INSIGHT - The IRRV · Insight brings news and views from some of the newly-qualified Conference...

INSIGHT

INSIDE: Annual Conference & Performance Awards report • Scottish Conference report • FOI update

NOVEMBER 2010 £5.50 www.irrv.net

ISSN

136

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I’m a Believer!New IRRV President, Kerry Macdermott looks forward with energy, experience and infectious optimism

The monthly journal of the Institute of Revenues, Rating & Valuation

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IRRV INSIGHT

Managing Editor

John Roberts

Editorial Director

Lester Dinnie

Art Director

Don Tregartha

Designers

Clare Barker

Roddy Clenaghan

Publisher

Tregartha Dinnie Ltd

IRRV

Chief Executive David Magor, OBE IRRV (Hons) 41 Doughty Street London WC1N 2LF T 020 7831 3505 E [email protected] W www.irrv.net

Enquiries Membership 020 7691 8996 Conferences 020 7691 8987 Subscriptions 020 7691 8996

Advertising T 020 7691 8996 E [email protected]

Editorial John Roberts IRRV (Hons) T 07952 659 258 E [email protected]

Tregartha Dinnie Ltd Ibex House, 5 Keller Close, Kiln Farm, Milton Keynes MK11 3LL T 01908 306500 W www.tregartha-dinnie.co.uk

IRRV Insight is produced by Tregartha Dinnie Ltd on behalf of the IRRV.

Unless otherwise indicated, copyright in this publication belongs to the IRRV.

November 2010 ISSN 1361-1305

© IRRV 2010. Reproduction in whole or in part of any article is prohibited without prior written consent. The views expressed in this magazine do not necessarily represent the views of the Institute. Whilst all due care is taken regarding the accuracy of information, no responsibility can be accepted for errors. Any advice given does not constitute a legal opinion.

IRRV Council: IRRV President Kerry Macdermott IRRV (Hons); Senior Vice-President Roger Messenger BSc (Est Man) FRICS IRRV (Hons) MCIArb REV; Junior Vice-President David Chapman IRRV (Hons); Phil Adlard Tech IRRV MlnstLM MCMI; Alan Bronte FRICS IRRV (Hons); Robert Brown BSc FRICS IRRV (Hons); Tracy Crowe CPFA IRRV (Hons);

Carol Cutler IRRV (Hons); Tom Dixon RD BSc (Est Man) FRICS IRRV (Hons); Ian Ferguson IRRV (Hons); Geoff Fisher FRICS (Dip Rating) IRRV (Hons) REV; Richard Guy FRICS (Dip Rating) IRRV (Hons) MCIArb; Richard Harbord MPhil CPFA FCCA IRRV (Hons) FIDP FBIM FRSA; Mary Hardman IRRV (Hons) FRICS MCMI; Gordon Heath BSc IRRV (Hons); Julie Holden IRRV (Hons) MCMI CMg; Caroline Hopkins IRRV (Hons); Maureen Neave Tech IRRV; Tony Masella MRICS MCIOB IRRV (Hons) AFA F.Inst.AM; Graham Ryall FRICS IRRV (Hons); Peter Scrafton IRRV (Hons) FCIArb MRSA (Hons); Kevin Stewart IRRV (Hons) MAAT MCMI; Angela Storey Tech IRRV MCMI; Bob Trahern IRRV (Hons); Julie Trahern IRRV (Hons); Allan Traynor FCCA IRRV (Hons).

Chief Executive’s notes 05“Are we approaching the road to ruin?”, asks David Magor, as the government’s public sector change programme is revealed

News and events 06

Running the Institute 08

Education & membership 09

FOI update 34

IRRV international 36

Technology 38

Doherty’s despatch 40If Universal Credit is to stand a chance of success, don’t underestimate the cost of integrating the benefit system, says Pat Doherty

Viewpoint 42Viewpoint newcomer John Frost hits the ground running as the unfolding reform agenda looms ever closer

Mysteries at Midsomer DC 43Kate Miller’s new monthly series

Annual Conference report & Performance Awards winners 11Insight brings you a pictorial summary of the ‘big event’ of 2010, the Institute’s Performance Awards gala dinner, together with highlights of the conference presentations

Don’t hang up! 22Julian Mead, National Manager of Inform Communications, explodes a few myths about what the public really wants

Scottish Conference report 24Challenge is the name of the game, David Scott discovers, as he pays his annual visit to the Institute’s Scottish Conference

Cover story 31Welcome, Mr PresidentNew IRRV President, Kerry Macdermott looks forward with energy, experience and infectious optimism

Regular items Features

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Editor’s welcome

What’s in the next issue ... – Scrafton’s Law on de minimis occupation – Back office best practice in Southwark

is uncovered– Audit Commission Protecting the Public

Purse report

Faculty board update 26The IRRV’s Valuation Faculty Board have welcomed the opportunity to evaluate the success of the 2010 business rate revaluation, as Roger Messenger outlines

Student column 27Insight brings news and views from some of the newly-qualified Conference attendees

Benefits bulletin 28The devil is in the detail, Julie Holden discovers, as the government’s major welfare shake-up is announced

Social inclusion 29The future is still unclear for third sector providers, says Colin Holden, in spite of government promises of increased participation

Valuation Corner 30Hands across the sea. Institute Immediate Past President Geoff Fisher’s final weeks saw him ‘globetrotting’...

Faculty review

The event continues to draw delegates and award finalists in significant numbers, with this year’s exhibition providing the ideal opportunity for participants to take in the latest technology and support services, as our industry faces one of its biggest challenges.

With over 5000 hits on the website within the first few hours following the announcement of the award winners, the Institute’s own technology has once again shown it can bring you up to the minute news and views. Don’t forget that you can also view all the Annual Conference photos at www.irrv.net.

Our cover story features recently installed Institute President Kerry Macdermott, who unveils his thoughts and plans for the year in office. The editorial team offer their congratulations to Kerry, and we will be following his progress through these pages as the year progresses.

This month’s magazine also offers the opportunity to catch up on events north of the border, as David Scott delivers his report on September’s Scottish Conference, held once again in the delightful surroundings of Crieff Hydro. We also welcome John Frost as a new ‘Viewpoint’ contributor – John is taking Kate Miller’s slot as Kate introduces a new monthly column based on the trials and tribulations of a fictitious sleepy District Council... or is it? Enjoy!

John Roberts IRRV (Hons)

Managing Editor

“As we catch our breath following the hugely successful 2010 IRRV Annual Conference and Performance Awards, Insight is pleased to bring you a summary of the event in both written and pictorial form.”

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Performance Awards

2010 The IRRV would like to thank Gandlake for the main sponsorshipof this year’s awards programme

Performance Awards

2010 The IRRV would like to thank the following companies for their sponsorship:

IRRV ANNUAL CONFERENCE ANd ExhIbItION 2010

IRRV Conferences www.irrv.org.uk

Conference & Courses DiaryScottish Benefits ConferenceCrieff, 1 – 2 December 2010

Benefits ConferenceSouthport, 8 – 10 February 2011

Spring Pre-Examination Course Keele, 9 – 15 April 2011

Miscellaneous Income Conference Keele, 14 – 15 April 2011

Collection and Enforcement Conference Harrogate, 7 – 8 June 2011

Welsh Conference Llandrindod Wells, 16 June 2011

Scottish Conference Crieff, 7 – 8 September 2011

Annual Conference Bournemouth, 4 – 7 October 2011

Autumn Pre-Examination Course Keele, 28 – 31 October 2011

For more information please visit: www.irrv.org.uk or call: 020 7691 8987

For sponsorship opportunities please call: 020 7691 8987

For exhibition opportunities please call: 01908 306 500

Rarely do I allow myself to be concerned at edicts from government departments. However...

...the events of late October and early November, and the

communications which emanated from the CLG, Treasury

and DWP are examples of, at best, misleading spin. The two

events were the announcement of the cancelled council tax

revaluation, and the various decisions relating to Social Security

Reform, particularly those on Local Housing Allowance,

Child Benefit and the Universal Credit.

Let me initially turn my attention to the council tax

announcement. Whilst I accept it is the right of any government

to determine a policy decision and deliver it, it is wrong that

this should be presented to the public in a grossly misleading

way. The announcement from the Secretary of State showed at

best a misunderstanding of the impact of a revaluation, and at

worst a deliberate spin on the impact of this change to create

a totally false impression in the mind of council tax payers.

Are we approaching the road to ruin?Asks David Magor, as the government’s public sector change programme is revealed

The comments concerning an annual £320 increase for all

council tax payers is, as our readers all know, quite simply

wrong. This is not the impact of a revaluation - a revaluation

redistributes the burden. As far as the council tax is concerned,

this burden can be controlled and manipulated by adjustments

in the banding process. It is not my intention to use this

valuable space to explain to all of you what you already know.

The message I want to get through to government in these

difficult times, is for them to please tell the truth when trying

to impose policy decisions upon the general public. In these

difficult times, the government needs to develop a bond of

trust between itself and the citizens. The announcements on

the revaluation fall well short of the basic standards of clarity

and honesty.

The second issue was the announcements on the local

housing allowance and other housing benefit changes, together

with the abolition of tax credit for those individuals paying

tax at a higher rate. These proposals are startling in contrast

to the sentiments put forward by an earlier Secretary of State

announcement proclaiming that the government will do

everything in its power to avoid trapping people in poverty.

These proposals do exactly that. We all understand that the

deficit needs to be reduced. We all understand that the social

security system needs modernisation. We all understand that

people should be encouraged into paid work. These three

objectives can however be achieved without pitching tens of

thousands of people into poverty and despair.

Chief Executive’s notes

“The announcements on the revaluation fall well short of the basic standards of clarity and honesty”

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News and events

News of MeMbersLATesT News

Government welfare reform programme takes shapeThe first big phase of the government’s radical welfare reform programme has started, as long-term incapacity benefit claimants in Burnley and Aberdeen are the first across the country to be reassessed for their ability to work.The reassessment is designed to end the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to those

with health conditions and disabilities which has led to 2.1 million people being

trapped on benefits. Ministers are determined to reform the welfare system and

help those who have been previously written off get back to work and regain

their independence.

Incapacity benefit claimants in Burnley and Aberdeen will have a Work

Capability Assessment, which determines what a person can do, not simply what

they cannot do.

Ministers are clear that the most severely disabled and people who are

terminally ill will not be expected to look for work and will get extra help through

Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).

However, those people who are

reassessed and found fit for work

will move onto Jobseekers Allowance

and will be expected to look for

work like other jobseekers. Those

who could work but need extra

help and support to become

work ready will move onto ESA

and receive tailored support to

get back to work.

IrrV faculties step up activityWith all streams of the Institute’s membership seeing unprecedented activity, the

Faculty Boards have been busy producing responses to consultation documents

issued by a number of bodies. Recent issues on which the IRRV has provided a

response are:

Council tax increase referendums•

Students disregards for council tax •

Proposed Magistrates Courts and County Courts closures •

The VOA 2010 non-domestic rate revaluation evaluation •

Parliamentary CLG enquiry into ‘localism’.•

The responses can be viewed through the Institute’s website, www.irrv.net.

Public sector cuts could be painful all roundResearch from accountancy giants PwC has concluded that as many as 500,000

private sector jobs could be at risk as a result of the impending cuts to public

sector jobs and services. The research highlights in particular areas where the

private sector is providing supplies for the public sector, pointing once again to

the need for government to take great care before wielding the knife.

On yer bike!

North Wales Association Past PresidentIain Marshalsay (pictured second fromright) led a team in the British HeartFoundation’s annual London to Paris cycleride. RB Performance sponsored the cycletops for his team. Although it ’s billed as ‘London’, they actually started at Chartwell,former home of Winston Churchill in Westerham, Kent.

Moving south! Following the departure of Paul Walker, IRRV East Midlands stalwart Rob Andrews and Equita Business Development Director is now responsible for the company’s revenues growth for the entire country with the exception of Greater London. Rob has three years experience in developing Equita’s business in the north of the country, and now brings that experience to the remainder of the country.

IrrV National Council successAt the 2010 Institute AGM in Harrogate, the

candidates elected to the six vacant ‘corporate’

seats on the IRRV National Council were

announced – Tracy Crowe, Richard Harbord,

Gordon Heath, Julie Holden, Tony Masella and

Peter Scrafton. Phil Adlard, Maureen Neave

and Angela Storey were elected to the three

vacant places reserved for other members of

the Institute.

December Insight will feature a pictorial celebration of the installation of the new Senior Vice-President, Roger Messenger and Junior Vice-President Dave Chapman, together with the recognition of the new fully qualified ‘honours’ members of the Institute and prizewinners from the June examinations.

Gary L Watson IRRV (Hons) is

Deputy Chief Executive of the IRRV

1. The first Annual Conference was held on the 24th and

25th April 1936 at the Caxton Hall, Westminster, also a past

venue for the Institute’s examinations. The venue was also

where many celebrities ‘tied the knot’ – Diana Doors (1951),

Elizabeth Taylor (1952), Orson Welles (1955), Billy Butlin

(1959), Roger Moore (1969) and Wendy Richard (1972).

Peter Sellers returned to get married again in 1970 (having

first got married there in 1951) whilst I returned to Caxton

Hall back in the 1970s, having failed ‘Local Authority Finance’ at the first attempt!

2. The demand to attend Annual Conference necessitated

a change of venue, and the event was later transferred

to Central Hall, Westminster, and after it was built, the

Festival Hall on the South Bank. However, the later

venue came with its problems as sessions were often accompanied by orchestras practicing in adjoining

rooms for forthcoming concerts.

3. In 1958, National Council took the decision to switch the

Annual Conference away from London and to seaside towns

such as Blackpool, Bournemouth, Brighton, Eastbourne,

Scarborough, Torquay and in-land towns such as Harrogate.

Conferences were switched between the ‘north’ and ‘south’,

and in the early days, attracted attendances of around

1,500 delegates – those were the days!

4. The Institute continues to follow the ‘north/south’ approach, and having just held the Annual Conference

in Harrogate, will be returning to Bournemouth in 2011.

The venues available to the Institute are limited when one

is looking to hold an Annual Conference supported by an

exhibition and a conference dinner for 700. The availability

of suitable hotel accommodation and local restaurants is key

to the decision making process, while the need to keep costs

to a minimum is essential too.

5. Today, the Conference Dinner is traditionally held on the

Thursday evening of conference. Different formats have

been used over the years, now including the presentation

of awards to finalists in the Performance Awards scheme.

Much has changed over the years, and the Institute’s records

note that back in 1922, a proposal was put forward that two ladies should be invited to the Conference Dinner... a proposal that was firmly rejected. It would

be a brave man today that puts forward such a proposal,

particularly with the new Equality Act having just come

into force.

Getting to know your Institute

As the 2010 Annual Conference becomes yet another memory, Gary Watson has been scouring the record books for some memorable previous events

London and Home Counties Association Golf DayThe annual London and Home Counties golf day took place in September at South Herts Golf Club.The competitors were very fortunate to catch probably the last day of summer,

with the rain only starting as the players were making their way to the 19th

hole. In a tightly fought contest, Matt Kelly of Dacorum Council was overall

winner, with Association Vice-President Phil Black of Westminster retaining the

shield for the highest scoring Association member. Special thanks go to Andy

Cummins for once again organising such an enjoyable day, and also to our

sponsors Equita, Newlyn and Phoenix. As well as a great day of golf, the players

also managed to raise a considerable sum for Association President, Nick

Rowe’s charities – Macmillan Nurses and the Shooting Star childrens’ hospice.

