Bath Liberal Democrats

Lib Dems Move to 'Axe' Council Tax

30th October 2003

Liberal Democrat Leader, Charles Kennedy MP Liberal Democrat Councillor Gail Coleshill has kicked off her party's campaign to 'axe' Council Tax by submitting a motion to Bath & North East Somerset's full Council meeting calling on the Government to ditch the unfair tax system that has seen bills rocket by over 70% in the last 6 years.

Cllr Gail Coleshill (Liberal Democrat; Peasedown St John) says:

"The Council Tax is an unfair tax imposed on us by the Tories and under New Labour has seen tax demands increase by over 70%.

Pensioners, low-income households and hard working families are now struggling to meet the ever-increasing bills from this tax.

The only just and fair thing to do now is to 'axe this tax' and replace it with a fairer tax based on a persons ability to pay.

At last the Government is taking note of the anger about Council Tax and has said it will review it and consider replacing it with a local income tax as the Liberal Democrats have long argued. Now is the time to up the pressure and support 'Axe the Tax' and force the Government to scrap Council Tax for good."

The Liberal Democrats are proposing to scrap Council Tax and replace it with a local income tax that will see over 70% of people better off. Pensioners and low income households will particularly benefit.

As well as a motion to full Council, local Liberal Democrats have also launched a petition so that everyone can demonstrate their anger with Council Tax.

The Government has just announced a review of Council Tax that includes an option to scrap it and replace it with local income tax. But local Labour MP Dan Norris has recently defended Council Tax calling for bills for a few to be discounted while increasing the tax burden of all other households by over �200 per year.

Motion to Council:

Council notes with great concern the major and unfair impact that successive council tax increases have on many citizens and recognises that this is substantially due to the Government's management of grants to local authorities, as well as flaws in the system;

regrets that the present system of local taxation takes no account of ability to pay;
recognises that council tax therefore places a disproportionately high burden on residents with low incomes, such as pensioners;
notes that since the Labour government came into office in 1997, the average Band D council tax bill has risen by �455, a rise of 70%;
recognises that the huge increase in the level of direct and ring-fenced grants, combined with rising costs and additional duties imposed by Government on local councils has left authorities with the stark choice of huge cuts in services or massive increases in council tax, or a combination of both;
regrets that the present system of local government finance is so confusing and lacking in transparency that accountability for the tax levied is blurred, with very few citizens able to penetrate the Government's use of smoke and mirrors to paint every settlement as generous, regardless of the facts.

...Council calls on the Deputy Prime Minister:

to propose future funding settlements which provide mainstream grant for local authorities sufficient to ensure the provision of high quality, locally accountable public services;
to replace the council tax with a local tax based on income, reinstating the principle of progressive taxation, that the more one earns, the more one pays.