Forum Topic

Voluntary Community Contributions

I would be very interested to hear what local Council Tax payers think about the leaflet that came with my Council Tax statement for 2021-22. The leaflet says the Council is considering setting up a “voluntary community contribution scheme” for individuals to help “fund (local) initiatives in line with priorities determined at the start of each year”. Several questions immediately occur to me:Who would determine these priorities?How would the trust - a “a newly established independent charitable trust” be set up, and how many of its trustees/board would be paid? And how much?Why, if you had money to spare and wanted to give it to charity, would you entrust it to this community contribution scheme for them to distribute, instead of just donating to the organisation(s) you choose yourself?

Catherine Schade ● 1869d7 Comments

Possibly share admin facilities to keep costs down?

Andy Pike ● 1869d

I wonder why a whole lot of the charities have their post sent to Melksham, Wiltshire.

Barbara Stevens ● 1869d

I would expect existing staff to administer this as part of their existing roles ie no cost to fund. If you think of it no point getting staff in place if no one contributes hence use existing resources.

Andy Pike ● 1869d

Charity trustees will be 100% unpaid - that is charity law.  If they appoint paid staff to run things then there will be an assumption those costs are kept to a minimum.  When making charity donations I take a close look at admin costs as a % of total expenditure - some charities spend far too much on themselves rather than their charitable objectives.

Jonathan Callaway ● 1869d

Yes, also how much would the head of these charities be earning? £250,000 a year.

Barbara Stevens ● 1869d

Wandsworth Council prides itself on keeping the Council Tax low, but there is no doubt that this leaves some of their services struggling - notably in the area of social care. In the past people have said that thet would not mind paying a bit more tax. However putting up the tax would hit those in need hardest.I think that this idea has some merit, although as you say Catherine, there are questions to be answered as to how it would actually work.

Caroline Whitehead ● 1869d

Well, this local council tax payer guesses this is just WBC trying to show it's doing something but without actually doing anything at all, just as just as they boast about announcing a climate emergency with minimal action to counter it.

Richard Carter ● 1869d