Thames Valley meets London and Home CountiesThe newly revitalised Thames Valley Association, together with London and Home Counties Association colleagues, held a joint meeting in September at Chiltern DC. The meeting was fortunate to secure the services of Paul Howarth and

Penny Higgins from DWP, who gave a very interesting talk about the future

of housing benefit under the coalition government. A lively debate followed

their presentation, giving valuable material to the IRRV’s Benefits Faculty Board

on the DWP Consultation paper, 21st Century Welfare. The meeting drew a

sizeable audience, which included both the IRRV National President and Chief

Executive (active members of London Home Counties and Thames Valley

associations respectively).

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News and events

Pictured from left to right are overall winner Matt Kelly, Association President

Nick Rowe, Phil Black and Andy Cummins

IRRV meets DWP

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Running the Institute

Commercial Services CommitteeThe meeting was chaired by Carol Cutler – key

reports considered by Committee included:

Sales and sponsorship (including advertising)•

Annual Conference (including Performance •

Awards)

Conference programme 2011•

Forum (and Benefit Advisory) services•

Update on activities in Scotland and •

Northern Ireland

Communications Working Group (magazines, •

website and publications).

The Committee devoted the majority of

their time to the arrangements for Annual

Conference, including the Performance

Awards evening. This included a tour of all the

facilities. The conference programme for 2011

was also agreed. A key aim for the Committee

is to generate income from the commercial

activities of the Institute. This year, despite

increased pressure on budgets, increased

income had been generated from sales and

sponsorship (including advertising).

Education and Membership CommitteeThe meeting was chaired by Kerry Macdermott

– key reports considered by Committee

included:

Examinations report•

Options for the Level 3 Certificate •

qualification

Certificates of Service •

Valuation Diploma•

Course monitoring•

Membership.•

The Committee continued to focus their

attention on the development of the

Institute’s qualifications and course provision.

Key decisions needed to be taken on the

future approach to the Level 3 Certificate

qualification and the options for the Valuation

All systemsgo...

This report focuses on the latest decisions

of the National IRRV Council, which held

its latest quarterly meeting prior to the

Annual Conference in Harrogate on 27th

and 28th September.

CouncilThe meeting was chaired by Geoff Fisher –

key reports considered by Council included:

Reports of Standing Committees•

Membership subscriptions•

Co-options to Council•

Chief Executive’s report•

President’s diary.•

Policy and Resources Committee The meeting was chaired by Roger Messenger


included:

Management accounts to 31st July 2010•

Draft budget 2011•

Update on IRRV Solutions Ltd.•

Sale of Doughty Street•

Professional fees and expenses•

Administration.•

The Committee were advised that the Institute

remains financially stable, although the outturn

from the Annual Conference was key to the

overall position for 2010. The decision to

sell the offices in Doughty Street had been

taken forward and the property is now being

marketed. Smaller premises, preferably in

Central London, were being sought.

...for the IRRV Council, as Gary Watson reports on another busy round of meetings

Gary L Watson IRRV (Hons) is Institute

Deputy Chief Executive

Diploma. Membership remains a key priority

for the committee, and a variety of options

were considered for boosting members; not

just in the UK, but also worldwide.

Law and Research CommitteeThe meeting was chaired by Dave Chapman


included:-

Reports of the three Faculty Boards•

Meetings with government bodies•

Research matters•

Questionnaire on committal fees•

Responses to consultation documents•

Approach to the Spending Review. •

The Committee continued to consider the

implications of the new coalition government,

and the various consultation documents

published since the General Election.

The Institute continues to work closely with

Ministers and key government departments,

while the Faculty Boards take the lead in

responding to consultation documents,

circulars etc., the Committee remains ‘geared-

up’ to respond to the announcement on the

Spending Review.

Although a number of reports (particularly

those considered by Commercial Services

Committee) are deemed to be ‘commercially

sensitive’, National Council remains keen for

the membership to be made aware of

matters discussed at the quarterly cycle of

meetings. Should any member require

further information on any of the reports

considered by National Council at this

cycle of meetings, they should contact

Gary Watson (Deputy Chief Executive) on:

[email protected].

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All systemsgo...

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Education & membership

Certificates of ServiceThe Education and Membership Committee

offers Certificates of Service to members with

a good record of service to the Institute at

non-national level. Members who have worked

with their Associations for a significant period

and whose work deserves wider recognition

are therefore eligible.

Association officers are asked to submit

nominations to the Institute on the official

nomination form, obtainable from the email

address right. When submitting a nomination,

Association officers are asked to provide

sufficient detail to ensure that the Education

and Membership Committee can make a

judgement based on adequate information.

Nominations should be submitted without

the knowledge of the nominee – generally

the presentation is intended as a surprise,

and it is often made by the Institute President

at an Association meeting, where that can

be arranged.

Ensure that your hard-working Association regulars are recognised at a national level, urges Michael Hopkins

Michael Hopkins is IRRV Head of

Professional Services – contact him on

[email protected]

IRRV Publications 2010 update

Council Tax Law and Practice

This is an essential guide for anyone involved in the operation of the Council Tax.It shows in detail how the tax works on a practical level, and is fully up to date on all the most recent amendments to the law.Topics covered include: liability; discounts and exemptions; reduction schemes; billing and collection; enforcement; valuation and the valuation list; appeals and the valuation tribunals; insolvency and funds precepts and grants.Council Tax Law and Practice is supplied in hard copy format together with an electronic PDF version.

New Subscription Price: £275.00 (plus VAT and £3.00 p&p per copy)

To order online please visit:

www.irrv.net/publications

EDITOR: Ed Slater IRRV

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Student members Name employerSarah Phillips Breckland District CouncilRobert Conlon Leicester City CouncilJoanne Jeffs Leicester City CouncilRebecca Pettit Leicester City CouncilYiu Tou YMP LtdGemma Wiltshire Leicester City CouncilTim Games Wirral Metropolitan BCAngela Harris Wirral Metropolitan BCSunday Ajibode Compass GroupNicholas Attoe Sutton London BCEmma Bouglas Capita Business Services LtdKevin Brett Capita Business Services LtdJoanne Douglas Lewisham London BCDaniel Gower Sutton London BCAlison Grieve Lewisham London BCRaz Gurung Sutton London BCMohan Hirani Harrow London BCAnn Jones Harrow London BCTrude Leach Watford Borough CouncilBrian Penheiro Not availableAlison Taylor Dacorum Borough CouncilSaanjeevan Thangiah Barnet London BCLeah Towlson Denbighshire County CouncilEmma Allan Midlothian CouncilLynne Anderson Dundee City CouncilLaura Bailey Glasgow City CouncilLaura Campbell North Lanarkshire CouncilNikki Currie Fife CouncilShona Davie Midlothian CouncilShona Duncan Dundee City CouncilAntonia Ferguson Midlothian CouncilDaniel Gibb Glasgow City CouncilGillian Lamb North Lanarkshire CouncilKatie Lindsay Fife CouncilJames Little Dumfries & Galloway CouncilAmanda Lockard North Lanarkshire CouncilLaura MacDonald Glasgow City CouncilGraham McGill City of Edinburgh CouncilAmanda Mitchell Midlothian CouncilSharaz Rasul Dumfries & Galloway CouncilLaura Stewart Aberdeenshire CouncilHeather Sylvester Glasgow City CouncilCassandra Tempany North Lanarkshire CouncilCharmaine Wanless Dundee City CouncilDawn West Clackmannanshire CouncilLouise Bentley Sedgemoor District CouncilMary Bobby Gravesham Borough CouncilLucy Crozier Cornwall CouncilAnne Hocking Cornwall CouncilNatalie Reynolds Mid Sussex District CouncilAdrian Popplestone Capita Business Services Ltd (Southampton City Council)Tom Green BNP Paribas Real EstateKelly Morgan City And County Of Swansea

New members

Technician members Name employerJudith Gleason Great Yarmouth BCSusan Gray Norwich City CouncilJill Healey Norwich City CouncilJoanna Taylor South Cambridgeshire DCAshley Allsebrook Gedling Borough CouncilScott Batchlor Northampton Borough CouncilVictoria Evans Oadby & Wigston BCLisa Hearth South Holland District CouncilNilkesh Patel Leicester City CouncilKirit Varia Leicester City CouncilPaul Williams Rushcliffe Borough CouncilGad Aloh Manchester City CouncilLeanne Carey Chorley Borough CouncilKristen Cureton Wirral Metropolitan BCPeter Freeman Manchester City CouncilRebecca Greensides Oldham Metropolitan BC Sian Henderson Lancaster City CouncilLynsey Holt Lancaster City CouncilNadia Kauser Pendle Borough CouncilDavid Kirby Cheshire West & Chester CChristine Lomax Bolton Metropolitan BCTimothy Maloney Oldham Metropolitan BC Rosa-Maria Rowlands Unity Partnership

Gail Waddington Pendle Borough CouncilCraig Beadle Basildon District CouncilAntonia Bialkova Kensington & Chelsea Royal BCMan Chi Burley Lee Havering London BCAmandeep Chera Hounslow London BCJulie Chester Waverley Borough CouncilMartin Harding Wandsworth London BCCheril Joseph Reading Borough CouncilMathew Kupara Ealing London BCLynda Leesmith Broadland District CouncilTracy Lewis Maldon District CouncilHarminder Persad Hounslow London BCMartin Williams Corporation Of LondonKatarzyna Woropajew Camden London BCSam Allibone Wrexham County BCChristopher Newton Wrexham County BCStephanie Taylor Wrexham County BCNicola Best Stockton On Tees BCMichelle Greenwell Durham County CouncilStefan Houghton Stockton On Tees BCBarrie Bishop West Lothian CouncilCatherine Brannan Dundee City CouncilBrendon Clark North Lanarkshire CouncilAndrew Collinge Clackmannanshire CouncilLes Corbet North Lanarkshire CouncilPaul Fallon City of Edinburgh CouncilDenise Forsyth Aberdeenshire CouncilEoin Gainford Glasgow City CouncilLindsey Gilchrist City of Edinburgh CouncilJulie Haddick Angus CouncilJacqui Kopel Dundee City CouncilKatrina Lowe Falkirk CouncilTracy McCartney Falkirk CouncilSteven McKnight North Lanarkshire CouncilKarla Roarty Glasgow City CouncilAndrew Saum Dundee City CouncilMargaret Thomson Argyll And Bute CouncilDavid Wood City of Edinburgh CouncilDeborah Robinson Swale Borough CouncilBeverley Powe Torridge District CouncilRoss Findlay Brighton & Hove City CouncilColin Adams Stockport Metropolitan BCAlison Bellingham Wolverhampton City CouncilMathew Burgess Newcastle Under Lyme BCJayne Evans Wolverhampton City CouncilLauren Farmer North Warwickshire BCTam Fujii Telford & Wrekin CouncilWilliam Gilmore Solihull Community HousingKaren Holtom Coventry City CouncilNia Jackson Walsall Metropolitan BCMichelle Kettles South Staffordshire DCChristopher Lander South Staffordshire DCStephen Mansell Sandwell Metropolitan BCCarol Anne Newell Nuneaton & Bedworth BCHarminder Pabla Walsall Metropolitan BCSailesh Purohit Walsall Metropolitan BCVictoria Rogers Newcastle Under Lyme BCAlison Root Nuneaton & Bedworth BCBarrie Strain Coventry City CouncilStephen Watkinson Sandwell Metropolitan BCStephen Whitehouse Wolverhampton City CouncilDavid Yates Walsall Metropolitan BCDonna Barlow City Of Bradford MBCSusan Pounder Scarborough Borough Council

Diploma members Name employerRhianon Evans Leicester City CouncilBelinda Green South Northamptonshire CAmy McWilliams Comhairle Nan Eilean SiarKevin Yerrill Bedford Borough CouncilAndrew Lawson Telford & Wrekin CouncilKelly Weaver Colliers InternationalRobert Coleman Pembrokeshire County Council

Honours members Name employerKathryn Ellis Leicester City CouncilLee Learwood-Griffiths South Holland District CouncilSarah Musson Leicester City CouncilAnthony Sherriff North West Leicestershire DCPhil Hampson Preston Office VTS Joanne Blackwood Wandsworth London BC

Malcolm Buckland Witham Office VTSAllan Clark North Hertfordshire DC David Flynn Southend On Sea BCAdrian Strong Adrian Strong AssociatedTracey Fishwick South Tyneside MBCJames McCarthy Highland & Western Isles VJBMhairi Welsh West Lothian CouncilTina Barnard Medway CouncilZoe Kent Swale Borough CouncilZoey Hillary Fareham Borough CouncilGeraint Harris City And County Of SwanseaTony Sykes City Of Bradford MDC

Affiliate members Name employerKhurram Akram Colliers InternationalDerek Brown Colliers International

N/SVQ members Name employerChristopher Kent Cotswold District CouncilChristina Phillips Cotswold District CouncilCarrie Stratford Cotswold District CouncilKerry Wykes Cotswold District CouncilMichelle Lanning Medway Council

More June 2010 examination success!

Latest N/SVQ successes

Congratulations to everyone!!

Belated congratulations are offered to Antonia Bialkova, of Kensington and Chelsea Royal London Borough. Antonia was the prizewinner in Council Tax Law for the Level 3 Certificate, and her name was inadvertently omitted from the list of successes in October Insight – many apologies, Antonia!

Name employerBeNefits Sharon Strath Stockport MBCClaire Wolvin Stockport MBCSarah Thompson Suffolk Coastal DCSamantha Craven Stockport MBCKerry Edwards Durham CCKath Ward Bradford MBCCarrie Maskell Rugby DCPatricia Turley Shepway DCPauline Bucknor Harrow LBCTracey Randall Mansfield DCChristine Ifill Bath & NE Somerset DCBen Davies Bath & NE Somerset DCLeroy Bellingy Not availableSusan Snape Ipswich BCMelissa Jones Gloucester BCAlexandra Nethercot Harrow LBCStuart Alban Swansea CCRena Dhanani Not availableFrances Slade Gloucester BCMohamed Aden Not availableBen Temple South Gloucestershire DCNadia Kauser Pendle BCMarika Hastie Ipswich BCMike Alvarez Babergh DC

reVeNUesJoanne Saunders Rochdale MBCNick Long Stockport MBCChristine Jowitt Barking & Dagenham LBCRebecca Dean Flintshire CCAndrew Taylor Flintshire CCRichard Mallon Flintshire CCSuzanne Heyslop Bath & NE Somerset DCLucy Hallett Bath & NE Somerset DCTracy Crossley Tower Hamlets LBCHazel Van Rooyen Tower Hamlets LBCJeffrey Williams Swansea CCJason Davies Swansea CCTochukwu Okoye Harrow LBCLiz Lewis Swale BCAllan Ramsay Edinburgh CCRoss McLauchlan Edinburgh CC

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dsInsight is pleased to bring you a pictorial summary of the ‘big event’ of 2010, the Institute’s Performance Awards gala dinner, together with highlights of the conference presentations. With record numbers of entries in several categories, the awards go from strength to strength, and with major change on the horizon in all aspects of the IRRV’s work, next year’s event in Bournemouth is a must – see you all there!

