Member

The additional burden of national insurance on councils’ own payroll is estimated to be £628 million for directly employed staff, but indirect national insurance through commission providers will cost the councils an extra £1.13 billion next year. Taking the £1.13 billion and the £628 million, we see a total financial impact of the national insurance increases on councils and their tied contractors of £1.758 billion. Having given warm words and soft soap that the cost of NIC on local authorities would be compensated for, as they might be with the health service, the reality is that there is just a one-off £515 million allocated to the sector. Let us do the arithmetic. The extra costs and the Government’s grant have left councils with a £1.243 billion national insurance hole before all the other pressures that I have measured have been taken into account. The effect on the tied contractors is important to understand, because those outside contractors put their shoulder to the wheel: they work exclusively for councils, they are an extension of the council’s workforce, and they are on the team, but they cannot afford to take this one for the team.