This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Audit Scotland report on local councils
13/01/2005
Local authorities continue to improve but can do better, Public Sector Reform Minister Tom McCabe said in response to the publication today of the Audit Scotland report on councils' corporate performance.
The Audit Scotland report, Corporate Management: Performance Indicators 2003/04, compares the performance of councils in a number of key areas including council tax collection rates, payment of invoices, employee sickness levels and the processing of benefit applications.
Mr McCabe said:
"I am encouraged by councils continued year on year improvement in a number of key areas.
"However, I believe there is more work than can be done. For example, in the area of council tax collection rates Scottish councils lag well behind their counterparts in England and Wales, and an improvement of only 0.4per cent is less progress than we need.
"I have made it clear on a number of occasions that I want to see further improvement in this area.
"The poorest performing councils lag well behind the rest and I urge those authorities with lower collections levels to seek advice from some of the better performing councils.
"There is simply no excuse for councils not to take all practical steps to collect unpaid council tax or community charge debts. Any pound of council tax or community charge debt uncollected is a pound that it not being spent on local services.
"I am also concerned to see the wide disparity in performance across councils. I believe, as part of the Efficient Government agenda, councils should be investigating where their performance falls below their counterparts in the rest of Scotland and how they can improve. Again, I would urge those to seek advice of those authorities who are doing a better job."