House rates to be 0.6 of house value!

BigAl94

There is obviously a lot of speculation on this topic, symptomatic of the fact that we are being kept very much in the dark. The latest figure I hear is 0.77% of valuation, the bottom line is that no one is prepared for the massive overall hike in rates that will hit NI. The figure quoted above by the previous poster will I fear be fairly typical. We have got away lightly compared to the rest of the UK and payback time looms!

NAR

The hikes over the next two or three years are a certainty under direct rule as they will be imposed. If the Assembly is back up and running they may have an influence on the rate rises.

raymond

Slash the number of health and education boards, cut the grants to stupid projects, stop wasting money printing all sorts of literature in a language that next to none of the population uses, there are lots of ways to reduce spending and eliminate these increases.

IvanOpinion

raymond wrote:

Slash the number of health and education boards, cut the grants to stupid projects, stop wasting money printing all sorts of literature in a language that next to none of the population uses, there are lots of ways to reduce spending and eliminate these increases.

... including getting rid of about 40% of our civil servants (which is one of the many figures that the government has bandied about... about 75% of the working population of NI works directly or indirectly for the civil service .. we are already bankrupt if that is not vastly reduced)

Ivan

jnd

raymond wrote:

Slash the number of health and education boards, cut the grants to stupid projects, stop wasting money printing all sorts of literature in a language that next to none of the population uses, there are lots of ways to reduce spending and eliminate these increases.

IvanOpinion wrote:

... including getting rid of about 40% of our civil servants (which is one of the many figures that the government has bandied about... about 75% of the working population of NI works directly or indirectly for the civil service .. we are already bankrupt if that is not vastly reduced)

Are you really that naive to think that saving money by doing this will reduce the rates bill? Different budgets and departmental running costs. Saving money on one will never reduce the other. Raymond the number of health boards and trusts are being cut anyway. Surely any savings made from that are better being used to reduce hospital waiting lists etc.

BigAl has it spot on. We've got away with it lightly until now.

I wish there was a yawn smiley Ivan as you sound like a broken record.

raymond

At the end of the day, we will be "punished" by the direct rule ministers until our own "politicians" get their act together and sort things out.

Unfortunately that will never happen as even if they did form a government they are incapable of running a country which is one reason I think they are set against it ... they will be seen for what they are ( a bunch of idiots) and that would be the end of them.

Its the fault of the people of Northern Ireland though, we elect them, and until we learn to look beyond the divide when casting our vote we will be stuck in this spiral.

I guarantee that if a group of people got together and decided to set up an electable party then the UK govt would give them unlimited funding to set it up but nobody has the balls to take on the dinosaurs, and like I said already, nobody would vote for a "non sectarian" party anyway.

IvanOpinion

jnd wrote:

Are you really that naive to think that saving money by doing this will reduce the rates bill? Different budgets and departmental running costs. Saving money on one will never reduce the other. Raymond the number of health boards and trusts are being cut anyway. Surely any savings made from that are better being used to reduce hospital waiting lists etc.

BigAl has it spot on. We've got away with it lightly until now.

I wish there was a yawn smiley Ivan as you sound like a broken record.

I am not quite sure who you are trying to convince .. it is a fact that our civil service is vastly over bloated and absolutely crammed full to the gills with deadwood and wasteage. It is long past time that this was resolved and that the services it delivered were provided in a cost efficient and effective manner .. but no, instead this government continues to create thousands of 'non-jobs' simply to adjust its own statistics .. each and everyone of those jobs cost the tax payer and rate payer heavily.

When the civil service fixes itself and stops wasting up to 70% of tax payers money (a number that was provided by its own auditting department) then I will be more than happy to change the record. Your vent is aimed at the wrong direction .. aim it at those that are wasting your money and my money by providing second rate over inflated serrvices ... unless of course you are part of the problem

We probably have got away reasonably lightly with local taxation however what we have been paying is closer to a genuine cost rather than what we will be paying in the future.

Ivan

jnd

I agree with your comments on downsizing the civil service and the rpa will address this and get rid of the dead wood.

Some efforts though may cost the taxpayer more. For example the government has decided that some "behind the scenes" tasks such as personnel and IT functions are not public service related so should be centralised and the staff and work outsourced to a private firm. The private firm will be out to make a profit (of course......) so who do you think will end up paying? Same work for more money.

There has also been rumours that some public service call centres, if outsourced, could end up being relocated to India. I'm sure that would be a welcome benefit for the people living here. (no insult to Asian people intended)

IvanOpinion

jnd wrote:

I agree with your comments on downsizing the civil service and the rpa will address this and get rid of the dead wood.

Some efforts though may cost the taxpayer more. For example the government has decided that some "behind the scenes" tasks such as personnel and IT functions are not public service related so should be centralised and the staff and work outsourced to a private firm. The private firm will be out to make a profit (of course......) so who do you think will end up paying? Same work for more money.

I am sure they will bring in a load of foreign contractors to manage the vast majority of the work (like they did with the London road charge scheme). The main issue is value for money which the public is NOT getting at the minute. There are many things in the civil service that should be centralised because in many cases many different departments are replicating work done by others .. we are meant to have joined up government but this does not appear to be materialising.

Last night I was talking to a friend of mine who may well be affected by the closure of the Peugot plant in England. However he can actually see where the problems lie ... as one of many examples he gave me, on the radio an unskilled lady who fitted washers was being paid £24,000 per year .. then we wonder why we are not competitive. I can't remeber the actual figures he quotes me but the avereage cost of labour in the UK factory was something like £22,000, in France £18,000 and Spain £14,000 and I bet it is below £10,000 when Paugot gets its new plant in Bulgaria on line.

We all have to compete and at some point government jobs are going to have to go through the same sort of pain that the private sector has had to (and still is) .. either up the productivity or lose the job (no more counting sick days as holidays as a friend of mine insists he is entitled to .. he is a grade/level 8 or 9 in the civil service (I have no idea what that means) but he reckons on taking about 70 days holiday per year and considers this normal). The tax payer (of which all civil servants are also) just can not sustain the cost of the public sector .. it is only going to get worse (and Northern Ireland is probably the worst in the UK).

There has also been rumours that some public service call centres, if outsourced, could end up being relocated to India. I'm sure that would be a welcome benefit for the people living here. (no insult to Asian people intended)

I do see that as being very unfortunate and not in the overall interests of the wider community (it is however a sign of the times). I for one (and I am only speaking for myself here) would prefer to see such jobs retained in this country even if it does cost more .. especially since a certain airline call centre recently shipped off shore could not see why a colleague of mine had a problem driving from Belfast to Manchester to catch a flight.

Taxes are a necessity and we all have to (or at least should) pay them (no matter how begrudgingly) however we also have the right to expect value for money and not expect the money to disappear into bottomless pits of red tape (which unfortunately too much does). As an example, I do not believe the likes of education or the NHS are underfunded .. I just think they are very wasteful and are pricing themselves beyond what their market value is.

Ivan

jnd

raymond, I missed you're posting earlier. That is a great point and is something that really gets me p!$$ed off. Instead of saying to the "ministers" you have until the autumn to get the assembly back up or you will lose your pay, they should have taken their pay off them immediately. There are hundreds of back-office civil servant's still sitting in their original assembly postings keeping it not-running. :wall: