IN the last two editions of The Month, we have looked at the pattern of regular PCC expenditure. We found that as a component of regular expenditure, outward giving was noticeably skewed with many parishes (43 per cent) giving at between 0 per cent and 2.9 per cent of their income and many fewer (16per cent) at between 5 per cent and 7.9 per cent of their income.On the other hand we found that regular expenditure, including outward giving but excluding parish share, tended to have a more normal distribution with lots of parishes clustered around the equivalent of £3 to £3.99 per member per week. The median amount was close to this at £4.39 per member per week.
In recent months the media has given attention to various indices following the Government decision to link pensions with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rather than the Retail Price Index (RPI). In addition, although it seems not to have been trailed very much, the Average Earnings Index (AEI) has given way to the Average Weekly Earnings Index (AWE). With the current interest in how things are changing over time I thought we might look at PCC expenditure in this way too.The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has back-dated the newer indices to at least 2000. We also have PCC expenditure details from 1998 onwards so let's take the last ten years from 2000 to 2010.The dotted lines represent the three indices: CPI; RPI and AWE. The lowest one is the CPI, in the middle is the RPI and at the top the AWE. These relationships illustrate that the CPI is generally lower than the RPI (a hot topic with public sector pensions) and that early in the period earnings outstripped both price indices although now the gap is closing and we can expect it to close further when 2011 data is available.The full lines represent the three items of regular PCC expenditure. It seems that outward giving reached a peak in 2005 but, after tailing off for a period, is rising again. Parish Share payments have closely followed the AWE index. The big surprise is the way in which running costs have increased, now nearly double what they were in 2000 with a total now comparable with Parish Share receipts. Clearly we need to drill down to see if we can discover more about this.