2010 IRRVAnnual Conference & Performance Awards

Overall sponsor

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CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTSHIGHLIGHTS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS CONFERENCE CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTSHIGHLIGHTS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS CONFERENCE

REVENUESTeam of the Year

KNOWSLEYMETROPOLITAN

BOROUGH COUNCIL

Award Sponsors:

wINNERS wINNERS wINNERS wINNERS wINNERS

TUESDAY

Mayor of Harrogate welcomes the IRRV

Harrogate Mayor Bill Hoult encouraged

delegates to enjoy their stay in Harrogate, as

he opened this year’s IRRV Annual Conference.

Acknowledging the intense activity currently

affecting the Institute’s members, he urged

those present to use the opportunity to further

their knowledge, and spend time visiting the

exhibition, the conference sessions, and of

course his home town!

Government must heed the warnings of the professionals, urges President Geoff Fisher Geoff Fisher’s Presidential keynote address

focused on the challenging times ahead. As

announcements on the Comprehensive Spending Review loom nearer, Geoff warned

government that putting pressure on billing

authorities could risk deteriorating collection

rates. He added that protecting the role of the

Valuation Office Agency was also key, as

was the role of the third sector. “If ‘Big Society’

is going to succeed, it needs supporting,

not cutting”, he stated. Turning to his own

professional expertise, the President described

as “incomprehensible” the decision to yet

again postpone the Council Tax revaluation.

The success of the 2010 business rate

revaluation and the introduction of the IRRV’s

new qualifications regime were successes

worthy of championing, he concluded.

Welfare Reform Minister reassures on anti-fraud measures The new government’s Minister for Welfare Reform, Lord Freud, addressed the IRRV for

the first time, with an assurance that he would

continue the fight against fraud. Earmarking

the £9bn cost of administering the welfare system, he championed the government’s

aims for “reduction and simplification”,

promising to “slash administration costs

and the incidence of fraud and error”. It was

“not about targeting the poor, but targeting

fraudsters and criminals” he added. Lord

Freud gave away little on the ‘universal credit ’

proposals, leaving delegates to fire in question

after question, which he was happy to handle,

but without great substance, as the detail has

yet to emerge. The Minister concluded with

a tribute to the dedication of staff within his

own department and local authority staff, and

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BENEFITSTeam of the Year

NORTH WARWICKSHIRE

BOROUGH COUNCILHighly Commended

Maldon District Council

Award Sponsors:


a commitment to closer co-operation between

the private sector and local authorities,

particularly in the area of data sharing and

credit referencing.

Economics guru Tony Travers presents his ‘antidote for local government’ Well-known LSE economics expert and IRRV

Honorary Member Tony Travers presented

a fascinating insight into the future of local

government, as he chronicled the current

problems facing the sector. Citing the “sudden

change of direction on public expenditure”

as a major concern, he warned that the

protection of public services such as health

and education would impose greater burdens

and heavier cuts on the rest. While short

term responses such as pay freezes and

job freezes, together with delays in capital

expenditure, were inevitable, new ways of

delivering services were equally important.

Revealing his ‘antidote’, Tony concluded in

upbeat mode, stating that tax raising is still very important, change allows invention and

innovation, and finally that the next four years

will not necessarily be bleak... but they will

certainly be very interesting!

Localism is the key, asserts Nick Sharman of A4e The final presentation of the first day

of Conference saw Nick Sharman, Local

Government Director of A4e, talking up the

role of local authorities in the welfare to work agenda. Nick emphasised the need

for new approaches to the work programme,

and ‘smarter’ regeneration projects with an

increased role for the private sector in the

building of workforce skills. His vision also

encompassed integrated services for people

and communities, and not just to save money,

although he urged organisations working

within their own cultures to bring together the

skills required to carry out that integration.

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Team of the Year

SUTTON LONDONBOROUGH COUNCIL

(Benefits)

Award Sponsors:


Ombudsman predicts complaints increase as cuts begin to bite

Local Government Ombudsman Tony

Redmond warned delegates of a potential

increase in complaints as he addressed

the revenues stream of the Conference. In

spite of a decrease in benefit complaints as

administration improvements cut in, the trend

will continue, he predicted. Tony undertook to

consult with bodies like the IRRV to ensure that

complaint trends are monitored. “We are in the

same boat as you”, he announced in relation

to the cuts in funding. Key reports to be issued

by his service awaited included the thorny

issue of the use of bankruptcy – autumn

2010 being the scheduled released date.

Dave Chapman urges delegates to “support your bailiff”Key IRRV player Dave Chapman urged

delegates to ensure effective liaison with

their bailiffs in the new climate. With the

continuous delay surrounding legislative

change, the role of the bailiff industry still

provokes interest... and misinformation... in the

media, said Dave. His search of the internet

for “aggressive bailiff actions” led him to the

view that what was really needed was a search

for “aggressive debtor”, which was far more

prevalent in the current climate. Dave further

warmed to the attendees with his view that

the deterrent of committal should be retained

as a consequence of non-payment.

Conference welcomes clarification of the role of the VTS and the VTEValuation Tribunal Service Chief Executive

Tony Masella treated delegates to a summary

of the enormous changes that have faced

his organisation in recent years, with the

intention, he said, of “removing some of the

criticism thrown at them!” Tony summarised

progress in relation to the issue of practice statements, flagging up the fifteen that had

been issued to date. “Valuers hate the words

‘practice statements’ ”, he added – “they

usually throw tomatoes…often in tins! ”

He outlined the expectations of the new body

at hearings, and took delegates through the

distinction between the VTS and the VTE.

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JOINT WINNERSWALTHAM FOREST

LONDON BOROUGH COUNCIL

WYRE BOROUGHCOUNCIL

Award Sponsors:


Waltham Forest London Borough Council

Wyre Borough Council

“Understand the needs of your population” says Great Yarmouth’s Jane Ratcliffe

Great Yarmouth’s Executive Director –

Customer Services, Jane Ratcliffe, had a few

simple guidelines to impart to Conference

in relation to dealing with the human aspect

of the recession and its fallout. “Know what

impact your work has on different groups,

gather information, consult, assess the impact

and take action to deliver” she summarised.

Jane also urged delegates to get to know their

population, to treat customers as individuals,

and to identify gaps in service provision.

Quoting from research carried out in Norfolk,

she pointed to the need for ‘community

champions’, and she echoed Tony Travers’

view from the opening day that the current

climate provided a huge opportunity to reinvent things. “Redesign systems to

encourage people to understand why they

should pay”, and appreciating the “power of

the citizen“ were key issues on her agenda.

DWP aims for seamless in and out of work benefit system DWP Head of Housing Benefit Strategy

Division Paul Howarth announced before

a packed house that while no decision had

been taken, “there was a strong argument to

include housing benefit within the proposed

Universal Credit”. Paul conceded that a

transition period with many steps may be

necessary, though, if that were to be the case.

Paul spoke of the “Ballooning costs” of the

benefit system, and took delegates through

the immediate changes that they were facing,

but leading on to the eagerly awaited views

from the Department, he reinforced the new

government’s commitment to radical reform.

Acknowledging that “Council Tax Benefit was

radically different as a rebate on a local tax”,

Paul stated that a localised administration

could still be on the cards. He also warned

delegates that further cuts in administration

grant were likely, and hinted that more

announcements were expected in October.

IRRV PERFORMANCE AWARDS 2010 CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTSHIGHLIGHTS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS CONFERENCE CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTSHIGHLIGHTS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS CONFERENCE

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DENBIGHSHIRECOUNTY COUNCIL

“Business as usual” for Audit Commission

The Audit Commission’s Tim Savill reminded

delegates that in spite of the Commission

coming to an end in 2012, the 2010/11

programme of work will continue, and possibly

beyond. Tim pointed to the successes of the

Commission in working with local authorities,

asserting that, “a good inspection is like

holding up a mirror – it’s a reflection of what

the Commission and customers see”. He

added that he felt that inspections through

KLOE had focused local authority attention

on looking at the right areas for improvement,

and he concluded with a reminder that the

Commission’s latest ‘Protecting the Public

Purse’ report would be released very soon.

Sharing best practice is top of the integration agenda, says Louise FreethLouise Freeth, Revenues Benefits and Fraud

Group Manager with Dacorum Council, was

quick to point to the need to share best practice to combat the current cuts agenda

in benefits. Louise encouraged delegates to

identify opportunities to operate revenues

and benefits alongside each other, to create

better liaison with housing services, and to

explore greater partnership working initiatives.

“Save save save” is the main driver for change,

she emphasised, pushing for multi-skilled

staff and the removal of ‘service overlap’ as a

means of combating the current constraints.

Louise highlighted initiatives such as the

merger of benefits processing with social

services functions, while warning against the

barriers of political will, data protection, and

the occasional lack of direction from counties

within the two tier administration.

WEDNESDAY

The place for ‘lean’ in revenues administration

Chris Howells of the Continuous Improvement

Practice Ltd took delegates through a fascinating

tour of the next phase of the efficiency agenda,

and the continuing demand for change. Chris

raised new options, for example setting up

social enterprises in the collection of council

tax and other debt, urging delegates to stretch

their minds to new thinking and new cultures.

His recipe for continued success included

viewing the Big Society as an opportunity

to be creative, managing and anticipating as

crucial, trusting staff – “it’s amazing where

the ideas come from” – and using continuous

improvement as “the catalyst for change to

save money and make improvements for

citizens and customer service”.

IRRV ‘lean academy’ fits into Tony Worsdall’s plans Tony Worsdall, Managing Director of e-mpirical

Ltd echoed the views of earlier speakers

in warning delegates to avoid reinventing

the wheel as they tackle the government’s

savings agenda. “Lean gives a set of tools”, he

said, “but basically it’s common sense which

constantly needs work to be effective”. The

Big Society idea is an opportunity to configure

services towards local need, he added. Tony

continued with his assertion that benefit users

need a “basket of services” including health

and social care, for example, suggesting that

social enterprises may be able to help deliver

these services. Tony used the opportunity to

promote the IRRV’s ‘lean’ Improvement and Efficiency Academy collaboration, which

will develop and share best practice across

revenues, benefits and customer service, in

addition to delivering added value – delegates

were encouraged to feed back their views

through www.irrviea.org.uk.



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& Development

NORTH EASTLINCOLNSHIRE

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SUTTON LONDONBOROUGH COUNCIL

Award Sponsors:


WEDNESDAY

Key benefit practitioners mount fierce defence of local authority benefit service provision

Leeds City Council’s Steve Carey promised

and delivered a ‘rant’! Steve blamed the DWP

for a lack of strategic direction in heading

for a Jobcentre Plus delivery of what local

authority’s could deliver much better. It was his

belief that housing benefit is not a barrier to

work – “worry about loss of income and home

is a barrier”, he asserted. “Universal Credit will

be about managing the limitations of Jobcentre

Plus”. Steve continued by pointing out that

the biggest change for private tenants in

Leeds wasn’t Local Housing Allowance but

unemployment. His conclusion to a punchy and

passionate presentation was a clear statement

that the DWP had failed to focus correctly

on what matters... and local authorities have

contributed by failing to exercise control.

Steve was followed by an equally passionate

view expressed by Tandridge Head of Revenues

and Benefits and IRRV Past President Julie

Holden. Julie said that “the gloves were off”,

seeking support from the floor to tell the

DWP that “we are the best people to deliver

services. Localisation won’t be about shifting

to local government, but moving services from

the centre to local control and delivery”, Julie

added, stating, “if we want to deliver services

we need to say so now!” Julie warned that if

local authorities were just left with discretionary

services, a postcode lottery would prevail.

The benefit secure gateway still needs attention, says Jim McCaffertyDWP targets to reduce paperwork will result in

a lack of verification, claimed West Lothian’s

Jim McCafferty. Jim urged delegates to

challenge the Department on issues of

proportionality and reasonableness, adding that

there are significant risks to local authorities if

the gateway is not protected effectively. Local

authorities need to be aware of their own

data and what it tells them, needing also to

recognise the impact of cuts while addressing

continual improvement. He also pointed to

the need to ensure that members and senior

management were well aware of the potential

risk and loss that could result.



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EAST RIDING OFYORKSHIRE COUNCIL

in partnership witharvato Government

Services

Award Sponsors:


THURSDAY

Andrew Davis

Andrew gave a talk on how Experian is working

with local and central government in the

identification of fraud and also overpayment

recoveries, in respect of tax credits, JobCentre

Plus, housing and council tax benefit, single

person discount and the DVLA. Andrew

reported that his organisation had helped

stop £1bn in fraud. They use electronic ID

verification, which:

Allows for ‘fast tracking’, as no paper proof •

is required

Gives a system that looks at customers’ other •

patterns through credit checking

Provides a probability score on individuals, •

and flags up those with a high risk of possible

fraud for further checking

Provides access to information on past •

fraud offences

Provides profiling (Mosaic) which looks at the •

behaviour of individuals and groups them into

categories, using factors such as the area they

live in, the types of cars they drive, through to

their social habits.

Andrew identified that young well educated city

dwellers commit almost double the fraud than

the population percentage in this type of group.

“This previously unsuspected group is probably

the one that requires targeting”, he asserted.

The software has helped organisations identify

the ‘hard to find’ fraud, and saved DWP/LAs an

estimated £11 to £17 million per annum

in fraud.

Nadia Peterkin of Experian followed on from

Andrew with a stark report on the size of debt

in the UK. She confirmed that personal debt

stands at approximately £1.456 billion, with the

average debt per adult on loans and store

cards, etc., standing at £4467.

Nadia explained that the economic downturn

has affected the ways in which collection can

successfully be carried out, as a whole different

breed of people are finding themselves in a

situation where they are unable to meet their

liabilities. This has brought about the need

for some new approaches for getting the

money back.

Experian estimate there is in excess of £37bn

of outstanding debt in the public sector, and

they have developed a model which matches

their ‘Mosaic’ profiling with authority debtors to

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Jose Lopez Garrido

Jose gave an insight into the Spanish model

of local government with the discussion

rightly around their taxation system, and

how his organisation, SUMA, was born as the

administration arm for local taxation in the

Alicante region. Again we heard how local

government was best placed to interact with

local citizens.

Local authorities still hold the powers

around local taxation, but delegate this to

SUMA, who is in effect an ‘outsourced shared

service’, although still a public body. SUMA

assists authorities in all tax related issues from

the billing to the collection and enforcement

work for 141 city councils. This provides large

economies of scale and therefore savings to all

councils. It was interesting to note that SUMA

borrows money from banks at the beginning

of the tax year and pays all the city councils in

advance, thus giving the councils the benefit

of all the revenue at the outset leaving them

only needing to concentrate on expenditure.

“SUMA has a high level of autonomy”, Jose

pointed out, as he detailed the manner

in which his teams work with the local

authorities. He impressed the audience

with his low cost of collection figures, and

collection rates, which rival those of UK

councils. This, he explained, was the main

driver behind the creation of the organisation

in the first place, and he went on to outline

the main advantages, which have led to a

network of ‘one stop shops’, and advanced

technological solutions that have contributed

to SUMA as a worldwide award-winning

provider.


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EXCELLENCEin Valuation

THE ASSOCIATION OF CHIEF ESTATES SURVEYORS & PROPERTY MANAGERSIN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

(ACES)

Award Sponsors:


These reports are provided by Tina Barnard, Allan Clark, Kathryn Ellis, Zoe Kent and Sharon Harvey, to whom the Insight editorial team passes on its thanks.

For more on events on the Thursday of the Annual Conference, read “Student Corner”, on page 27 of this month’s Insight.

