Re: Derbyshire Dales are auto-opt-in
"A third possibility is that individuals in local government are getting most of it, having concluded their own arrangements with corporations."
If someone's making money out of it, it's likely to be inside the Electoral Commission, but it's always possible that backscratching agreements were reached with EROs in the 12 local authorities involved.
Of course the possibility of a criminal forensic audit of personal income of all the individuals involved within councils and the EC might slow that kind of activity down. Not that it'd ever happen.