Tuesday 29 April 2014

Corporate spin masquerading as news

CIVEA: A thieves guild
REVEALED!!! Says the Daily Mail.  "Council tax bills could be cut by an average £100 per household if authorities chased up debts properly."

This is according to analysis by CIVEA, the bailiff trade association.  This is the same organisation who investigates complaints against bailiffs - and is made up of those very same bailiff companies.  The self-investigating (no faults found) complaints body.

Steve Everson, director general of CIVEA said: 'These figures show that those local authorities that take a more proactive approach to the enforcement of council tax are helping to ease the financial burden on taxpayers and protecting revenue for vital public services on which vulnerable people depend.' His concern for the vulnerable is touching.

What we are looking at is another example of our Uncle Tom Media unquestioningly reporting what is essentially corporate PR spin.  CIVEA would like nothing more than for councils to be more aggressive in collecting "debts".

Presumably, with his new found concern for the vulnerable, he will be barring the likes of James Cohen from his organisation and disassociating himself from fraudsters Rundle & Co and Bristow & Sutor?  I wonder, does it ever occur to Everson, or indeed councils, that there would not be so many vulnerable people were he and his clients not raping them for every spare penny?

They conclude that council tax bills could be cut by an average of £100.  But they wouldn't be, because our councils are nothing but greedy revenue collection machines who have long since forgotten who they are supposed to serve.

This matters not to Everson and his ilk.  There's millions to be made for him and his merry band of thugs if councils take a "more proactive approach to the enforcement of council tax".  Knowing that the police are not mentally equipped to deal with the vagaries of bailiff law, and that councils are staffed by would-be child-rapist enablers, (they who turn a blind eye to the thuggery and fraud of Mr Everson's members), there's every chance he and his ilk can be millionaires by heaping misery on those vulnerable people he is so concerned for.

Not that this troubles the junior hacks at the Daily Mail, or The Guardian for that matter.  It would take a real journalist to blow the lid off this grubby little scam.  And we know what happens to those these days.

1 comment:

  1. Evidently the government is swayed by organisations such as CIVEA who let's face it aren't reputed for getting things right.

    Take the following as example taken from the article:

    "Nottingham City also collected just 93.5 per cent, compared to Dudley Borough's more impressive 98 per cent. If Nottingham could achieve the same collection rate, council tax could be slashed by 4.5 per cent and still rake in the same for the town hall. This would reduce the bill for a band e property by £94.05"

    Firstly, what is not emphasised is that the 93.5 per cent is an in-year collection rate and the reduction of £94.05 for a band E property is not a true representation of a single year, rather a snap shot of the figure at that time which may increase or decrease as arrears are successfully or unsuccessfully collected.

    It sounds very much like CIVEA is the mouthpiece of Communities and Local Government minister Brandon Lewis, whose catch phrase is: "Every penny of council tax that is not collected means a higher council tax for the law-abiding citizen who does pay on time"

    Secondly, it's doubtful that CIVEA will have factored in all the money gained in court fees and set that off against the non-payment that allegedly adds £94.05 to each band E dwelling. Nottingham raised £1.24 million in 2012/13 through Summons and Liability Order costs and by virtue of instalment withdrawal, many accounts are settled early with lump sums gaining interest for the council sooner.

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