Reader

Most members of the local government finance community have been expecting and planning for big cuts for a couple of years, even if they mentally labelled the changes ‘Operation Hope Not’ (‘Honey, I shrunk the council’, PF January 2011). Read more...

Poor Bob Neill. It must be hard enough being local government minister without being subject to attacks that he is a centrist disguised as a localist (‘Neil hits back at criticisms of Localism Bill’, PF, February 2011). Read more...

PF’s news story provided a dismal report of the Treasury’s Combined Online Information System (‘Online Treasury data fail to excite’, June 11–17). This initiative seems just part of the new drive to publish as much data as possible – whether the information is useful or even intelligible. The story referred to ­Professor Colin Talbot’s doubts about this Coins database. Read more...

Alastair Hatchett’s feature ‘Paying the price’ is an excellent account of the position the public sector finds itself in (July 2–15). The government and the Taxpayers’ Alliance have very successfully managed to peel the ‘kick me’ label off the bankers (yesterday’s news) and apply it firmly to the backs of public sector workers. This was a neat trick, and the media happily joined in the fun. We are about to get a very hard kicking. Read more...

I cannot agree with Alastair Hatchett’s view that public sector pensions are not ‘gold-plated’. To earn the average local authority pension of £4,000 (plus inflation), staff will have contributed around £20,000 at current prices to their schemes. Read more...

The responses of Michael Keene and Martin Southwell to Philip Sellers’ letter on the role of the finance director raise some interesting questions (June 18–24). Read more...