THURSDAY

Photographs courtesy of Andrew Mardell of

ARM Photography – www.armphotography.co.uk

and Richard Guy

For more photographs of the event, go to www.irrv.net

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VISIT WWW.IRRV.NET FOR MORE AWARDS NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHS

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Don’t hang up!Julian Mead, National Manager of Inform Communications explodes a few myths about what the public really wants

The telephone is still the first choice access channel

So, what’s caused this dramatic turnaround in

customer’s perceptions? Well, as usual, it’s a

mixture of things. Firstly, customer expectations

– they now prefer to get their enquiry resolved

quickly, first time, by whichever method proves the

most convenient and efficient. Massively improved

websites have become increasingly successful in

resolving enquires round the clock but the

telephone remains the most chosen route for

contacting the council. So why not extend the

same customer service message to telephone

customers i.e. you can now access or leave a wide

range of information 24/7/365 – without waiting

in long queues or being asked to call back when

offices re-open? Customers now expect fast,

efficient service delivery 24/7 and are increasingly

willing and able to serve themselves - options and

alternatives are the name of the game nowadays.

Ask an expertAnd, secondly, it took specialist, focused service

providers like Inform Communications to identify

that it wasn’t just the technology that was

important here but the scripting, the way the

service flows for the customer and the ability to

both access and leave relevant, comprehensive

and up-to-date information. This is the art of

building, hosting and updating modern, efficient

Let’s be honest, automated call-handling or IVR

(Interactive Voice Response) has had a tarnished

reputation over the years. In the early days,

many poorly designed services gave very little

information, or simply kept you going around in a

never-ending loop with few, if any, opportunities to

speak to an advisor . Quite justifiably, there was a

back-lash from both organisations and customers.

How times have changed. Automated services

have become increasingly sophisticated whilst

becoming easier to use - here are some figures that

might surprise you.

Quite remarkable results and a Customer Services

Manager’s dream to be able to report high

customer satisfaction, low call waiting times and

zero abandonment rates. Customers are obviously

becoming more sophisticated and used to getting

what they need, on demand, when they need it,

24 hours a day.

It’s a matter of choiceBut the surprises don’t end there. On average,

over 70% of customers choose to remain within

the service rather than speak to an advisor, even

though the scripts give many options to be able to

be transferred. On an annual call volume of 80,000,

this releases the equivalent of five to six FTEs’ time.

In these austere times and with budgets under such

huge pressure, this opportunity should be on

every agenda.

For more information visit

www.informselfservice.com

automated services and takes many years of

experience to get right first time. So even if you

have your own in-house IVR capability in your

telephone system, partnering with a specialist

service provider can save a lot of time (a complete

service can be set up in just six weeks) and

give you options and opportunities for cost and

efficiency savings straight away.

Self Service means good serviceSelf Service is no longer viewed by Inform’s rapidly

growing number of clients as just an ‘ambulance’

for short-term issues such as end-of-year billing,

but as an on-going, permanent, effective business

tool for delivering customer service excellence

across the whole council. For example, London

Borough of Ealing, having started with a Revenues

& Benefits service some three years ago, has now

rolled out the benefits of Self Service to other busy

service areas including Parking, Registrations and

Planning.

Other councils are using Self Service for

Environmental and Housing enquiries.

After only a few months of service Belinda Black,

Director of Customer Services, at the London

Borough of Ealing said:

If you think that automated call handling is generally unpopular, you’ll be surprised to learn that 80% of local authority customers actually prefer it.

UK Local Authority Satisfaction Survey on Automated Self-Service Systems in a Revenues & Benefits Department

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

%

Easy to understand

Did you have tospeak to an officer?

Got what theyneeded from system

Info wasrelevant

Satisfied withtime it took

YES

YES

YES YESYES

NO

NO

NO NONO

“The financial and operational case for Self Service is truly compelling. The facts speak for themselves, over 18,000 calls successfully answered in the first two months with zero complaints. Staff productivity up, queue length and processing times down. The benefit realised has exceeded the initial business case, providing an improved level of service that would have required an additional six full-time staff for the cost of less than two.”

Automated call handling

Annual Billing and Peak recovery are looming, the phones are going to light up and emails will flood in – and you have to make cuts whilst maintaining customer service delivery and productivity standards.

It’s a tough ask.

If 80% of your enquires disappeared overnight, think how much resource that would release...

Self Service can answer an UNLIMITED number of calls and emails 24/7 from less than the cost of one F.T.E. – and we can prove it.

The benefit realised has exceeded the initial business case, providing an improved level of service that would have required an additional six full-time staff for the cost of less than two.

Belinda Black, Director of Customer Services, Ealing Council

Maybe you can get blood out of a stone...

Call us now and find out how you can improve communications and reduce costs

T 0800 068 2008

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W www.informselfservice.com

“”

24/7 Customer Contact Solutions

Hosted & Managed Automated Services

IVR Consultancy

well timed, well informed

self service24/7 Customer Contact Solutions

informINFORM

increased demand...reduced resources...

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SCOTTISH CONFERENCE 2010

Scottish flag up thechallenges ahead

Challenge is the name of the game, David Scott discovers, as he pays his annual visit to the Institute’s Scottish Conference

which included interim reform measures as

a precursor to a longer-term comprehensive

reform for a modernised local property tax

and benefits system. The interim measures

included adjustments to council tax valuation

bands, the start of regular revaluations,

increases in values as soon as improvement

work is completed, enhancement of current

enforcement procedures and measures to

improve tax recovery rates.

In the longer term, discrete capital values

would be introduced. Each council would be

allowed to set their own rate of taxation for

different ranges of properties. There would be

a discretionary power to set a cap on capital

values, and further changes to the benefits

system. Councils would also be given a power

to raise supplementary taxes. The committee

members explained how the inquiry had

provided a real opportunity to look at the

options for change. The intention was to

produce a ‘radical’ report, and not one that

just stood still.

One of the reasons for proposing discrete

capital values was the fact that this system had

already been introduced in Northern Ireland,

and was working very successfully. There was

still an opportunity for more ‘input’ into the

inquiry committee before the final report

was produced.

Scottish Association Executive member

Ian Ballance said he believed there was no

point in ‘tinkering’ with the present council tax

system. A system based on 1991 valuations

was ‘dead in the water.’ He did not think that

adding bands to the top and bottom was very

practical. “We’re wasting time and resources

tinkering with it,” he said.

On the second day of the conference,

views on the interim report were given by

leading spokesmen from the four major

political parties in Scotland. Derek Brownlee

MSP, finance spokesman for the Scottish

Conservatives, underlined his party’s

continuing commitment to a property based

The late summer sun shone on the Perthshire

town of Crieff when members of the IRRV

Scottish Association held their annual

conference in September. But the gloomy

clouds of the recession hovered menacingly

in the distance. It was perhaps inevitable

that the recession and the impact on public

services were prominent on the agenda during

the two-day event – valuation in a recession,

securing welfare rights in a recession and

delivering services in a recession.

However, the word ‘challenge’ also

dominated the speeches and debates – the

challenge of change, of protecting services

in one of the most difficult financial periods

experienced in living memory, and the

challenges of taxation reform at both national

and local level.

The conference saw the publication of

‘emerging findings’ from the IRRV committee

of inquiry into local taxation in Scotland.

The original aim had been to produce a

final report, but the inquiry committee felt

it important to consider the implications of

the change of government and the October

spending review before publishing the final

report, which is now timed for the end

of 2010.

Three members of the inquiry committee –

IRRV Chief Executive David Magor, who chaired

it, Scottish Association President Brian Jeffrey,

and IRRV Council member Richard Harbord

– commented on the emerging findings,

David Scott is a freelance writer specialising

in Scottish governance issues

tax. However, he stressed that his party was

inherently sceptical about the idea of moving

away from a band system to one purely based

on property value.

Scottish Labour’s local government

spokesman, Michael McMahon MSP, agreed

that a property based tax should be retained.

He pointed out that in the three year period

since Labour went out of office at the Scottish

Parliament, the party had been looking again

at the future of local taxation and was hoping

to issue a report around October.

Jeremy Purvis MSP, finance spokesman for

the Scottish Liberal Democrats, said it was

‘bizarre’ that a system should be based on

1991 values, but added that his heart sank

at the prospect of ‘constant revaluations.’

Mr Purvis reaffirmed his view that a local

income tax (LIT) was the best way forward.

John Wilson MSP, representing the

Scottish National Party, stressed his party’s

commitment to LIT. However, the most

controversial issue raised by the speaker

concerned the Scottish Parliament member’s

bill for the enforcement of local tax arrears.

The proposed legislation aims to align

local authority powers to pursue tax debts

with those of other debts. Mr Wilson argued

against councils continuing to have the power

to pursue people with council tax or poll tax

arrears for up to 20 years, whereas ordinary

creditors had to initiate court action to pursue

debts within the ‘more reasonable’ timescale

of five years.

Brian Jeffrey emphasised that the inquiry

committee had come out strongly in favour

of retaining summary warrants as the primary

route to recovery. Dorothy Lowe, President of

the Society of Messengers at Arms and Sheriff

Officers in Scotland, disputed Mr Wilson’s

claim that, according to the experience of one

constituent, sheriff officers charged the council

tax debtor a fee of £50 for a home visit.

The Secretary of State for Scotland, Michael

Moore, was due to address the conference

CrieffHydro

“The committee members explained how the inquiry had provided a real opportunity to look at the options for change”

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SCOTTISH CONFERENCE 2010

but was unable to attend due to another

commitment. His place was taken by

Alisdair McIntosh, Director, Scotland Office.

Mr McIntosh spoke of the challenges facing

public services in Scotland and the changes in

prospect for the future funding of the Scottish

Government and Scottish Parliament. With

deficit reduction “a must, not an option” cuts

in public spending were inevitable in Scotland.

There was scope for improved productivity in

public spending. Mr McIntosh also referred to

increases in welfare spending, pointing out

that this had risen by almost 50 per cent in the

past ten years.

Responding later, David Magor said the rise

was “totally inevitable.” The majority of it was

due to statutory growth. Welfare spending

was not out of control. Year on year increases

were linked to inflation and due to increases in

unemployment. “The sooner the government

understand that the better,” Mr Magor told

the audience.

A new government – where now for benefit

reform? This was the question addressed by

Paul Howarth, head of the housing benefit

strategy division at the Department for Work

and Pensions, and by benefits adviser Peter

Meehan. Mr Howarth outlined the overall

context of reform – the rising cost of housing

benefit (which would cost £21bn in 2010-

11), the principle of fairness, improved

work incentives, working age benefit reform

and different arrangements for pensions.

Richard Gass, chair of Rights Advice Scotland,

predicted that Scotland could lose out by

£234 million as a result of the change from

incapacity benefit to employment support or

job seekers’ allowance.

During the two day conference, delegates

listened to a number of contributions

providing examples of how efficiency can be

improved and services maintained at a time

of recession. These included the benefits

of shared services, as explained by Sir John

Arbuthnott, who chaired a review of joint

working in the Clyde Valley, and by Tim Delany,

Head of Revenues and Benefits for the CenSus

Partnership. The advantages of providing

customer friendly online services were

outlined by former IRRV national President

Carol Cutler, Director of Customer Services

at Harrow Council, while the importance of

continuous improvement was emphasised by

Chris Howells, of Continuous Improvement

Practice Ltd, and by Mark McAteer, of the

Improvement Service.

Lloyd Clark, director of the local government

business group Liberata, spoke of the almost

CrieffHydro

“During the two day conference, delegates listened to a number of contributions providing examples of how efficiency can be improved and services maintained at a time of recession”

unprecedented challenge facing the public

sector today. Perth and Kinross Chief Executive

Bernadette Malone explained how her own

council was tackling the delivery of services

in a recession. Ms Malone reminded the

audience that, “we are here to deliver for

the customers and the community”, and she

emphasised, “We cannot be complacent

about that.”

The issues facing valuation in a recession,

including the prospect of a higher number

of appeals, were highlighted by Craig Wilson,

Head of Rating for Eric Young and Co., and

by the Deputy Assessor for Ayrshire, Alastair

Kirkwood, while IRRV national President

Geoff Fisher gave an insight into the property

and regeneration implications of the 2012

London Olympic Games. In valuation, does

transparency mean correct? This question was

addressed by Glasgow City Assessor Hugh

Munro and Billy McKaig, Senior Director,

BNP Paribas Real Estate.

At the conclusion of the conference,

Mr Fisher summed up the highly topical

speeches and debates. He predicted that

seven years of difficult times lay ahead. There

was general agreement that the conference

had provided a well-timed opportunity to plan

for these years of challenge.

President Geoff Fisher with Scottish Association President Brian Jeffrey and successful Scottish students Feeding time for the IRRV HQ team

The bustling exhibition areaA grilling for the awards village participants

Faculty Board update

26

The IRRV’s Valuation Faculty Board have welcomed the opportunity to evaluate the success of the 2010 business rate revaluation, as roger Messenger outlines

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Roger Messenger BSc (Est Man) FRICS

IRRV (Hons) MCIArb REV is Chairman of

the Valuation Faculty Board, and Senior

Vice-President of the Institute

Evaluating the revaluation...

bodies represented on the PBLG. This action

was viewed as unacceptable.

A further significant problem occurred on

the website, where ‘Lisa’, the virtual assistant,

appeared to inform ratepayers not only that

appeals lodged by advisers would not receive

any priority (correct and proper), but that

employing an adviser could delay the handling

of their case (incorrect and clearly improper).

The Institute’s response concludes that

the fundamental issue of concern in the

2010 revaluation process is the capacity,

management, and financing of the Agency’s

information technology capability.

It was pleasing to be part of the Institute’s

Valuer Conference, at the Annual

Conference in Harrogate recently. A packed

room witnessed a series of thought-provoking

presentations, starting with IRRV President

Geoff Fisher, at home in his specialist area.

The morning session saw Geoff joined on

the platform by fellow Institute Council

Member and VOA Director Mary Hardman,

speaking on the role of the Agency, followed

by the Institute’s own Gary Watson, giving

the low-down on completion notices. Robert

Brown from Sanderson Weatherall, at home

in his native Harrogate, and the ‘man in the

frame’, Professor Graham Zellick, President of

the Valuation Tribunal for England, kept the

audience captivated until lunch time.

The afternoon saw Duncan Preston, Roger

Messenger, Bob Perry of the Association of

I reported recently that the Valuation Office

Agency had commenced an evaluation review

of the 2010 NDR revaluation and sought

feedback on all aspects of the revaluation

process, including how it deployed its

communication strategy, how well it improved

its property database, and its methods of

obtaining accurate and up to date rental,

trade or cost information upon which to base

valuations. The Agency has also sought to

improve both the number of valuations that

are both validated at a much earlier stage in

the process and which are right first time,

and the arrangements for notifying ratepayers

of their draft valuations, helping them to

understand their likely rates bill, and dealing

with the subsequent enquiries.

The Valuation Faculty Board led on

the IRRV response. It was noted that the

Agency’s timeframe for delivery of the

various stages of the process was significantly

tighter than in previous revaluations, and was

successfully achieved, allowing earlier and

fuller publication, which in turn appears to

have improved the acceptability of the new

assessments, together with a fuller and more

‘user friendly’ website for ratepayers to

investigate the process as it affects them.

In particular, two issues on communication

marred the overall success and goodwill for

professional advisers as represented in the

National Ratepayers’ Forum (NRF) and the

Professional Bodies Liaison Group (PBLG).

