Liverpool is being used as a “piggy bank to take money from” by the government to pay commissioners overseeing the city council, it has been claimed.
Members of Liverpool Council’s Finance and Resources Select Committee hit out at the proposed increase in fees to commissioners ahead of their approval later today.
Commissioners were appointed to the local authority in June last year.
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Cllr Tom Crone said it was clear members across the chamber were “all pretty disgusted” and he was “loath” to recommend the payment uplift be signed off by the council’s cabinet.
The Green Party group leader said it was “perverse” that payment to commissioners was being increased and that “Liverpool is being used as a piggy bank to take money from” by the UK Government, describing the move as “unethical and wrong.”
Deputy Mayor Cllr Jane Corbett said while the proposed rise was not the choice of the commissioners, it remained “absolutely outrageous,” adding the scale of the fees are “appalling.”
The Everton ward member accused the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities of “overinflating” the value of the commissioners and branded the decision by the Government to backdate the fees as “wrong and immoral.''
The Deputy Mayor did concede that “if we hadn’t messed it up, they wouldn’t be here.”
Cllr Ian Byrne MP, who along with four other city Parliamentarians wrote to Secretary of State Michael Gove blasting the intended rise, questioned how Liverpool was “getting the best value for money” and the “political element of this is huge for the city.”
He said: "The commissioners can refuse to take it.".
Committee chair, Cllr Barry Kushner said people in Liverpool had “no idea” what the commissioners were doing while Cllr Sharon Connor put forward a motion calling on the council to write to Mr Gove’s department, recommending that the fee increase be reversed at a time when the local authority faces a £34m funding deficit.
The council’s cabinet will discuss the proposed uplift at its meeting this morning and has been recommended to approve the plan.
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