Crime, drugs and alcohol abuse cost taxpayers in just three regions \u00a31.5billion a year, according to official reports.
\nCouncils in Birmingham, Luton and Leicestershire have calculated the price of social breakdown in terms of police and court time, health services, welfare benefits and support for families.\u00a0\u00a0 In one area, the cost of binge-drinking on hospitals and the criminal justice system was put at \u00a3713million a year, while addicts used up another \u00a3500m in public sector resources.
\nThe figures have been uncovered by the Conservatives in pilot projects commissioned by the Government but not published centrally.
\nCaroline Spelman, Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, said: \u201cIt is no surprise that Labour ministers have tried to bury this bad news.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cAcross the country, local taxpayers are footing the bill for Labour\u2019s broken society. The costs of social breakdown, alcohol abuse, poor schooling and drug addiction are just not confined to deprived areas \u2013 we all pay for it in our council tax bills and pay packets.
\n\u201cThere is no excuse for the secrecy of Labour ministers \u2013 they must come clean and publish all these reports in full.\u201d
\nThe 13 pilot studies were commissioned by the Department for Communities and Local Government a year ago in a \u00a35m project known as Total Place. The idea was that public sector organisations in any given area could save money and improve services by improving co-operation and reducing duplication.
\nEarlier this month Liam Byrne, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, told MPs that it was up to local authorities whether they wanted to publish their reports or not, and he declined to put copies of each study in the Commons library.\u00a0\u00a0 But the Tories have found the results of three Total Place studies, covering Birmingham; Luton and Central Bedfordshire; and Leicestershire.
\nThe Birmingham report found that gang-related murders and attempted murders are costing the city\u2019s taxpayers at least \u00a31.5m a year in police, court and prison costs.\u00a0 It puts the cost of the activities of \u201c10 major dynastic gang families\u201d at \u00a3187.5m over the past 40 years. Birmingham\u2019s two main gangs, the Johnson Crew and the Burger Bar Boys, are each said to include three generations of five families. Their rivalry led to the fatal shooting of two teenage girls, Letisha Shakespeare and Charlene Ellis, at a New Year party in 2003.
\nIn Luton and Central Bedfordshire, a hard core of 250 criminals is blamed for a quarter of all offences, costing taxpayers up to \u00a3112m a year.
\nThe Birmingham report puts the cost of alcohol misuse – including public disorder, workplace sickness and health services \u2013 at \u00a3713m a year. Drug misuse is said to cost \u00a3500m in terms of treatment, mental health care, benefits payments and police time.
\nLeicestershire estimated that drinking costs the NHS, police, workplaces and social services \u00a3120m a year.
\nSource:\u00a0 Telegraph.co.uk\u00a0 24th March 2010<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Crime, drugs and alcohol abuse cost taxpayers in just three regions \u00a31.5billion a year, according to official reports. Councils in Birmingham, Luton and Leicestershire have calculated the price of social breakdown in terms of police and court time, health services, welfare benefits and support for families.\u00a0\u00a0 In one area, the cost of binge-drinking on hospitals […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political-sector","category-social-affairs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6490\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}