The Agency, having sought extensive

co-operation to agree the wording of a

covering letter to be sent to ratepayers,

then without consultation wrote to firms of

accountants, encouraging them to act as

advisers to ratepayers, without extending the

invitation to other professions, notably the

Chartered Estates Surveyors – later in the

week to celebrate a win in the Valuation Team

Award – and Philip Maud of Hammonds, who

concluded the day with a fascinating review

of current compulsory purchase, regeneration

and compensation issues. A more complete

report on the event will be provided in the

December edition of Valuer.

A three week response window opened

and closed in October for comment on

the proposed Lands Chamber Practice Directions, which will supplement the new

Rules to govern proceedings in the Upper

Tribunal (Lands Chamber), and which will

replace the Interim Practice Directions made

on 13 May 2009. At the time of writing VFB

were formulating their response.

The proposed Practice Directions largely

incorporate what is contained in the Interim

Practice Directions, save in three respects.

These are:

Section 6• of the proposed Practice Directions

(replacing section 9 of the Interim Practice

Directions) which deals with statements of

case. This is because new provisions relating

to them are made in the new Rules

Section 7• of the proposed Practice

Directions (replacing section 17 of the

Interim Practice Directions) which deals with

expert evidence. Some of the content of

section 17 of the Interim Practice Directions

is now in new Rule 17, and provisions are

now included that relate to the instruction of

a single jointly-instructed expert witness

Other parts of the Interim Practice Direction •

have been excluded because they are no

longer considered to be appropriate in a

Practice Direction (e.g. “Arranging

the hearing”).

The full letter of response to the VOA

consultation on the 2010 revaluation

is reproduced in Valuation Corner,

on page 30 of this month’s Insight

“the fundamental issue of concern in the 2010 revaluation process is the capacity, management, and financing of the agency’s information technology capability.”

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friendly, with easy to understand prompts

and good navigation.

Once this is all set up and running

correctly, there is the option to force

customers away from the old trusted method

of picking up the phone, by reducing phone

answering services, which would push the

customer to use the new electronic method

of contact. To take this all a step further,

your aspirations should include some sort

of access for the citizen to their data, so

that they can check their accounts through

a secure pathway, for example viewing

their decision notices for benefit on line

or perhaps checking what payments have

actually been made.

Insight brings news and views from some of the newly-qualified Conference attendees

deal with some social service functions,

revenues, benefits and school meals, etc. This

would mean that the customer could tell us

once of the change via an electronic customer

interaction, and everything would be dealt

with at the same time, from free school meals

to their housing benefit. So there is a real

chance for customer satisfaction as well as

efficiency savings.

The key to this approach is however shifting

your customers to this sort of interaction, and

therefore your citizen demographics must be

studied to ensure everyone can still obtain

a service from you. For example, work may

be required with the third sector, to ensure

vulnerable customers don’t slip through the

net. Work would have to be undertaken to

try and identify what percentage of your

customers actually have access to electronic

communication. Most importantly, you must

ensure the platform you are providing is user

Dominic Cain of Southwark LBC presented an

interesting talk on what could be described as

‘channel shifting’. He entitled his discussion,

‘The good the bad and the strategy’, centring

around the paper he produced for his own

authority in an attempt to bring customer

contact and satisfaction to the forefront of his

corporate management team.

Dominic, like many other speakers,

identified the need to move customer contact

away from the expensive ways of the past

and into a more electronic and therefore less

‘human interacted’ service. “Self-serve is the

way forward, and will produce a real saving

for authorities”, he said, “as less time will be

needed for officers to answer enquiries from

their customers and ultimately less staff will

be needed to provide the same level

of service”.

Again localised services were to the fore,

with Dominic stating that one service could

“Success is not measured by what you

accomplish, but by the opposition you have

encountered and the courage with which

you have maintained the struggle against

overwhelming odds”. In Richard Harbord’s

IRRV/Liberata research into shared services

his opening line rang true not only in the ‘hot’

conference topic of shared services, but also

as a graduate of the IRRV (Hons) route.

When I committed to studying for the

full professional qualification, I found a

motivational statement that I wrote on my

kitchen blackboard from Anita Roddick – a

woman I admired for her tremendous courage.

It goes, “Be courageous, it is one of the only

places left uncrowded”. This line saw me

through the ‘ups and downs’ of committing

to four years of study with a new husband

and two small step-children. For me, the

overwhelming sense of ‘success’ drives you

to continue to be ‘courageous’ in the current

climate of cultural change.

Richard encouraged us (in his inimitable

humourous style) to challenge existing

services and the way they are delivered,

especially in the areas of service

rationalisation, shared services, grouping of

services for ‘lean’ efficiencies, and providing

better value for money. To work together

and generate an environment of trust and

confidence in what you are doing, he added,

“If you believe in local authorities and

localism, saving money is a by-product of

the things you do for your community”. We

must continue to design our services around

customer service and resident satisfaction.

And, to be successful you have to ‘feel’

successful on the inside. Enduring trust and

commitment, honest consultation between

stakeholders, commitment from the top

(Chief Executive, Leader(s) of councils and

service directors), co-operation from staff and

management openness, communication and

transparency are all key to success.

This rings true not only in the shared

service agenda, but also if you are embarking

on a full professional qualification. So go on,

be courageous, because it really is one of the

only places left uncrowded!

Readers are urged to return the IRRV/Liberata questionnaires sent to every local authority on shared service provision to date. Your experiences are needed as this key subject gathers pace.

Kathryn Ellis IRRV (Hons) is Revenues and Benefits Team Leader (Front Line Services) with Leicester City Council

Allan Clark IRRV (Hons) is Senior Benefits Officer with North Hertfordshire District Council

Don’t forget to check out pages 11 to 21 of this month’s Insight for more Annual Conference highlights

benefitS bulletin

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... Julie Holden discovers, as the government’s major welfare shake-up is announced

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Julie Holden IRRV(Hons) CMgr MCMI

is Head of Revenues and Benefits with

Tandridge District Council and an

IRRV Past President

see a degree of unrest and unhappiness about

this. Maybe you say, “good, about time”. I

however reflect on the original intention of child benefit (CB), paid to the mother to

ensure that the child received the benefit of

this money, helping to alleviate child poverty.

If the future is that most benefits are taken

into account, then it is the self same CB that

must be taken away from the child to pay the

landlord the shortfall between the capped HB

and the rent. I also prophesy a quick change to

disregards in HB, as CB is clearly up for grabs!

I accept the need to radically reform the

benefit system, but I do question whether

capping HB through an overall benefit

allowance is the most sensible way of doing

this, as I can only see problems in meeting

rent levels and a lack of understanding in

respect of what has happened. It is another

layer of complexity that we shall have to

explain to customers, as we deal with

the backlash in our new simplified

benefit scheme!

Thanks for this, Mr Osborne – it ’s nice

to know that ‘localism’ features so highly

in welfare. I can’t wait any longer before

submitting this piece, but it ’s IDS’s turn on

the platform next... !

The devil is in the detailleads to more evictions and as a result more

homelessness. What about those people who

are already in temporary accommodation? This

factor alone worries me – rather than restrict

rents, the condition of receiving HB is based

on other entitlements and an overall cap. This

is another change to S130 that will be needed

in the primary legislation.

If landlords are prepared to accept lower

rents, families (and let’s not kid ourselves –

this announcement will affect families more

than any other type of claimant) will be able to

remain, however as their entitlement increases

to other benefit, for example the birth of

another child, HB will reduce. Landlords will

reach their limit. Either monies intended for

non-housing related matters will have to be

paid over, or arrears will accrue. I wonder if

this is legally challengeable?

Among all this is the administration of the

HB scheme itself. A software update will be

necessary to allow this to be catered for, and

there is currently no need to place the actual

income levels of 'passported' cases into the

systems, so this will change. We need to know

the actual amounts and input them so that

the system can calculate an overall amount of

benefit to be awarded as HB.

Clearly, notification letters will have to carry

this calculation, appeals will be available, and

we of course get to be the ‘bad guy’ and give

this news to the benefit customer. I can only

Two days after I had pledged to submit this

article, the Conservative Party conference

started with quite a bang for housing benefit

(HB) delivery, so I thought it best to consider

the announcement by Mr Osborne, and the

effect this may have.

Of course it is all headline stuff and there

is no detail as yet, but the announcement

was that no family would be eligible from 2013 to receive more than £500 per week (£26,000 per annum) in total benefits. This would be administered by local

authorities as part of the HB assessment, with

reductions to HB being applied to ensure that

the overall limit is not exceeded.

So what does this really mean? First of

all, the £26,000 is the guideline as to the

national average family wage. The intention

is that no-one who lives on benefits should

have a total income larger than the average

wage of those who support themselves. This

is clearly a laudable policy and one that will have a great deal of support. However,

the devil will of course be in the detail, as we

are already told this will probably only apply

to working age, it will not apply to those with

disabilities (does that mean the claimant and

partner or the whole household?) and no

doubt there will be other groups, so it starts

to reduce the numbers of people that are

affected by this... and therefore the

overall saving!

As the reduction to the cap is being made

through HB, this means that many people will

not see that they have an entitlement of say

£250 per week HB, but only the amount that

is paid after the cap is imposed – let’s say

£150. The tenant is likely to tell their landlord

that they only qualify for HB of £150, and

therefore that is all they can pay. This surely

“the intention is that no-one who lives on benefits should have a total income larger than the average wage of those who support themselves.”

social inclusion

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The future is still unclear for third sector providers, says colin Holden, in spite of government promises of increased participation

Colin C Holden IRRV(Hons) is General

Manager of East Sussex Credit Union.

Contact him on

[email protected]

recession was to be a benefits assessor –

this is as true today as it was then.

Government is also moving on the policy

of the ‘Big Society’. I met with Nick Hurd

MP, Minister for Civil Society, to talk about this

during the summer, at which time they were

still developing this idea and that of the

‘Big Bank’ financed by dormant bank

accounts. He made it clear that this would

be used for local people to deliver local

services within their communities, with the

state being rolled back so that local charities

and organisations would have a say in how

services were delivered.

However, this assumes that there are the volunteers out there to do this work .

Speaking as a manager of a large number

of volunteers, they will be in for a shock!

Every volunteer organisation has a very

small nucleus of volunteers who stick with

the organisation and become very useful.

However, most organisations have trouble

recruiting volunteers, and when they do they

stay just long enough to get trained, and then

go and get a job.

What I am also not so certain about is

how will this happen in a climate of declining

funding for operating those groups and

charities, and is this not what local councils

are elected to do anyway? It ’s all very well

local and national government moving to a

commissioning process for lots of services,

but if the organisations they want to tender

do not have the capacity to tender due to

previous cuts, then the whole policy will fail.

I think this will be a window to watch,

and my crystal ball is still very misty!

The clouds are gathering

Besides cutting basic incomes, the

government is eager to accelerate previous

proposals to push single parents and claimants

on disability benefits back into the labour

market, and to cut benefits for the long

term unemployed by an indefinite sanction

equating to ten percent of their HB. There

are also ‘hidden’ cuts which will have major

impact, such as the potential increase in

non-dependant deductions whereby money

is deducted from HB/CTB for others over 18

living in the household apart from the claimant

and their partner. How many parents will be

able to bear this loss of benefit? The line is that the ‘non-dependant’ should make up the difference, but this rarely happens, so

disposable income takes another hit.

The effect of all this will be the creation of an

army of people desperate for jobs, however

badly paid, which no doubt will be exploited

by more unscrupulous employers, and for any

in work that wish to take industrial action there

will be plenty of people that will be willing to

step into their shoes if they strike. A further

consequence will be that the numbers seeking

accommodation is likely to rise exponentially,

which in turn will put pressure on housing

providers, and on local authority benefit

teams. There was a view in the eighties that

the best job to have in a local authority in a

As I am writing this before the government’s

spending review in October it is difficult to

deal with specifics, so I will gaze into my

crystal ball to find the impact on the third

sector. What we do know is that the third

sector, as well as local government, is holding

its breath regarding what may happen. But

pleasingly for them, the Prime Minister has

recently issued a statement putting councils

under pressure not to cut grant funding

– despite the fact that the government already has by reducing its Capacity Builders Funding. So we are seeing huge

amounts of political manoeuvring around

possible cuts from all quarters. For instance,

all Chief Constables seem to be issuing dire

warnings about losing policemen off the beat

as a lobbying tactic, whilst local and national

charities are giving out warnings about cuts

in services.

So what exactly is the background to all

this? Well, as a direct result of the banking

crisis over one million people have lost their

jobs. At the time, the government of the day

threw money at the problem to stabilise the

economy, and what we are looking at now is

the consequences of this. The announcements

in October are likely to throw at least another

1.3 million people on to the dole queue,

many of whom will come from the public

sector – all this at a time when the

government is launching a restructuring of

the welfare benefit system.

These proposed cuts will affect both

claimants in work and out of work. Cuts to

Housing Benefit (HB), Council Tax Benefit

(CTB) and Tax Credits will hit millions

throughout the country. According to the

Chartered Institute of Housing, 750,000

people are likely to lose their homes. In

addition, it is likely that these cuts will throw

both individuals and families into spiralling

debt at a time when resources for debt advice

and support for the work of credit unions is

already under extreme pressure.

“There was a view in the eighties that the best job to have in a local authority in a recession was to be a benefits assessor – this is as true today as it was then”

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Valuation Corner

Hands across the sea...

Institute Immediate Past President Geoff Fisher’s final weeks saw him ‘globetrotting’. As readers will know, Geoff ‘s work with Strettons takes in the 2012 Olympic site, but this time he took time to visit a previous Olympic site – Montreal

1976 (pictured), as he and IRRV Chief Executive David Magor delivered presentations to sister body the International Property Tax Institute’s conference earlier in the year. Geoff is also pictured with land and property policy specialist body the Lincoln Institute stalwarts and long-standing friends of the IRRV, Jane Malme and Joan Youngman

The IRRV Responds

was constructive. However, two issues on

communication marred the overall success

and goodwill for professional advisers as

represented in the National Ratepayers’

Forum(NRF) and the Professional Bodies

Liaison Group(PBLG).

The Agency, having sought extensive

co-operation to agree the wording of a

covering letter to be sent to ratepayers,

then without consultation wrote to firms of

accountants encouraging them to act as

advisers to ratepayers, without extending

the invitation to other professions, notably

the bodies represented on the PBLG. This

was clearly partial on the Agency’s part, and

unacceptable as such.

A further breach of impartiality occurred on

the website, where ‘Lisa’ appeared to inform

ratepayers not only that appeals lodged

by advisers would not receive any priority

(correct and proper) but that employing an

adviser could delay the handling of their case

(incorrect and clearly improper). In a process

which relies heavily on mutual trust and

co-operation, these breaches were damaging

and unnecessary.

There were a number of instances of

assessments and groups of assessments

being significantly increased between the

draft and final Lists (presumably in most cases

because the valuations had not been properly

completed in time for the draft list) and this

should be avoided in future. Otherwise the

timetable worked well.

The fundamental issue of concern in the

2010 Revaluation process is the capacity,

management, and financing of the Agency’s

information technology capability. Although

this worked well in the early stages, it failed

to cope with pressures created by the new List

coming into force, and in some key aspects

broke down completely. This is unacceptable,

and the overall IT capacity and robustness

of software must be addressed as a matter

of urgency.”

2010 Revaluation Of Non-Domestic Properties: Project Evaluation: IRRV response

As reported in Roger Messenger’s Faculty

Board report (this month’s Insight – page 26),

the IRRV has responded to VOA consultation

on the recent revaluation of business property.

The Institute’s response is reproduced below:

“This response is restricted to the terms

of reference of the evaluation, which is itself

confined to the mechanism of the revaluation

process, up to its final publication and coming

into effect on 1st April.

