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reform uk‘S Doge The team has been accused of doing little more than the “photocall” at councils it “swore” to do.save a lot of money“While it was established four months ago.
Cost-cutting team inspired by Elon Muskformed by Reform UK Chairman Zia Yusuf, promised to work together reform-controlled councils across Britain following the party’s landslide victory in local elections in May.
The party promised councils an independent team of software engineers, data analysts and forensic auditors who would “visit and analyse” their finances, to “identify wasteful expenditure and suggest actionable solutions”.
Doge hasn’t identified specific targets but the reform has promised to cut spending on things like diversity and inclusion programs.
However, Independent has found that the unit has visited only three of the 12 councils since the May elections – and has faced obstacles that are preventing them from making much progress.
Of the only 12 reform-controlled councils kentWest Northamptonshire and Worcestershire have hosted Mr Yousaf and his team for talks.
reform uk Doge insisted he met more councils, but Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Lancashire, Durham, Staffordshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire county councils all told him not to. Independent He has not been visited yet.
In West Northamptonshire, the council said that, despite initial meetings, “no further discussion took place” as it “awaits the return of due diligence documents for Reform’s nominated representative”.
Its spokesperson said work would not proceed until such an investigation was completed and added: “In the meantime, the council continues to progress its plans to increase efficiency and seek savings through the change ahead of setting the budget for next year.”
Daniel Lister, conservative The group’s leader at West Northamptonshire Council said both visits had been “more or less just photocalls so far”.
“I’m not sure they’re going to do much and there hasn’t been any progress,” he said. Independent“Their general understanding of local government is quite poor, as most of the information is in the public domain and publicly accessible.”
He further said, “There is naivety and lack of understanding. I don’t think we will see much from Doge anywhere.”
Worcestershire County Council and its Reform UK leader, Jo Monk, did not respond. The Independent’s Questions remain about its work with Doge, but opposition councilors have seen little progress since the unit’s initial visit.
Councilor Matt Jenkins, leader of the Green and Independent Alliance group at Worcestershire County Council, said: “From what I hear, Doge has done nothing at the county council because he has not been allowed access to anything.
“The idea is that if you want access, make a Freedom of Information (FOI) request like everyone else, they may not have additional information.”
Zia came to the county council with all these promises and then suddenly she realized she couldn’t do half of the things she wanted to do
Adam Kent, Conservative group leader at Worcestershire County Council
Despite little progress, the team’s one-hour meeting with two council officers, per the FOI request, cost the authority £144.
Conservative group leader Adam Kent said, “All information is confidential unless they can make a case as to why they can legally access the information to comply with the rules.”
“The important thing is that Zia came to the county council with all these promises and then suddenly she realized she couldn’t do half of the things she wanted to do.
“There is a complete lack of awareness about how to utilize capital expenditure and a clear realization of the fact that most of these councils are operating on wasted resources.
“They were chosen on the basis that they were going to save millions of pounds, but they were faced with the brutal reality that they couldn’t do that.”
Some councils have set up their own internal efforts to identify savings – such as Kent’s Department for Local Government Efficiency (DOLGE) – but these work independently from the central body of Reform UK.
Although Mr Youssef’s team has visited Kent council, a spokesperson for the authority confirmed that since June, “all work on local government efficiency in Kent has been led and delivered by the Dolge team sitting within the council’s cabinet”.
He said the administration would use assistance from Doge where it deemed necessary and appropriate “subject to governance, legal compliance and necessity.”
Antony Hook, leader of liberal democrat The Kent County Council group said: “We haven’t really seen anything of value – which is really a broader picture of what reform governance is about. It’s about what changes we can make in substance over time, rather than what headlines we can get tomorrow.
“When they announced Kent would be the first place they would go, they came in with no prior notice and had no knowledge of how local government works.
“It seems they think they should have access to all the information on the council, a bit like Elon Musk got into the US government. But they’ve been told they can’t have everything – we have laws to protect personal data.
“Everyone is entitled to what they can get under the FOI Act. There have been talks of a legal settlement but it was never completed.
“Since July the county council has been moving away from Doge, he has had his say and appointed a cabinet member – but it doesn’t seem much different to a cabinet member for finance.”
Kent County Council leader Linden Kemkaran was contacted IndependentBut no one replied. he recently told Local Government Chronicle Due to the legalities “Dolge is a lot easier than Doge”, so they are “making big progress”.
Ms Kemkaran previously said an internal council team led by councilor Matthew Mott had identified potential savings of £40m since work began in July.
However, the authority’s new adult social care chief Dianne Morton hinted at a rise in residents’ council tax bills earlier this month as she warned that services in the county were “at a fair level”.
A Reform UK Kent spokesman said the council had done a “fantastic job” of cutting debt by £66m in five months, despite council papers showing it faces spending £27.9m over its £1.53bn budget in the new year.
Four reform councilors were suspended from the authority on Monday after a video was leaked showing Ms Kemkaran telling council leaders to “suck it up” when questioned.
One of the suspended councillors, Paul Thomas, was threatened by Ms Kemkaran into remaining silent during the meeting after he questioned whether Reform had the “right” leader and cabinet.