By Tash Shifrin
4 February 2010
A police authority has pointed to problems with the way local government finance legislation is framed after the government imposed a cap on its budget.
Local government minister Barbara Follett laid an order before Parliament to cap Warwickshire Police Authority’s 2010/11 budget in advance last month, putting in place the legal measure that enforces the government’s capping policy.
Follett also noted that capping action had been taken against two other police authorities – Leicestershire and Cheshire. But, unlike Warwickshire, which challenged the move, they accepted budget limits set by the Department for Communities and Local Government.
Warwickshire’s challenge to the capping process follows a row between DCLG and Surrey Police Authority last year that culminated in the SPA seeking a judicial review. The SPA’s move failed and local councils were forced to rebill residents.
Oliver Winters, acting chief executive at Warwickshire Police Authority, which will set its 2010/11 budget on February 22, told Public Finance his organisation would not seek a judicial review.
But he said the authority had been caught out this year by the nature of the capping law.
Warwickshire’s problems began in 2008/09 when its budget increased the police precept by 12.8%. Ministers intervened to ‘designate’ the authority for capping – setting a limit on the budget for the following two years.
Winters said: ‘In 2009/10, we set the budget on the designated level. They wrote to us in October saying... although it was at the designated level, the council tax increase was still higher than it wanted.
‘This is the problem with the capping law. The government wants to cap council tax increases, but the legislation says they have to cap the budget, and they have to work backwards from that.’
The DCLG ruling meant that Warwickshire would have £630,000 unexpectedly lopped off its 2010/11 budget of around £90m. This cut was reduced to around £500,000 when the authority appealed, because of changes to the council tax property base.
Winters said the appeal was ‘a partial victory’. But the indirect relationship between budget figures and council tax increases meant ‘we don’t know – and in fairness, they don’t know’ how the council tax figures would shape up when the budget cap is set. ‘That was part of our appeal.’
4 February 2010
A police authority has pointed to problems with the way local government finance legislation is framed after the government imposed a cap on its budget.
Local government minister Barbara Follett laid an order before Parliament to cap Warwickshire Police Authority’s 2010/11 budget in advance last month, putting in place the legal measure that enforces the government’s capping policy.
Follett also noted that capping action had been taken against two other police authorities – Leicestershire and Cheshire. But, unlike Warwickshire, which challenged the move, they accepted budget limits set by the Department for Communities and Local Government.
Warwickshire’s challenge to the capping process follows a row between DCLG and Surrey Police Authority last year that culminated in the SPA seeking a judicial review. The SPA’s move failed and local councils were forced to rebill residents.
Oliver Winters, acting chief executive at Warwickshire Police Authority, which will set its 2010/11 budget on February 22, told Public Finance his organisation would not seek a judicial review.
But he said the authority had been caught out this year by the nature of the capping law.
Warwickshire’s problems began in 2008/09 when its budget increased the police precept by 12.8%. Ministers intervened to ‘designate’ the authority for capping – setting a limit on the budget for the following two years.
Winters said: ‘In 2009/10, we set the budget on the designated level. They wrote to us in October saying... although it was at the designated level, the council tax increase was still higher than it wanted.
‘This is the problem with the capping law. The government wants to cap council tax increases, but the legislation says they have to cap the budget, and they have to work backwards from that.’
The DCLG ruling meant that Warwickshire would have £630,000 unexpectedly lopped off its 2010/11 budget of around £90m. This cut was reduced to around £500,000 when the authority appealed, because of changes to the council tax property base.
Winters said the appeal was ‘a partial victory’. But the indirect relationship between budget figures and council tax increases meant ‘we don’t know – and in fairness, they don’t know’ how the council tax figures would shape up when the budget cap is set. ‘That was part of our appeal.’