The outcome, in valuation terms, and

the accuracy of the new assessments are

therefore outside its scope, and indeed have

yet to be tested.

The Agency’s timeframe for delivery of the

various stages of the process was significantly

tighter than in previous revaluations, and

was successfully achieved, allowing earlier

and fuller publication, which in turn appears

to have improved the acceptability of the

new assessments; together with a fuller and

more ‘user friendly’ website for ratepayers

to investigate the process as it affects them.

The system can never be fully transparent

until a way is found to enable the detailed

rental evidence on which the assessments

have been based to be available for public

scrutiny, but we accept that this is a data

protection issue and as such beyond the

Agency’s authority. It must however remain an

aspiration for future revaluations.

The gathering of rental information also

improved, with more sources being used, and

Forms of Return being better ‘targeted’. There

are still difficulties regarding the issue of

Penalty Notices to be resolved.

There was a significant emphasis placed

on Customer Service, both on the website

and in written advice to ratepayers. There

was also continual liaison through ratepayers’

forums and with the professional bodies which

Welcome,Mr President

Cover story

Kerry Macdermott is the first Welsh President of the IRRV for more than 40 years and proud of it. With infectious optimism, he looks forward to promoting the Institute’s work and interests in what promises to be a difficult period for the public sector. Lester Dinnie reports

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Local government has changed so much

since then” he says, “there is so much more

competition for jobs, much more sense of

purpose and a continual drive for best value

and better performance.

This,” he says, “is why the Institute must

be even more assertive in taking its message

to the marketplace in what promises to

be a tough time for the public sector. The

Institute focuses on achievement and

developing best practice, epitomised by the

annual performance awards which are a

recognition of the achievements of all. It’s

up to the Institute in areas like education

and membership to extend our base. We are

constantly engaging in best practice, advising,

mentoring and educating. We have a member

base that comprises experts in Revenues ,

Rating and Valuation and it is vital that we

continue to be proactive in providing advice to

the relevant government bodies.

Maybe we should also spend a little

more time ensuring that those in ministerial

positions and the media are fully aware of the

vital role of our members.”

Most of all, the new President of the IRRV

is keen to see the Institute in the vanguard

of public sector lobbying following the

government’s comprehensive spending review.

“We mustn’t just accept the fact that we’re

an easy target” he comments, “and the public

sector cannot be expected to repair all the

damage caused by private sector errors.

Constant lobbying of politicians is the key,

a classic illustration of the success of the

practice is the reaction by the government

to the public condemnation of their recent

announcement to remove child benefit from

high earning families. In reality, this is a

low key welfare benefits change compared

to those on the horizon and yet they have

backtracked and qualified the announcement.”

Cover story

Kerry is a patriotic Welshman with the

thoroughly Irish name, courtesy of a Dublin-

born grandfather which truly makes him one

of the ‘little people’ vertically speaking.

When he tells you that his career began

in Swansea more than 35 years ago, it takes

a while to reconcile that information with the

energetic style of the new President of the

IRRV who becomes the 91st holder of

that office.

Currently Head of Revenue Services with

Pembrokeshire County Council, a post he has

held since the inception of the authority, Kerry

intends to attend as many of the Association

events as possible, as they are the lifeblood of

the Institute.

In talking to him, it ’s easy to see

that ‘performance’ is something of a

recurring theme.

“I recall in my early days in local government

that the culture was to have extended Friday

lunches in a local hostelry (where I would

partake in the occasional lemonade) and this

was universally accepted as the norm.”

“We have a member base that comprises experts in Revenues, Rating and Valuation and it is vital that we continue to be proactive in providing advice to the relevant government bodies.”

Looking forward to a busy and active year

doesn’t entirely stand in the way of reflecting

on past times. Indeed Kerry is adamant that

his long association with the IRRV will help him

be an empathetic and effective president.

“I’ve studied valuation. I’ve got a background

in revenues and benefits, so I’d like to think

that I have something to offer all three

faculties. Also I’ve got friends and colleagues

in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland and

look forward to catching up with old friends

and colleagues at the Association events.”

A man with experience in a number

of local authorities having spent time in

Swansea, South Somerset, Llanelli and South

Pembrokeshire, he might be expected to have

selected his career path after very careful

consideration. Kerry, however, is perfectly

happy to concede that his success is owed

entirely to his mother and on somewhat

questionable grounds. “When I left school, I

had three opportunities; one with the Midland

Bank, one with Customs and Excise and one

with the local council in Swansea. My final

decision was swayed by my mum saying it

would be nice to tell the neighbours that I

work in the Guildhall! ”

The burning question is does Kerry fit the

traditional characteristics of the Welsh nation,

in the world of music and song?

“Absolutely not! ” he laughs, “my 12 year old

daughter recently auditioned me for an IRRV

event in Scotland which involved karaoke.

I attempted two Tom Jones hits, ‘What’s New

Pussycat’ and ‘It’s Not Unusual’ then the

slightly less vocally challenging Monkees’ hit

‘I’m a Believer’. This last one on the basis that

if a donkey and a big green monster could

get away with it, so could I. My daughter’s

assessment was brutally honest. She said all

three were rubbish.”

Long time friend, colleague and past

President, Bob Trahern will also vouch for

the new President’s status as being ‘culturally

challenged’, relegating Kerry to the back row

of the chorus in the now infamous Caerleon

Keele reviews.

And Bob has reason to know Kerry as

well as anyone. Attending the same event

on one occasion he found himself without

a room. Following best practice and best

value he checked himself into Kerry’s room

to the astonishment of the receptionist who

“I honestly believe that authorities who don’t work with us will be missing out. When you have staff who are IRRV members you know they are going to be professionally competent and can understand and interpret the relevant legal provisions. They will be the people who perform.”

Lester Dinnie is Editorial Director of Insight

and has worked with the IRRV for over a

decade. His writing credits extend from

technical articles to TV ads.

demanded to know whether SHE would mind.

(In the interests of good taste INSIGHT’s

reporter is able to add that the room in

question had two double beds, and in the

word’s of an eminent politician of our time,

they shared a room but not etc, etc, etc.)

The next Presidential year of office promises

to be highly challenging both for the Institute

and the public sector, but in Kerry Macdermott

it seems the IRRV has someone with the

energy, experience and optimism to do

the job.

“I’ve been on the Institute Council for more

than a decade, taught on the revision courses

since 1992 and been a committee chair for

three years” he reflects, “and I know what

we have to offer our students, our members

and our business partners. Our background

experience and knowledge is far superior

to other professional bodies. I firmly believe

in the Association and the role of President.

We can help local government to be better

educated and better able to deliver in the key

performance areas, which government will

demand and people will expect. I honestly

believe that authorities who don’t work with

us will be missing out. When you have staff

who are IRRV members you know they are

going to be professionally competent and can

understand and interpret the relevant legal

provisions. They will be the people

who perform.”

Cover story

“there is so much more competition for jobs, much more sense of purpose and a continual drive for best value and better performance.”

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FOI update

The Tribunal’s second decision in the case of

Alasdair Roberts v IC and Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (EA/2009/0035) offers further guidance

on applying the fees provisions. The case

concerned a request for lists of records and

comments together with the names of the

creators of the same. The Tribunal accepted

the established principle (see John Jenkins v Information Commissioner and Dept for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EA/2006/0067)) that costs of redacting

information (in this case names) are to be

excluded when working out whether the

request would cost over the appropriate limit.

At paragraph 37 though, it qualified this

as follows:

“…And where the task is as complex as it

would have been in this case, we do not think

it appropriate for the whole process to be

ignored for cost estimate purposes simply on

the basis that it could be said to fall within

the broad scope of “name redaction”.

That may be appropriate where the task is

simply to locate individuals’ names and redact

them if they fall below a particular grade of

seniority. But where, as here, the process

requires a judgment to be made, document

by document, balancing the various criteria

we have identified, then we believe that

much, if not all, of the process should be

regarded as retrieving from each document

the information which requires to be disclosed

and therefore properly included in the

cost estimate.”

Putting a price on personal freedom

Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2002 (FOI) and the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 (SI 2004 No 3244) (the “Regulations”) mean that when a public

authority wishes to refuse an information

request on grounds that to comply with it

would be over the appropriate limit (of £450

or £600), it can only take account of the costs

in doing four things calculated at a rate of £25

per hour:

determining whether it holds the information •

locating the information, or a document •

which may contain the information

retrieving the information, or a document •

which may contain the information, and

extracting the information from a document •

containing it.

“The next question for the Tribunal was whether disclosure of the personal data would be fair and lawful in accordance with the First Data Protection Principle.”

Ibrahim Hasan continues to delve into the complex world of freedom of information and data protection, taking in fees, costs and disclosure case law

Ibrahim Hasan is a solicitor and director of

Act Now Training (www.actnow.org.uk).

He is the course director for Act Now’s

ISEB Certificate in Freedom of Information

course and runs the FOI helpline

“This case shows that the matters of fees and costs estimates are by no mean straightforward, especially when it comes to considering the cost of redacting names from requested documents”

This case shows that the matters of fees

and costs estimates are by no means

straightforward, especially when it comes to

considering the cost of redacting names from

requested documents. What is extraction

to one person may be simple redaction to

another, depending on his/her knowledge and

capability. Expect more arguments to come

on this point. The Roberts decision also

examines the section 40 exemption which we

will come to later.

In the light of the many instances of

controversial use of surveillance by councils

under the Regulation of investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) , the media often make

FOI requests to public authorities for copies

of Office of Surveillance Commissioner (OSC)

inspection reports. These are aimed at ensuing

that public authorities are complying with

Part 2 of RIPA when doing covert surveillance.

There is no single exemption which covers

such reports, and often they will be disclosable

in their entirety, as they will contain no specific

information about surveillance operations.

However, where this is the case or the request

is for wider information about surveillance

activity, the section 31 exemption (law

enforcement) may be claimed.

In an Information Commissioner decision

involving the BBC (Ref: FS50188663 06/05/2010) the complainant requested a

copy of the 2006 OSC inspection report.

He also requested a copy of the OSC’s

covering letter and the BBC’s response to the

report. The BBC disclosed a redacted copy of

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the report, citing section 31. The redactions

included the following types of information

in relation to the BBC’s enforcement activity

against those who do not hold a TV licence:

The number of RIPA authorisations granted •

for the use of equipment in 2006

The process undertaken when investigating •

unlicensed premises, and

Information about detection equipment.•

The Commissioner considered that the

withheld information, in the context of

television licensing, is extremely sensitive, and

was satisfied that disclosure would be likely to

undermine the tactical advantage and ability

of the BBC’s monitoring officers to effectively

use covert surveillance. He was therefore

satisfied that the exemption in section 31(1)

(a) was engaged. He went on to rule that the

public interest in maintaining the exemption

outweighed the public interest in disclosure.

Section 40 provides an exemption from

disclosure of personal data about the

requestor as well as that of third parties.

With regard to the latter, the public authority

must show that disclosure would breach one

of the data protection principles. In Bryce v IC & Cambridgeshire Constabulary (EA/2009/0083) , the request concerned a

report that had been produced following an

inquiry undertaken after the appellant and two

other individuals raised concerns about the

way in which the police had investigated the

death of the appellant’s sister, who had been

killed by her husband in September 1996. The

report addressed the adequacy of the criminal

investigation, as well as the way in which the

complainants had been treated. This judgment

is important because of the definition of

personal data it applies, as well as giving

guidance on the approach to adopt when a

request contains information about a number

of people.

The first question is whether the information

being requested was personal data. Much

has been written over the years about the

significance of the Durant decision (Durant v Financial Services Authority [2003] EWCA Civ 1746) which seems to have substantially

narrowed the definition of personal data.

In the words of Auld J:

“…not all information retrieved from a

computer search against an individual’s name

or unique identifier is personal data within

the Act… It seems to me that there are two

notions which may be of assistance. The first

is whether the information is biographical

in a significant sense, that is, going beyond

the recording of the putative data subject’s

involvement in a matter or an event that

has no personal connotations, a life event

in respect of which his privacy could not be

said to be compromised. The second is one

of focus. The information should have the

putative data subject as its focus rather than

some other person with whom he may have

been involved or some transaction or event in

which he may have figured…”

The Tribunal applied the Durant approach to

the concept of ‘personal data’ in this case

rather than the arguably more liberal approach

embodied in the Commissioner’s guidance,

‘Determining What is Personal Data’. It concluded that not all the information in the

report was personal data, e.g. the glossary,

executive summary or background information.

The next question for the Tribunal was

whether disclosure of the personal data would

be fair and lawful in accordance with the

First Data Protection Principle. The Tribunal

approached this question by conducting a

discrete analytical exercise in respect of each

different person’s personal data. It is clear

from the Tribunal’s analysis that it was of

the view that very different considerations

applied, for example, in respect of police

officers’ data, as compared with data relating

to the husband’s family. A public authority

cannot simply adopt a blanket ‘one size fits all’

approach to information comprising different

types of personal data.

The Tribunal’s second decision in the

case of Alasdair Roberts v IC and Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (EA/2009/0035) also provides

more guidance on considering the First Data

Protection Principle. The two main points are,

first, when considering whether the processing

would be fair, senior civil servants (Grade 5 or

above) do not have a reasonable expectation

of anonymity in respect of any document, no

matter how sensitive. More junior civil servants

might have such an expectation, but this will

be less cogent where the job is “public-facing”

(such as a Job Centre manager), and more

cogent where the information is controversial

(such as information about animal testing).

Second, when considering whether there

is justification to disclose under a schedule

2 condition, paragraph 6 allows disclosure

where it is in the legitimate interests of

‘parties to whom the data are disclosed’. The

Tribunal found that the requester’s strong

individual interest (for research purposes)

was not sufficient to override the fact that this

information was of very little interest to the

world at large to whom an FOI disclosure

is made.

The section 40 exemption continues to

be the subject of many Commissioner and

Tribunal decisions. It will be interesting to see

the outcome of the recent Ministry of Justice

call for evidence on the operation of the Data

Protection Act and whether it has any impact

on the definition of personal data.

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IRRV International

of each state, and not from federal regulations.

Each state has its own legal system and

constitution. Local government works in line

with these, and not centrally imposed rules.

County and municipalLocal government within a US state tends

to have two levels – county and municipal.

The use of the word ‘tends’ is deliberate.

It ’s hard to make general points about the

structure of US local government.

Approaches vary according to population

density, and the size and number of urban

and rural environments.

Broadly speaking, each state constitution gives America’s 3,034 counties the legal powers to provide local government. The exceptions are the states of Alaska and

Louisiana. They don’t have counties. Instead,

the boroughs in Alaska and parishes in

Louisiana perform similar functions.

Three further exceptions are the states of

Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

They don’t have any form of county

government. The cities and towns deal with

all local matters.

These differences give some idea of the

freedom states have to run their affairs,

and the variation in the number of residents

within local government areas confirms this.

The smallest local government community is

in Florida. The number of people it serves is

38. At the other end of the scale, the

New York City municipality copes with eight

million citizens.

Such diversity can be complex. There are

around 19,400 municipalities within the

counties plus 16,500 townships, 13,500

school districts and 37,000 special purpose

districts. Each one of these local government

units has specific duties. Many can also raise

taxes. In some areas of the US, it ’s possible

for a resident to deal with half a dozen or so

local government bodies.

DiscoveringAmerica

In tough times at home, studying a different

local government system may suggest new

approaches to old problems. With this in mind,

US local government can merit a closer look,

even if some of the ways in which it works are

unusual by UK standards.

