Lib-Dem Thinking Crystal Clear On Need To Axe Council Tax (Bristol East Liberal Democrats)

Bristol East Liberal Democrats <info@bristoleastlibdems.org.uk>

Lib-Dem Thinking Crystal Clear On Need To Axe Council Tax

March 20, 2005 12:00 AM
By Philip C James, Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, Bristol East in the Western Daily Press

Council Tax is Unfair. House Price Re-Banding in England will add Injury to Injury. Liberal Democrat Councillors, MPs and PPCs say Axe the Tax!

Bristol Councillors and Prospective MPs cry out - Axe the unfair Council Tax!

Sir, Ms Glaisher can rest assured the British public has no need to fear innovative thinking on tax by the Liberal Democrats (Letters, 16 March). Our campaign to abolish the unfair Council Tax and replace it with a tax based on ability to pay appeals to people I talk with on their doorsteps. Our thinking has been vindicated by independent accountancy institutions. In fact, just about the only people who fear abolishing the Council Tax are the big-wigs of the New Labour and Conservative parties, who have no answer themselves.

You can tell a policy is right for the people when both these moribund political parties attack it so vehemently! Scare-mongering by the Tory top brass is particularly insulting to the intelligence of the public. Either that or they genuinely believe the salaries they command are 'average'.

The Council Tax is unfair. It takes no account of whether people can pay the huge increases we are faced with year after year.

Those on low and fixed incomes suffer the most. Red and blue governments have stealthily shifted the burden of taxation from the richest, who can afford it, to the poorest, who are struggling to survive. The poorest fifth of the population now pays seven per cent of their low earnings in Council Tax. The richest fifth of the population pays less than two per cent of their income in Council Tax.

Replacing the Council Tax with a Local Income Tax will help redress this imbalance. It will leave 70 per cent of households better off, or unaffected. Liberal Democrats try to be honest with the public. We freely admit that 30 per cent of households will pay more Local Income Tax than Council Tax, but these will be households with above average incomes, better able to pay.

A warning. If the public listens to New Labour or the Tories and Council Tax is not abolished, we in the South West can expect to pay between 11 and 33 per cent extra on top of any annual rise in our Council Tax bills from April 2007.

Council Tax re-banding will take place across England next year to take account of house price increases since 1991. If your house has gone up in value more than the national average, as many in the South West have done, the upshot will be that you will have to pay even more Council Tax than you do today.

It would be far better to support the Liberal Democrats now and abolish the Council Tax altogether.