Date:

Dear Mr Blair,

Ever since New Labour came to power there have been steadily increasing levels of council tax right across the country, and when protests have been made local councils blame central government underfunding and your Ministers accuse local councils of overspending. Thus the true state of affairs becomes obscured and both parties behave like children squabbling over who is responsible for some misdemeanour.

What is readily evident is the fact that additional responsibilities have been imposed upon local authorities resulting in an extra financial burden just at a time when they are having difficulty in making good deficiencies in the public employees’ pension fund, difficulties I might add, that are made worse by Gordon Brown’s raid upon pension fund investment profits.

In response to protests about these local tax rises, we are told by Brian Entwistle of the Council Tax Policy Branch, that the average grant increase for authorities in England is 5.9 per cent; but what he does not say is whether this is sufficient for them to meet their statutory obligations and maintain the local services for which they are responsible without having to impose excessive council tax increases. If, however, this funding is insufficient, then it is pointless for him to disclaim any governmental responsibility for inordinately high local taxes and insist that it is for local authorities to determine the level of council tax. After all, if 85 per cent of local council funding is met by central government, one does not need the skills of an accountant to see where the responsibility lies for the major part of any council tax rise, even if some local authorities are not particularly clever at managing their own financial affairs.

Many people now face an ongoing struggle to meet these continual demands for ever more council tax, an escalating expenditure they can ill-afford and which will eventually give rise to a widespread revolt if the problem is not addressed with some urgency, especially with revaluation looming in the not too distant future. It is all very well for your spokesman to assure us that the pensioners and those on low incomes could be eligible for council tax benefit, but this simply increases the burden for everyone else. Obviously the only effective remedy is to reverse this trend and overhaul the system so that all local taxes are kept to a reasonable level and based on ability to pay. No doubt it will be claimed that this situation was inherited from the Conservatives, nevertheless it doesn’t say much for the New Labour reformers that nothing has been done to put matters right, nor does it reflect any great credit on your government for meddling with distribution of the general grant and making the problem infinitely worse.

Here on the Isle of Wight for instance, our council tax has risen almost 30 per cent over the last two years and has left many on low and fixed incomes at their wits’ end attempting to balance their meagre budgets because they do not qualify for council tax relief. Would you therefore give me your assurance that local authorities will receive sufficient funding from central government to avoid the necessity of setting excessive council tax levels in future and that any council failing to do so will be capped.

Yours sincerely,