LBWF claims penury, but compared to 2020-21 it now employs 9 per cent more staff, and pays out 36 per cent more in wages

Both the current LBWF Leader, Cllr. Grace Williams, and her predecessor, Cllr. Clare Coghill, repeatedly have warned that LBWF is under financial pressure, and argued that this necessitates ‘savings’ and service cuts.

Their particular focus frequently has been on annual deficits, which are said to have accelerated from Covid times to anywhere between £20m. and £30m. today (the exact sum changes with the weather).

Just last week, Cllr. Williams upped the ante further when she told the Waltham Forest Echo that LBWF now was being forced to dip into its reserves, and if this went on, might need a government bailout within 18 months.

In the light of such scary rhetoric, it comes as something of a surprise to find that between 2020-21 and 2024-25:

the total number of LBWF staff rose by 9 per cent;

the number of LBWF staff earning over £100,000 p.a. rose by 24 per cent; and

the size of LBWF’s annual wage bill rose from £112m. to £152m., that is 36 per cent, in other words well above the overall rate of inflation for this period, which is calculated to be c. 20 per cent.

Faced with deteriorating finances, most organisations, public and private, look at their spending, of course, but they also make at least some effort to control the size and costs of their workforces, for instance by freezing appointments and limiting promotions, at worst making staff redundant. 

LBWF has instituted redundancy programmes, it’s true, but these have been comparatively modest, and (in true style) mostly focused on lower grades (see links).

Otherwise, on the staff front, LBWF seems to have just let rip.

Quite why this has occurred is anyone’s guess. It’s difficult to see how LBWF’s workload possibly can have increased over five years to the extent of needing 9 per cent more staff, though perhaps productivity per head has sharply declined, which, if so, raises further questions.

Possibly, the driver is empire building and the old pals act, coupled with a nervousness about offending entrenched interest groups within the Town Hall, more of a pressing consideration than might be imagined.

Needless to say, plain incompetence, too, cannot be ruled out.

Whatever the truth about causes, though, the facts reported in this post are worth remembering next time the Leader bangs her begging bowl, or claims that LBWF’s financial problems stem only from circumstances that are beyond its control.

PS Neither of the earnings figures quoted here takes account of pension arrangements, which in the public sector are comparatively generous, if rarely talked about.