The basic structureThe basic model of US local government is familiar – it follows the UK method of

elected councils. But this link with Britain is

purely historical. Since gaining independence,

Americans have changed local government to

reflect the way they want to run their lives. Any

other similarity with the UK occurs by chance.

US local government starts not with the

federal government, but with the states.

The federal – or central – government handles

the issues that are vital to the common good

of the country. The most notable of these is

defence. The 50 states deal with local matters

relevant to their communities. Such matters

gain their legal status from the individual laws

“Each state has its own legal system and constitution. Local government works in line with these, and not centrally imposed rules.”

“They Do It Their Way”, says Kevin Watson, as he explores local administration in the United States

Kevin Watson is a freelance writer

“In one state, for example, someone recently out of work cannot claim any benefits until he or she has taken part in a month-long job search scheme”

ServicesThe services that these bodies run are

extensive. A county maintains the highways

and decides on the location of major new

roads. It may also arrange the boundaries

of voting and school districts. County or

municipal government may handle services

such as water, sewerage, transport, fire,

hospitals, cemeteries, police, parks, housing,

tourism, urban planning, street cleaning, street

signs and libraries. Depending on the size of

the area, each of these may have its

own department.

Special districts rather than municipal cities

or townships are responsible for a growing

number of the services. The popularity of

special districts among residents is such that

the number has increased threefold in the last

fifty years. These districts, which residents

often refer to as commissions, boards or

authorities, may often provide just one service.

This is usually something crucial such as water

or the police.

The school system is equally mixed.

States, counties, cities and towns may manage

education, but school districts can also

have this responsibility. School districts are

self-contained local governments. They have

financial and administrative autonomy. Their

purpose is to give elementary, secondary

and higher education to the children of a

specific area.

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IRRV International

Welfare

When it comes to welfare benefits, the states

and local government establish eligibility,

make payments and issue food coupons. Like

many welfare systems, the details are involved.

Individual state law can also define the way

the welfare system functions. In one state, for

example, someone recently out of work cannot

claim any benefits until he or she has taken

part in a month-long job search scheme.

RevenueThe federal government foots the bill for much of the welfare system in the US. It does this by issuing grants to each state.

Some city municipalities such as Buffalo and

Oklahoma City also rely heavily on federal

money to run their other services. Most local

government, however, raises money through

taxes. Such local taxes cover a wide range –

two of the most commonly levied are property

taxes and sales taxes.

The property tax applies to buildings and

land. Some areas of the US even use it

for personal items such as cars, boats and

investments. For buildings and land, the

tax is usually a percentage of the value. Tax

assessors decide on this value using three

criteria – the likely sale price of the home, the

cost of rebuilding in the event of damage, and

the prices for which similar local homes have

recently sold. Taxes on business property in

the US generally work to the same principle.

The sales tax is a percentage that local

government places on the sale of all or certain

goods within its boundaries. A standard sales tax in the US is 5–7%. Other local taxes that fund services are a

tax on petrol, tolls on bridges and roads, and

taxes that relate to a region’s raw materials. In

New England, for example, there is a tax on

newly-cut timber. Some states also impose an

income tax, and residents pay this in addition

to the federal income tax.

Political InfluenceDespite all these possibilities for taxation, and

the likely concerns of residents, US political

parties cannot take part in local government.

Every person who stands for an election must do so as an independent. The periods of election may be for two,

three or four years. Furthermore, there

are often limits to the number of times a

candidate may hold a post. Those who are

successful in the elections have various

titles. Depending on the region, they may be

members, aldermen or selectmen.

ManagementOther titles commonly encountered in US

local government are mayor, city manager,

sheriff and judge. In many areas, residents

vote directly for their preferred candidates

to fill these posts. Sometimes, the elected

members choose the mayor or city manager.

The mayoral system is popular, although the

power of a mayor isn’t always the same from

one place to the next. In some states, the law

allows the mayor to make significant decisions.

In others, mayors must seek advice and

support before any major change. The elected

members meet regularly. The meetings receive

local press coverage, including broadcasts on

cable TV stations.

Full time local government workers enact

members’ decisions and carry out day-to-day

management. The workers’ numbers and roles

differ according to the size of the district. A

large city may have a host of employees in

a major headquarters. Among the staff will

be admin officers, general managers, and

specialists such as lawyers and architects.

Home RuleAlthough US local government must work

within the law of the state, it ’s possible for

cities, towns and villages to have ‘home rule’.

In this circumstance, the state grants a charter

that has the same role as a constitution.

A city with a charter, for example, can decide

its own laws and management structure. The

only condition is that the city doesn’t promote

opposition to the state. New Jersey is such a

city – it has a home rule constitution and local

government independence.

The futureConcepts such as home rule have led some

people to wonder if US local government is

too diverse. In response, federal politicians

have proposed more unified frameworks. All

such proposals have failed. Residents have

resisted them. And in the last ten years or so,

most politicians have come to accept that the

US local government system is here to stay.

There is just one major idea that has

support. This is the formation of regional local government groups – their purpose is to take advantage of economies of scale for some services. Time will tell if this idea gains ground.

Meanwhile, there’s little doubt that the

revenue system of US local government is

hard to follow. There’s also a shortage of

money. But many Americans are satisfied with

their local government. It has an appealing

non-partisan style, and it encourages local

managers to meet community needs.

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Technology

more services and business move online. But

this issue isn’t just about fairness as Martha’s

work shows, promoting digital inclusion is

essential for a dynamic modern economy and

can help to make government more efficient

and effective.”

So what is digital inclusion and why is it important? The UK has 40 million internet

users, with 30 million people using the web

every day, and it has some of the world’s

cheapest broadband prices. Half of all leisure

travel is now booked online, and seven million

job adverts were placed online last year.

The UK has some of the most sophisticated

web users in the world in terms of our

willingness to communicate and transact online:

58% of UK adults buy goods and services •

online, the highest in Europe, and they spent

an estimated £4.4bn online in April 2010.

Over 38 million people have used

ebay.co.uk, and seven million of us have

sold something on the site

The UK is the largest online travel market in •

Europe, with 87% making travel plans over

the internet. We book more than half our

leisure travel online at an estimated annual

value of £17bn

There are over 25m active Facebook •

accounts in the UK — only the USA has more.

However, there are still ten million adults in

the UK who have never used the internet.

To put this in perspective, that number is

equivalent to the combined size of the entire

population of our five biggest cities.

What’s worse is that four million of

those are among the most disadvantaged:

39% are over 65•

38% are unemployed•

19% are families with children.•

It has been revealed that use of the web

decreases with age and increases with income.

While only 10% of 16 to 24 year olds are

offline, this rises to 50% of 65 to 74 year olds.

Other characteristics of non-users are:

47% of those living in households earning •

Racing to get everyone online

What’s your email address? Please visit our

web site at www..., join our Facebook group...

– being able to answer, visit or join means

that you are digitally included. Imagine if you

weren’t – how would you survive in today’s

technological and digital environment?

What if by getting everybody online and

digitally included in this country we would

not need to have any austerity cuts to the

welfare state?

The Labour government was very fond of

digital inclusion, with one of its last visions

being a connected digital economy. At the

heart of this economy was going to be a new

MyGov portal, whereby every citizen would in

effect have a personal website for the majority

of their interactions with the state.

However, it ’s all been very quiet on the

e-government front since the new coalition

government came to power. In fact, the

biggest news story is that Martha Lane Fox has

been reappointed as the UK digital champion.

One of her remits is to continue the

Race Online 2012 campaign, which she

founded, to encourage as many people as

possible to get online.

Ms Lane Fox will have a seat on the

Efficiency Board, which is co-chaired by

the Cabinet Office Minister, Francis Maude,

and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury,

Danny Alexander. The board will oversee

the government’s efficiency and reform

programme. The very word efficiency seems

to infer that the board is looking for savings.

What is clear from this board’s remit and

the lack of activity around the use of the

internet for government interaction is

that there is little or no money for further

investment in schemes that would promote

digital inclusion. But can a government run the

country where ten million of its citizens are

digitally disadvantaged?

David Cameron has commented that,

“In the internet age, we need to ensure that

people aren’t being left behind as more and

Simon Bailey is on the starting block as the UK prepares to step up the challenge of online access for all

Simon Bailey IRRV (Hons) is a

Director of ISCAS: contact him on

[email protected] (www.iscas.co.uk)

“It challenges people and organisations to inspire, encourage and support as many people as possible to get online by the end of the Olympic year.”

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less than £11.5k do not use the internet.

compared to only 4% of those with an

annual income of over £30k

48% of disabled people are offline •

Urban areas of Scotland, South Wales and •

the north of England have the highest

concentrations of working-age people who

are offline

Rural and coastal areas have the highest •

concentrations of older residents who don’t

use the internet.

So why do we want people to be digitally included? Well, it ’s not only good for them,

but it ’s also good for the country. In a time

of austerity anything that contributes to the

national wealth must be a good thing.

A report by Price Waterhouse Coopers

in 2009 highlighted the benefits for digital

inclusion as:

Consumer benefitsHouseholds that are offline are missing out •

on savings of £560 per year from shopping

and paying bills online.

Education benefitsHome access to a computer and the •

internet can improve children’s educational

performance. If the 1.6 million children who

live in families which do not use the internet

got online at home, it could boost their total

lifetime earnings by over £10 billion.

Employment benefitsUnemployed people who get online •

could increase their chances of getting

employment, with an estimated lifetime

benefit of over £12,000 for every person

moved into employment

If 3½% of the digitally excluded found a •

job by getting online, it would deliver a net

economic benefit of £560 million

People with good ICT skills earn between •

3% and 10% more than people without

such skills. If the currently digitally excluded

employed people got online, each of them

would increase their earnings by an average

of over £8,300 in their lifetime.

Improved Government EfficiencyEach contact and transaction with government •

switched to online could generate savings of

between £3.30 and £12.00

If all digitally excluded adults got themselves •

online and made just one digital contact each

month instead of using another channel,

this would save an estimated £900 million

per annum.

Total Economic BenefitsThe total potential economic benefit from •

getting everyone in the UK online is in

excess of £22 billion. To put that amount in

perspective it would easily cover

the £15 billion worth of welfare

benefit cuts announced recently.

So if the government has no funds to boost internet usage, what is being done?

The answer is a technology manifesto issued

by Race Online 2012, launched by Martha

Lane Fox in July of this year. It challenges

people and organisations in every sector

and in every corner of our country to work

together to inspire, encourage and support

as many people as possible to get online by

the end of the Olympic year. It works on a

basis of cooperation from what it simply calls

‘partners’. Partners are organisations that have

pledged to help Race Online, and they range

from local authorities to small businesses –

there are over 600 at present.

It is the ambition of Race Online 2012,

that by the end of this Parliament:

everyone of working age should be online, •

and

no-one should retire without web skills.•

Interestingly the manifesto has some significant

recommendations for the government and

local authorities. These include some drastic

recommendations which appear to force the

use of the internet upon those who are most

likely to be digitally excluded:

Local authorities should encourage all parents •

of school-age children to get online. Local

authorities should signal that they expect all

school admissions and free school meals

applications to be submitted online by 2011

The DWP should introduce an expectation •

that people of working age should apply for

benefits online, and have the skills to look for

and apply for work online

Race Online 2012 partners should support •

work by DWP to ensure that no-one enters

retirement unable to use the internet

All government departments and agencies •

should follow DWP’s lead in identifying the

key information and services that they should

expect working-age adults to pursue online.

If the recommendations from the Race Online

manifesto are taken on board by government

and local authorities, we should start to see

a shift to almost forcing all people to transact

on line, but importantly only after they have

received the support and guidance necessary.

Are we moving towards a utopia where one

day we will see all benefit claims completed

electronically? Be aware that other countries

such as France and Finland have made the

right to internet access a basic human right

enshrined in law. Whilst this country is not

going down that route at the moment,

I believe it will be only a matter of time before

the lack of internet access will become a

violation of a person’s human rights here.

“can a government run the country where ten million of its citizens are digitally disadvantaged?”

40

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Doherty’s Despatch

The savings

The savings in the proposed new system are:

There is a strong possibility that more people •

will move into employment (assuming

employment is available) because the

system will be less risky for people who want

to try out work, and because the financial

incentives to try a few hours’ work will be

greater than they are under the current

system, as they do not immediately lose all

entitlement to benefit

The joined-up administrative system, in •

which real-time tax information will be used

to crosscheck benefit claims, is likely to

reduce fraud and error. How much of the

£5bn can actually be saved is unknown, but

most of the cost will remain.

The costsIn terms of the potential for increased

expenditure, there are two groups of people

who will benefit financially from the proposed

changes, and providing benefits to these

groups is the main reason why the reform

could prove to be expensive.

First, the reforms will provide more money

to people working a small number of hours

per week. Currently the system provides

little support to people until they reach the

16 hours-per-week mark. These ‘hours rules’

are likely to go in the new system, with more

money going to people undertaking short-

hours jobs.

Second, by lowering the withdrawal rate,

the system will bring more mid-income

families into the benefit system, and this

is unavoidable in a system that withdraws

benefits more slowly.

In addition, there are potentially large

hidden costs in this reform that depends upon

how claimants respond to the new system,

for example, simplification of the system is

aimed at reducing fraud and error, but it is

very likely that a simpler system will increase

take-up of benefits among those currently

deterred by the complexity of the current

Searching for net savings...

So there we have it after all the speculation

this summer – the new radical reform of the

welfare benefit system that will bring all the

separate benefits into a single payment or

credit. Iain Duncan Smith’s benefit reform

proposals have been given the green light by

a government that is determined to overhaul

the tax credit and benefit system to make it

simpler and ultimately cheaper – although in

the short term it will cost more.

The consultation paper and the plans are

still very much in outline, and are derived

from the paper issued by the Centre for Social

Justice – ‘Dynamic Benefits’, but we should

ask ourselves if the new system will save

money once it ’s up and running. Arguably

there are at least two reasons why the

proposed reforms will save money…but there are at least four reasons why it will cost more.

“Successive governments have not had a great track record in the development of national systems, and there have been some well publicised failures.”

If Universal Credit is to stand a chance of success, don’t underestimate the cost of integrating the benefit system, says Pat Doherty

Pat Doherty IRRV (Hons) CPFA is an

independent consultant and a Past

President of the IRRV. If you wish to

comment on anything in the article please

email him at [email protected]

system. If this happens, it will be expensive for

the government. Currently, take-up of available

money is around 80% across the benefit

system, with £16bn per year going

unclaimed. If take-up in a simplified system

were to rise to say, 85%, the exchequer would be on the hook for a further £4bn per year, effectively negating the proposed savings. There are currently millions of people

working around 16 hours per week who will

have an incentive to reduce their working

hours. This will raise costs to the government

in the form of higher benefit payments and

lower tax revenue. The government plans to

introduce conditionality on those working

low hours that will limit this effect, but the

administrative cost of an in-work conditionality

system will probably be high.

Overall, whilst simplification of the welfare

benefits system might be desirable for other

reasons, as has been advocated by the IRRV, I

find it difficult to see how the new system will

reduce costs over the longer run.

Administration of Universal Credit (UC)This is where it gets interesting for local

authorities, as the concept appears to be that

they will act as the ‘front office’, with DWP as the ‘back office.’ While there is no

doubt that this can work from a technological

point of view, one has to wonder how it will

work from a liaison aspect. Even now within

local authorities that operate front office/

back office setups, there are often issues

of communication – this is likely to be

exacerbated when two different organisations

are involved.

