Mar 02 2007
Council Tax time again
The ever larger Council Tax bills which will soon thud on our doormats are a reminder of just how much money some local authorities waste, and how unfair the grant system is that the government uses to send its contribution to local costs.
It is bizarre that at a time when so many members of the public are wrestling with higher mortgage bills, higher Council Tax bills, higher utilities bills and higher pension savings demands, so many politicians should be sitting round discussing how government can tax these same people even more. All too many politicians today want to discuss road pricing, airline taxes, pollution taxes, rubbish taxes, but all too few say they want to slash other taxes at the same time.
No wonder the high tax parties are now so unpopular. They are completely out of touch with the public mood, cocooned in a world of their own whgere money is easily come by and there for the government’s taking. They have no idea how tight many home budgets now are, and what good work so many families do on precious little to feed, clothe and look after their children and elderly.
John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College...
“Nobody spends somebody else’s money as carefully as he spends his own.” - Milton Friedman
I have a Labour council which after 10 years of Nu Labour rule has decided to cut home care to the elderly because it is expensive. On the other hand when the Tories had the council for ashort time they were ousted for their constant cutting of services.
Am I allowed to say that there is little to choose between you?
Yes, once again it it council tax time and the relentl;ess rises continue. And yet, the Conservative Party gives us no hope. When can we expect a lead, when will the Conservatives give the council tax paying electorate their answer to the contin ually asked question ‘What are you goling to do about council tax’? Is your intention to give us more of the same? Discounts for pensioners is not the answer. The whole system is rotten to the core and must be reformed, now. If the core services, education, social care, police were taken out of the local tax raising system and centrally funded, ease would be immediate and it would mean that everyone pays something to the servies we all use. If RSG was delivered on a fair basis, if the banding system was scrapped or certainly reformed it would ease the pain for this relatively small section of the community which bears such a huge cost. Money being taken from money already taxed. Money being paid towards other peoples pensions from pensions.
The average band D property which is tossed up on every occasion is a delusion. The figures used should be average incomes and average council tax. Take for example, North Devon and Manchester, both with similar average earnings but one paying an average of nearly