Alan Lamb: Unions wasting taxpayers’ cash in times of austerity

both from the point of view of their influence over political parties but, in my view, more importantly around the use of taxpayers’ money to provide what is in effect a subsidy of these organisations.

In Leeds, this debate has been gathering pace as the council faces up to a budget squeeze not seen for many years. The need to repair the budget deficit means that we must focus on areas of spending that are clearly wasteful and unjustifiable.

Leeds City Council pays out more than £417,000 to fund 15 staff who work full-time on trade union duties. In Bradford, the figure is more than £300,000 and, across Yorkshire, it is in excess of £2.5m. Nationally the figure is much higher, the TaxPayers’ Alliance has estimated that the total cost is £85m.

You might ask and what of it? Trade unions do carry out important work with regard to effective industrial relations, ensuring that workers are treated fairly and receive fair payment. It is important to be clear that this is not an attempt to undermine that.

But when trade unions are able to donate huge sums of money to political parties – in 2009 Unison gave £5.9m to political funds, while GMB gave £2.24m – the use of public resources to swell trade union coffers in this way has to be questioned.

It is true that there are legal requirements for local authorities to allow some employees to have time off to attend to union matters such as representing fellow employees.

However, in Leeds at least, in addition to the £417,000 in salary payments, the council has 84 staff who operate as part-time trade union stewards and also provides free office accommodation and free use of meeting rooms for trade unions. Given this, the salary payments should surely be seen as a luxury Leeds City Council can no longer afford.

The council faces a budget challenge in the region of £90m for 2010-11, £50m in grant reductions and £40m in existing budget pressures. When departments such as children’s services are facing a huge increase in demand, it is essential that we address this.

Other front line services also face an uncertain future; leisure centres have been closed, libraries face closure and residential care homes are also under threat.

We are going through a period of austerity, and given this background, it is very difficult indeed to provide a strong argument for continuing to fund organisations that have over £8m in spare cash which has been used for political donations in recent years.

There is a more serious question here. Does the money paid by local authorities and public bodies, funded by the taxpayer, assist trade unions in making these donations? If so, is the public purse being used to subsidise a political agenda?

Clearly funding of political parties is, and has been, an area of concern to the public and no party has emerged from it untarnished.

However, this appears to be a clear example of unfairness within the system. I am not arguing for an end to trade union donations, they should use their money as they see fit.

I am simply arguing that in these austere times, when financial markets and government budgets are at near crisis point, every penny counts and if we are to preserve key front-line services, then we need to cut back on areas of spend that are unjustifiable.

I have rarely seen a clearer example of wasted public spending than this. I will be bringing this matter to a head at the next meeting of Leeds City Council on September 7 where I have submitted a motion that calls for this expenditure to be ended.

I expect the issues to be fully debated and I hope that we will be able to pass a resolution that ends this practice and frees up valuable resources to be spent on the front line; providing additional PCSOs, improving our leisure centre offer or ensuring that key facilities such as libraries and care homes can be kept open.

But this is not just about protecting front-line services, if we are serious about improving the view the public has of politics we have to spend taxpayers’ hard earned money more accountably.

I seriously doubt that the current arrangements we have in place command the public’s confidence.

Alan Lamb is a Conservative councillor on Leeds City Council.