The only reason why Leeds City Council is strapped for cash is due to the well-paid jobs for the boys creation scheme known as the Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs).

It is perfectly obvious that due to the enormity of the local government housing refurbishment scheme, to bring all community housing up to decent living standards by the year 2010, Leeds City Council would have to employ private building companies to carry out the work.

So why divide the city into separate sections and set up private management organisations (the ALMOs) to implement the refurbishment programme?

All that the council has done is to introduce an additional tier of management, who at the highest level have received a 300 per cent salary increase over the last five years. While at the same time these highly-paid button-pushers are insisting that everyone else who is employed by Leeds City Council effectively takes a pay cut.

The ALMO for which I work is presently proposing to reduce even further the number of caretakers it employs, by transferring some of their caretaking staff over to Leeds City Council's Cleaning Services Agency, complaining that they are currently paying £1.5 million a year to Leeds City Council's Cleaning Services Agency in return for the services that they are providing.

Economics

I don't know which school of economics our chief executive went to, but if he employed another 35 full-time caretakers, that would enable Leeds East North East Homes to completely dispense with the services of Leeds City Council's Cleaning Services Agency, saving this private company wholly owned by Leeds City Council approximately £850,000 a year.

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