Tories have done it again, found yet another way to take money off Councils so that the Councils will get the blame and the Government smell of roses.

In the budget, the Chancellor is going to reduce business rates by a third to "help local businesses and shops and prevent them closing down". Sounds great doesn't it BUT it is not Government money that is financing these cuts, it is Council money.

Traditionally Councils have collected Business rates on behalf of the Government then the Government gives money back to the Councils. In the last few years the Government has reduced the money given to Councils considerably and instead of this Government funding the Councils keep the collected business rates.

So far Wirral cuts have not greatly reduced services unlike many other Councils, however with more financial cuts in the line it is now going to hit hard. The impact of the previous cuts haven't fully been felt yet, monitoring and maintenance hasn't been done on many things, they will gradually start falling apart.

I did wonder about that when I heard it... not the cleverest move, I fancy. No point revitalising the High Street if no-one has any money to spend there and they are too busy just trying to keep body and soul together in the face of diminishing services for young, old and all in between.

It would seem there is plenty of money to spend when seeing the pub along the road from myself . Bursting at the seams more often than not , with people dining out.
The high streets won't be re-vitalised since on-line shopping is far more convenient, particularly when people are working ridiculously unsocial hours, have families needs to cater for and spend the weekends(if they have them off work,) stocking up the food cupboards from Asda for the next week. The other point is that the supermarkets are stocking more and more ranges of items. Bedding, clothes, shoes, toys, games medicines, cobblers, phones, and even sex toys now !
Relaxation is more and more internet based, and online shopping is what we have been encouraged to do. Retail sales are increasing, £406 billion in 2017. Increasing every year. £281 billion in 2005

https://www.statista.com/statistics/287912/retail-total-annual-sales-value-great-britain/

dont think they will sell many sex toys will be a boom in toothpaste though. Government will also cause conservative run councils the same problems.

Who is in charge of street parking? That's what putting me off parking and shopping in town centres.

Over here in Southport, Sefton council are lining more and more streets with parking bays and machines. Result - loads and loads of empty streets.

If it wasn't for the free parking in Morrisons, and just being within walking distance of town I wouldn't shop there.

And this has been raised before with the "free after 3" scheme in Birkenhead.

As for Wirral council, how's their million pound almost-interest-free-loan scheme to other Labour councils going?

How many councils are there in England and Wales. Then divide it by 8.4 .

What's the answer please ?

I think these figures are up to date.

326 LA's in England
22 LA's in Wales (all unitary authorities).

So your answer is 41.4

With the mixture of unitary authorities and councils it is not really representative. There are over 700 councils in Wales.

Thank you. I was reading about the £8.4 billion (from the EU) that is divided between councils in England and Wales.

So that would, be on average, £41.4million to each council ?

Not quite, that is the EU structural funds, its not divided and given to individual Councils. As with all EU funding it is allocated for specific approved projects, not for or to Councils to spend as they wish.

The control of projects come from Local Enterprise Partnerships (like Liverpool City Region's LEP) but overall the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) govern the distribution (when they aren't being taken to court about it).

Liverpool City Region gets £220m.

Wales (in total) gets allocated about a quarter of the funds.

Well they come across as we are doing this for the working poeple, but really we are screwing the back side off them!.
The living wage will go up by 30 pence next April, big deal. You have now introduced a tax on plastic packing, which will force prices up, so that knocks off the wage rise, and companies as they often do will cut workers hours so they don't have to pay the extra, so workers lose out again, at some point because of said pay rise the Gas, Electric etc etc will all go up to pay their workers, so once again the workers lose out again!
Far better to leave living wage alone and increase the Tax Alowances thus MAKING WORK PAY! The NHS gets enough money they just spend it wrong,£1,000 for toothpaste? But we are talking about corrupt millionaries who get elected though false promises and lies, and once in power lined their own pockets and think nothing about the poeple who voted for them.
I can't understand why people flock to the voting stations and vote them in thinking everything will change for the better. Its better off not voting at all, and then they might get the message once and for all the people have had enough off them!

Householders can go some way to combat this by switching suppliers, but for some reason so many just don't bother.

And there are still many people who have not got a clue about switching energy providers. The fact that once upon a time there were two energy suppliers in this area, one national British Gas, the other North West Electricity. We didn't need to change, and why if companies can provide a cheaper service for a new customer who has changed from another company, why can't they do that for all their customers at the same rate ?
It basically, one big con, to keep the balance of energy companies within the EU.
Why do we actually need so many energy companies ? Is it a necessity ? NO, it's not.

A problem now is some energy companies are doing stepped tariffs which makes price comparison nearly impossible.

The reversed discount is most annoying, the higher your usage the less the different price, its hardly worth switching away from British Gas to save £20 a year on larger bills when you don't know what dates the different companies are going increase their tariffs.

To make it truly competitive every energy company should be made to have a simple tariff and only be allowed to change their prices at a certain common date which they have to give two months notice of the new tariff.

We also have the farce that the national smart meter system is still not fully operational, yet another Government IT project that has gone wayward.

The next thing will be combining energy bills with other things such as insurance or phone/broadband. Once the smart meters are fully rolled out there will be no competition in the energy market and all energy prices will be the same.