. He said he was not convinced that a business case had been made for the proposed centres.
Councils had made great strides over the years in improving their front-of-office services and in carrying out benefits reform, and as a result had saved a substantial amount of money.
'Every time you go around local authorities you see massive improvements at the front office. You see more and more evidence of services becoming more customer-centric,' Magor said.
He doubted whether centralised services would be any more efficient. 'Look at the way the cost of collection and administration has fallen over the past five years. You also need only to look at the way councils have performed in delivering benefits.'
Magor argued that the shared services plan would also do nothing to improve scrutiny and accountability.
PFsep2006
