|
> Home
> News cuttings >
South bears the brunt of huge rise in council tax
Daily Mail - 2 March 2004
COUNCIL tax bills up by more than five times the rate of inflation
will be sent out to millions of homeowners next month, it was revealed
yesterday.Southern England will bear the brunt, with an average demand
of more than Pounds 1,000 a year.But for the second year running, rises
across much of the largely Labour-voting North will be much lower.
Bills will go up by an average 6.9 per cent in the South East
and 7.1 per cent in the East of England, according to an analysis by local
government accountants. Inflation is running at 1.4 per cent. But the
South West, where huge rises last year provoked pensioner protests, will
again be hardest hit. Council tax payers there, who include a high proportion
of elderly, will face a 7.6 per cent hike to push the average bill up
by Pounds 71.15 to Pounds 1,008.81.
In the North West, bills will be up by only 5.1 per cent in cash terms
just Pounds 43.01, which is little more than half the increase in the
South West.
In the Labour heartlands of the North East, the average rise
will be Pounds 48.53 to Pounds 849.63.
In Wales, bills will be up by only Pounds 35.96. The rises projected by
the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, which has a
strong record of accuracy prompted fresh anger from protesters.
Christine Melsom, of the Is It Fair? campaign, said: 'If council
tax keeps on going up in this way, in seven years' time it will take every
penny of the state pension.
'This is more than twice the 2.8 per cent rise I will get
in my state pension. It means I am going to have to pay the increase out
of my savings.'
She added: 'There are people in the North who have big rises
in the past there have been heavy increases in Cumbria and Yorkshire.
'It is the people in the cities and urban districts who are
getting it easy with much lower rises.' Tory local government spokesman
David Curry said: 'After all the huffing and puffing we have seen from
Labour, with councils threatened by letter and in person with capping,
we still see council tax increases of several times inflation. The Government
cannot escape the charge that it has placed massive burdens on councils
and fiddled the funding.' The analysis was confirmed by council tax minister
Nick Raynsford, who gave Labour Party figures which showed that across
the country the average rise for a ' benchmark' Band D property will be
six per cent.
Mr Raynsford now has the problem of deciding whether to go ahead with
capping the spending of authorities which push bills up by more than five
per cent.
More than 50 have been threatened, but the Minister said many
had responded to pressure to keep bills down.
He said Labour councils would raise Band D bills by an average 4.8 per
cent, Tory councils by 5.5 per cent and Liberal Democrats by 6.2 per cent.
Labour councils had not benefited from higher Treasury grants, he insisted.
Mr Raynsford added: ' Government will use its capping powers if necessary,
where authorities impose unreasonable burdens on council tax payers. No
decisions will be made until we have seen all the returns.' CIPFA said
four regions the South East, the South West, Greater London and East of
England will charge average bills of over Pounds 1,000.
The North East average will be Pounds 849.63, the North West
Pounds 883.06 and Wales Pounds 717.97.
Across England as a whole, CIPFA said the Band D bills will go up by an
average six per cent, to Pounds 1,167.92.
The lowest Band D increase will be in the North West, at 4.8
per cent. In the South West, it will go up 6.6 per cent. The CIPFA figures
also show that the average council tax bill will have risen by 72 per
cent since Labour came to power in 1997.
Ministers tried to defuse protests yesterday by urging pensioners
to claim meanstested welfare payments.
Work and pensions minister Chris Pond said: 'Pensioners have worked hard
all their lives and contributed to the prosperity of this country.
'My message is, don't be too proud to claim.' But campaigners, who called
the advice ' patronising', said the benefits system was too complex and
penalised those with savings.
Mrs Melsom said: ' Meanstested benefits are not paid to people who have
savings.
This punishes people who have saved for their retirement, while those
who never bothered to save a penny get every benefit going.' Albert Venison,
of the Devon Pensioners' Action Forum which has led nonpayment protests
in the county warned: 'We will just do what we did last year only pay
an increase in line with inflation.' More than 600 Devon pensioners are
still refusing to pay their full bills from 2003.
Mr Venison said: 'I owe Pounds 200.'
© Daily Mail
|
previous page