CONSERVATIVE RUSE TO WOO COUNCIL TAXPAYERS

6.44.27pm BST (GMT +0100) Sun 5th Oct 2008

Council services in jeopardy following Conference announcement

Under plans announced by George Osborne, Shadow Chancellor, at the Conservative Party Conference this week, council tax would be frozen for at least two years if the Party was elected into government at the next General Election. Extra funding would be made available to all local authorities in England which kept their annual council tax increases to 2.5% or less. Local authorities which did not do so would not receive the additional funding.

Effectively, the plan halves the current annual cap on council tax risesby the back door and could run into fierce opposition from councils such as Bracknell which have grown used to implementing inflation busting increases year after year. Only a fifth of local authorities actually managed to keep council tax rises to 2.5% or less this year. The ability to freeze council tax will be entirely dependent on individual councils being able to cut their budgets, which is likely to leave the poorest areas with yet more council tax rises.

Commenting on George Osborne's speech, Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesperson, Ray Earwicker, echoed Vince Cable's views that 'the Tories were once again playing a hopeless game of catch up when dealing with the current financial crisis. Rather than making tough economic choices over tax and spending, George Osborne was simply passing the buck to local councils, expecting them to make the necessary cuts.

In Bracknell Forest it was believed that there is little or no scope for making further economies and the prospect of making cuts in front-line services would therefore become a very real possibility if the Conservatives were elected at the next General Election. Only the Liberal Democrats were prepared to abolish council tax completely in favour of a fairer system based on the ability to pay and cut taxes for ordinary families in order to help those who needed it most'.