Biscuit budget shock: The perks have to go
By Paul Roberts
www.caringforyourbusiness.co.uk
It was one of those conversations you couldn’t help overhearing. The train was full and I was surrounded by a group of very talkative senior council officers who had much to gripe about.
Firstly, they were not happy about not being able to travel in style: For them first class rail journeys were a thing of the past. They had to make do with economy seats.
Overnight stays at four star hotels had been stopped. Now they were expected to stay at Premier Inns or Travel Lodges.
They had suffered ‘technology shock’ with new laptops and Blackberries being taken away in a major local authority economy drive.
One officer recalled how a laptop was taken away while his colleague was typing a letter. How could anyone do that?
Then came the real show-stopper: the authority’s £20,000 biscuits budget had been slashed and they would have to buy their own chocolate digestives from now on.
This is not a bogus conversation. It happened on a train in Scotland in the past week and there was genuine disappointment among the officers.
It illustrated to me how easily cutbacks can be made that reduce spending – with no adverse effect whatsoever on the rate and tax payers.
It made me think of all the political statements in the past few weeks about cutting back on waste in the halls of power – nationally and regionally.
How many other councils in Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland are yet to cut back on the kind of perks highlighted above?
Have Whitehall and our politicians cut out this kind of wasteful expenditure? What proof do we have that perks only open to public officials are being curbed or swept away.
Budgets for biscuits and first class rail travel and four star hotels only indicate a total disregard for people who have lost jobs, homes, savings and much more in the recession.
It seems unbelievable that these excesses continue well into 2010. They have to be removed – and without delay if we are to have any confidence in waste reducing measures.
May 11th, 2010 at 7:30 am
Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!
June 9th, 2010 at 11:23 pm
Good
August 10th, 2010 at 6:41 pm
Great article Thank
you so much!