Mileage expenses madness - 82p/mile for Nuneaton Council

November 14th, 2009

Staff at Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council are having their pay and expenses reviewed as part of the single status programme. As part of the changes some staff lose an essential car user allowance but all staff will have their car mileage rate increased. What was not disclosed on the documents was the new rate, which it seems will be around 82p/mile at current diesel prices.

My comment for the press is:-

“To pay such an extreme mileage allowance to staff is not good for the council, the environment or the council taxpayer. It does not even do anything useful for the majority of staff who drive very little on council business. We need to spend the money smarter so that the quarter of a million pounds reduces staff mileage. It should also enable those who have to drive to use more economic cars.”

I attended the cabinet meeting at which I explained the proposed change and told them it would be unreasonable to pay more then the Inland Revenue rate of 40p/mile. This is also generally the rate paid by the more generous firms in industry. I proposed some of the money saved could be put helping staff when they need to replace cars to by ones that are greener and cheaper to run. I also proposed they had a few small pool cars to help those staff who only occasionally need use car for council work.

New 82p a mile staff travel allowance is an outrageously bad way to spend £242,000 of our money each year. It encourages staff to drive as much as possible. Paying a still generous 40p/mile would release around £124,000 per year.

It was shocking that the cabinet were unaware of the proposed rate as the papers to the cabinet gave no details for the proposal. They were told by the officers the rate would be 76p/mile and taken from the AA tables for a new Diesel car valued up to £16,000 driven 5,000 miles per year. This rate currently 81.88p per mile and is a stupid choice for what it costs our council staff. It is more typical for staff to have cheaper cars which do far more miles per year. The range age of the staffs cars is also far older than the AA survey which studied the cost of running a brand new car for 4 years.

	Total of standing charges and running costs for diesel (in pence) based on annual mileage
cost of car	up to £12000	£12000 to £16000	£16000 to £24000
5,000 miles	62.06	81.88	105.96
10,000 miles	39.11	49.60	62.64
15,000 miles	31.65	39.14	48.62
20,000 miles	28.06	34.14	41.92
25,000 miles	25.68	30.77	37.40
30,000 miles	24.04	28.45	34.28

Total of standing charges and running costs for petrol (in pence) based on annual mileage
	up to £12000	£12000 to £14000	£14000 to £22000
5,000 miles	61.40	77.40	103.69
10,000 miles	40.26	48.86	63.22
15,000 miles	33.38	39.61	50.12
20,000 miles	30.07	35.17	43.86
25,000 miles	27.88	32.20	39.64
30,000 miles	26.38	30.15	36.73