Dear Sir,
The local LibDems are launching their election campaign on: “We Hate Council Tax”. (Don’t we all!) But what are the truths about Council Tax?
(1) IS ‘COUNCIL TAX’ A ‘COUNCIL’ TAX?
No. It is largely a government stealth tax. The government requires Councils to deliver certain statutory services, and then also makes them collect the money to pay for them. It just calls it ‘Council’ tax so we know who to blame.
(2) DO LABOUR LOVE RAISING COUNCIL TAX?
No. Local Labour Councillors HATE raising Council Tax because it makes them so unpopular. The national Labour Party, also, hates Council Tax because it is massively unfair – it is charged on property rather than on ability-to-pay, and it disproportionally burdens the less-well-off people and the deprived areas least able to afford it.
Labour’s 2019 manifesto promised to consider a ‘land value tax’, which would be fairer.
(3) HAS THE LABOUR ADMINISTRATION AT COUNTY HALL CONTINUALLY RAISED OUR COUNCIL TAX?
The DCC element of the bundle of charges which we wrongly call ‘council tax’ is this year £1,509 on a Band D property. In 2010 it was £1,259. So yes it has gone up (20%) in absolute terms.
But everything has gone up, hasn’t it! What will surprise many people is that, because inflation since 2010 has been 35%, our DCC charge has in fact gone up much less (in fact £189 less) than inflation.
(AND ALSO, this, at a time when the council has had to find £250million-worth of savings per year due to government austerity cuts. To give you an idea of the scale of the Labour administration’s achievement: if all of those cuts had been transferred onto our council tax, the total charge on a Band D property this year would have been £3,837.)
(4) DO THE TORIES LOVE COUNCIL TAX?
The Tory government LOVES Council Tax because it gives them the chance to devolve all kinds of financial obligations, from the government, onto the Councils.
• One Tory trick is to set up a popular new initiative (e.g. for health or homelessness) and give the councils a grant to run it; after a couple of years they stop the grant, but expect the council to keep providing the service (i.e. out of our council tax).
• In 2016, to meet a shortfall on social care funding, George Osborne paid for it by ‘allowing’ councils to add a charge for adult social care – i.e. he got us to pay for it on top of our council tax. This has continued and this year on a Band D property we are paying an extra £145 for the government’s ‘adult social care precept’.
• Since 2013 the Tory government has asked councils to start levying Council Tax on those poorer residents who were previously exempt. (DCC is one of the very few Councils in the country which has refused to implement this).
(5) WHAT HAVE THE TORIES AND LIBDEMS DONE TO TRY TO CUT OUR COUNCIL TAX?
Nothing. Ever.
This year, for example, on a budget of £430million, the LibDems proposed to SPEND an extra £460k, and the Tories proposed to SPEND an extra £320k. Aycliffe North’s own Cllr Scott Durham did propose to abolish the Youth Parliament (but only so he could spend the money saved on something else).
(6) ARE YOU SURPRISED?
We appreciate that it goes against every myth of local government to tell you this, but:
• Our Labour-controlled council has saved money brilliantly;
• Our DCC Council Tax charge has gone up much less than inflation;
• The Tories and LibDems have been arguing to spend MORE.
Sedgefield CLP Campaigns Team.
