Tory U-turn on council tax

In a second ‘U’ turn in as many months since taking over the administration of Brighton & Hove City Council, the Conservatives have now back-tracked on another key election pledge - to fix council tax rises to the rate of inflation and publish a 4 year financial plan. This comes just a week after their spectacular ‘U’ turn on the King Alfred development.

Following calls from Labour Councillors for the Tories to reveal their spending plans, a report is coming before councillors at the Policy and Resources Committee on 26th July that sets out the Conservatives’ budget strategy. The report states that over the three year period covered in the strategy, the level of general inflation is assumed to be 2.5%.

The Conservatives are proposing to raise council tax by 3.9% for 2008/09, by 3.5% for 2009/10 and by 2.9% for 2010/11. Contrary to their pledge, they have not set any rate of increase for the fourth year, 2011/12, the year of the next local elections.

Labour Leader Cllr Gill Mitchell says:
“The Conservatives presented no budget prior to the May elections and promised residents in their election leaflets that they would set council tax at the rate of inflation “throughout the lifetime of the council”. Only 2 months later they have broken this promise by proposing tax increases from next year that are above the rate of inflation and will mean making cuts totalling 22.1M.

“In their budget report, the Conservatives are announcing a council wide review of all fees and charges and we know that they will seek to plug their funding gap by hiking up charges for essential services that vulnerable people, such as the elderly, rely on. It is no good the Tories saying that services will be protected if people cannot afford to use them”.

“The Tories basically expected people to vote them in with a blank cheque and that they would, in turn, honour their election promises. This is a staggering betrayal of trust and for the Tories to refuse to commit to any proposed rate of increase for the year of the next local elections reveals how they are now desperately seeking to distance themselves from that promise. I am sure that in their defence, the Tories will seek to blame the government but this was a Tory election pledge, not a Labour Government one.”