Turning to the software aspects of UC, it is

clear that the development of one software

system held centrally has the potential for real

savings once the initial development costs

have been met. If councils were also then

to have access to this system and data was

shared, this would have positive effects in

terms of systems such as the administration

sa

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Doherty’s Despatch

of free school meals, etc. That said, successive

governments have not had a great track record

in the development of national systems,

and there have been some well publicised

failures. When it comes to developing systems

the government would be well advised to

approach the suppliers of HB and CT software,

as they have a good track record for delivering

systems on time and to specification.

A single centralised system could also open

up opportunities for the reform of PAYE and

wider data sharing by HMRC. This would ease

the problems that a UC that included housing

costs would cause in terms of rent and local

tax collection. Separating council tax benefit

from the council tax account and incorporating

it in to the UC will impact on collection levels

and increase collection costs.

Lessons must be learned from where

we are now, with the highly complex and

cumbersome benefit system. Many of its

problems stem from the desire to design for

exceptions rather than deal with the majority

of cases within a core system, with the

exceptions being addressed outside this. A

further problem with a ‘super system’ is that

through lack of competition it could be difficult

to ensure software company co-operation on

cost, timescales for enhancements, etc. At

least with the present systems operated by

local authorities there is healthy competition

by the suppliers.

If HB and CTB as they currently stand

are removed, and incorporated in UC, the

existing contracts that local authorities have

with software suppliers and others will need

to be terminated. There will no doubt be

costs that will have to be met, and which the

government should meet, as failure to do

so will mean that they impact directly on

local taxpayers. It is interesting to look at

the proposals and ask yourself why HB was transferred to local government to administer in the first place – the principal

reason was to allow for more connection

between housing policies and housing

benefit in order to combat the housing and

homelessness problems in a LA’s area. Under

any new system it is important that home

security and stability is maintained, as it is a

foundation to moving into and maintaining

employment. HB currently plays a vital part in

supporting people into work.

One hopes that the government will give

local authorities a strong positive role in the

administration of UC, and not allow them to

just become some form of glorified ‘post box’.

The IRRV has long argued that local authorities

have a track record of efficient and effective

service delivery and that benefit practitioners

have the skills and expertise to be able to

meet the challenge of delivering a reformed

system. Local authorities are the key players in

providing the local gateway to benefits.

Over the past 25 years, local government

benefit practitioners have shown that they

can meet the challenges posed by central

government and have worked constructively

with partners in the DWP to ensure that the

focus of their work is to assist people with

their housing costs. They have continually

improved performance on speed and

accuracy, and they have the lowest levels of official error overpayments, the lowest level of fraud, and the highest level of overpayment recovery. They also carry out

more intervention work, ensuring that the right

benefit is continuously being paid, and also

secure more sanctions.

For many local authorities, HB and CTB are

key service areas, and play a big part in a local

authority’s corporate plan. Because of this

prominent focus, the delivery of a reformed

system would, if provided by a local authority,

have a keen local interest as well as a national

interest and the integrity of the system would

be enhanced rather than compromised.

“local government benefit practitioners have shown that they can meet the challenges posed by central government and have worked constructively with partners in the DWP ”

42

INSIGHT

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Viewpoint

changes to pensions (the list goes on), is a

clear indication that many of the changes

proposed for activation from April 2011 are

profound. Their consequences will touch each

of us, and certainly have significant social and

financial consequences and a deep and lasting

effect for years to come. Such is the depth,

passion and ferocity of the public sector

funding debate and especially welfare benefit

reform that it has over the last two to three

months featured more in the media than the

fact that we are at war in Afghanistan!

The final element of the austerity jigsaw

fitted into place on the 20 October 2010 – one could say a historical date for local government, as the full impact of the

government’s intentions to reduce the budget

deficit will be revealed. So we have to brace

ourselves for brutal cuts to our service areas

followed by the need for radical change.

Despite having very little guidance on how to

achieve such savings, we need to be ready to

respond to an unprecedented scale of

challenge. There will be no room for tinkering

at the edges of our structures or working

practices, no half measures on reducing costs,

no room for creative accounting, no hiding

of budgets.

The maths has already been done. We know

there is no money, so reducing our overall

costs while continuing to provide key front-line

services is going to be a real challenge

– a challenge that will demand clear leadership

and managerial skills like never before. We will

need to focus on how revenue and benefit

services should react to the inevitable. In my

view this is very much a time for staff and

managers alike to come together to meet the

challenges head on.

With recent talks of amalgamating many

welfare benefits, it may be that we’re too late

to influence the final thinking in relation to

welfare reforms. It may be that the eventual

centralisation of the system is the way forward.

But change of such magnitude takes time,

and as anyone remotely connected to these

multifaceted activities is aware, such changes

are incredibly complex, often have unknown

and unpredictable outcomes, and most

certainly will have to be funded.

I am not an advocate of the centralisation

of our functions. In my view it demeans

local accountability and true democracy, and

would undermine the government theme of

decentralisation and moving more services

into local control, but I can see the attraction

to the uninitiated armchair accountant in terms

of the cost cutting agenda.

So, as revenue and benefit specialists and

practitioners, we have to continue to engage

in the debate whilst ensuring that we carry

on providing our key services to the public.

We also have to up our game, ensuring

that when the time comes (and it certainly

will) we’re in a strong position in terms of

cost effectiveness, performance levels and

customer satisfaction.

We need to convince the public that it ’s

local services provided by the local authority

for local people that will make the real

difference. It’s the local authority that best understands what the local issues and priorities are, such as housing, welfare,

employment and the environment. Centralised

services are remote, impersonal and take

no account of local issues, local priorities or

needs, and are invariably unaccountable and

driven purely by an ever increasing desire to

cut costs.

The debate is almost over and it ’s game

on. By the time you read this lets hope that

the direction of travel is about local services

accountable to local people and driven by a

desire to meet local needs!

It’s time to support the local teamWe’ve had further snippets of information,

leaks and formal announcements of what

we can expect in terms of the coalition

government’s austerity measures over the next

few years and it ’s not looking good for services

such as revenue and benefits – in fact its

looking decidedly depressing.

You would have to have been in the Big

Brother house or be a City banker not to have

noticed how welfare benefits reform is high on the coalition’s agenda in relation to savings, and the message is that despite

significant improvement over the years in the

way in which we at a local level do our job, it is

clear that we can no longer consider our services

as the sacred cow within local government.

Fortuitously the so called ‘credit crunch’ has

indirectly presented the coalition government

with the opportunity (Labour would have done

the same!) to pursue policies and change that

only a few years ago would have proved to

be totally unacceptable to the populace, and

suicidal for any political party.

It ’s no longer about bankers’ greed, fat

bonuses or the catastrophic mismanagement

of the economy. Suddenly the blame culture

has turned, and it ’s the public sector’s fault,

because we’re too expensive in managing and

administering systems – and those within our

society on benefits are getting far too much

from the welfare budget and those collecting

local taxes aren’t collecting enough.

The austerity measures already taken such

as the abandonment of ID cards, the abolition

of the Audit Commission, the proposed cuts

to the welfare budget as well as the proposed

Viewpoint newcomer John Frost hits the ground running as the unfolding reform agenda looms ever closer

John Frost is Head of Revenue and Benefit

Services with Cambridge City Council

“ We need to convince the public that it’s local services provided by the local authority for local people that will make the real difference.”

The office can be a dangerous place.

Professional jealousies, fears of redundancy, rivalries in love and

dodgy expense claims make for a potentially lethal mix in Insight’s

new monthly serial.

Scene: Revenues and Benefit Department at Midsomer District Council. A sleepy afternoon; half a dozen staff are at their desks. Emma Barnaby, Benefit Fraud Team Leader, age 37, enters carrying a heavy briefcase. She heads for her office door when junior revenues officer, Danny Marlow, age 26, reminds her:

DANNY Rungeley’s in there.

EMMA Who?

DANNY Mr Rungeley. The auditor doing his special review of the department. He’s using your office.

EMMA Is he?

Georgia Hemming, Head of Revenues andBenefits, enters; age 45, plump, smartlydressed, harassed-looking.

EMMA Georgia, why is this inspector using my office?

GEORGIA I’m not having him near me. I can’t stand the way he looks at me when he says he going to “trim the fat” in this department. And everyone

knows I’ve done so well at Slimming Life recently...

EMMA I know...

GEORGIA Anyway you’re supposed to be out in the field, Emma.

EMMA I’m back from the field and I need my computer.

She knocks briefly on her closed office door and marches in. She gives a loud cry and rushes out again.

EMMA Quick! We need help!

DANNY What?

EMMA The auditor. He’s collapsed – it’s like he can’t breathe. Does anyone know how to do mouth to mouth??

Staff variously examine their nails, look out of the window and answerimportant emails.

EMMA Who’s the first aider?

DANNY Gina. She’s off sick.

Georgia goes into the office.

GEORGIA Call 999 Danny! His lips are turning blue!

Emma and Georgia examine Rungeley. He is slumped over the desk, one hand clutching a glass of water. Emma picks up the glass to move it away, then peers at it.

EMMA Ugh. The water looks greasy. (She sniffs it). Sort of chemical smell too.

She feels Rungeley’s pulse, and as shedoes so, moves the computer mouse. The hibernating computer flickers back intolife. On the white screen are the words:

A TASTE OF YOUR OWN MEDACINE...

Emma goes to the door and speaks calmly.

EMMA Danny, when you’ve phoned for the ambulance, I think you’d also better call the police...

Kate Miller is a freelance writer and former editor

of IRRV Magazines

EPISODE 1 – An Inspector Falls

Kate Miller’s coluMn

Opportunities is read by front-line staff, middle & senior management as well as Heads of Service. In particular we have 100% coverage of Revenues, Benefits & Investigations departments in UK Local Authorities.

Online some two thirds of our visitors (unique users) already work in Local Government and we have hundreds of Local Authorities and Associations with links back to www.opportunities.co.uk

by Linda Davis and Kim Larkin from LA Directories Ltd

S

Efficiency: is it Quantity or Quality?Helping Benefit Services overcome this conflict of interests

Benefits Products Analyst & Developer

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view these jobs on our websitewww.opportunities.co.uk

LA Department Readership

Building & Engineering 25,031

Corporate Services 22,380

Education 9,596

Environment 35,460

Finance 31,576

Housing 22,715

HR 18,239

Legal & Democratic Services 10,688

Revenues & Benefits 24,293

Social Services 35,213

Town Clerks & Officers 10,224

Total 245,416

Online

unique users 27,000

user sessions 45,000

page impressions 255,000

LA jobs in print, online and digital edition

IRRV Services

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Once your organisation, courses and trainers have been approved as efficient, you will be able to market your recognised status and use the IRRV Accreditation logo on all your promotional literature.

IRRV Accreditation is given to organisations, courses and trainers. Trainees who attend accredited courses will in turn receive certification.The IRRV logo will provide assurance that you are delivering the best to your clients and trainees.

For terms, conditions and fees please contact the IRRV:

by email [email protected]

or by phone 0207 691 8981/8978.

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IRRV Publications 2010 update

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IRRV Services

Why use Distance Learning?> you do not attend lessons but study on your own, at home or wherever

suits you;> you only need a computer and internet access;> you have constant access to the wide-range of learning resources;> you receive full support from our distance learning team and tutors;> you can share your learning experience with your fellow students via our

discussion forum.Studying via Distance Learning also shows employers that you are focused, self-motivated, can manage time effectively and are dedicated to achieving your goals.

What qualifications are available?> IRRV Certificate> IRRV Professional Diploma> IRRV Honours (available from November 2010)

For more information regarding studying for an IRRV qualification by Distance Learning call: 020 7691 8984or visit: www.irrvdistancelearning.org.uk

IRRV Distance Learning

For more information regarding studying for an IRRV qualification by Distance Learning call:For more information regarding studying for an IRRV For more information regarding studying for an IRRV For more information regarding studying for an IRRV For more information regarding studying for an IRRV For more information regarding studying for an IRRV For more information regarding studying for an IRRV For more information regarding studying for an IRRV For more information regarding studying for an IRRV

Studying via Distance Learning also shows employers that you are focused, self-motivated, can manage time effectively and are dedicated to achieving your goals.your goals.

you can share your learning experience with your fellow students via our you can share your learning experience with your fellow students via our discussion forum.discussion forum.

Studying via Distance Learning also shows employers that you are focused,

you have constant access to the wide-range of learning resources;you receive full support from our distance learning team and tutors;

you can share your learning experience with your fellow students via our discussion forum.

Studying via Distance Learning also shows employers that you are focused, Studying via Distance Learning also shows employers that you are focused, self-motivated, can manage time effectively and are dedicated to achieving your goals.your goals.

What qualifications are available?IRRV Certificate IRRV Professional DiplomaIRRV Honours (available from November 2010)

For more information regarding studying for an IRRV

Studying via Distance Learning also shows employers that you are focused, self-motivated, can manage time effectively and are dedicated to achieving your goals.

What qualifications are available?> IRRV Certificate> IRRV Professional Diploma

IRRV Honours (available from November 2010)

you receive full support from our distance learning team and tutors;you receive full support from our distance learning team and tutors;

For more information regarding studying for an IRRV

Studying via Distance Learning also shows employers that you are focused, Studying via Distance Learning also shows employers that you are focused, self-motivated, can manage time effectively and are dedicated to achieving your goals.

For more information regarding studying for an IRRV qualification by Distance Learning call:or visit: www.irrvdistancelearning.org.ukqualification by Distance Learning call:or visit:or visit: www.irrvdistancelearning.org.uk

For more information regarding studying for an IRRV qualification by Distance Learning call:For more information regarding studying for an IRRV qualification by Distance Learning call:For more information regarding studying for an IRRV qualification by Distance Learning call:

Why use Distance Learning?> you do not attend lessons but study on your own, at home or wherever

suits you;you only need a computer and internet access;you have constant access to the wide-range of learning resources;

>

>>>

Studying via Distance Learning also shows employers that you are focused, self-motivated, can manage time effectively and are dedicated to achieving self-motivated, can manage time effectively and are dedicated to achieving self-motivated, can manage time effectively and are dedicated to achieving self-motivated, can manage time effectively and are dedicated to achieving

For more information regarding studying for an IRRV qualification by DistanceLearning call: 020 7691 8984or visit: www.irrvdistancelearning.org.uk

Enrol Now –Apply at any time of the year!

Why use Distance Learning?

> you do not attend lessons but study on yourown, at home or wherever suits you

> you only need a computer and internetaccess

> you have constant access to the wide-rangeof learning resources

> you receive full support from our distance learning team and tutors

> you can share your learning experience withyour fellow students via our discussionforum

Studying via Distance Learning also showsemployers that you are focused, self-motivated,can manage time effectively and are dedicated to achieving your goals.

What qualifications are available?

> IRRV Certificate

> IRRV Professional Diploma

> IRRV Honours(available from November 2010)

“TO WORK IN REVENUES AND BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION OR RATINGVALUATION YOU NEED MANAGERIAL,PROFESSIONAL AND IT SKILLS ASWELL AS DRIVE, DETERMINATION ANDTHE ABILITY TO THINK HARD ANDSTRAIGHT. THE IRRV PROVIDESQUALIFICATIONS TO GET YOU THERE.

David Magor OBE IRRV, Chief Executive, IRRV

“

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INSIGHT - The IRRV · Insight brings news and views from some of the newly-qualified Conference...

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