Only Lib Dems are Committed to Reforming the Unfair Council Tax

12.00.00am GMT Tue 1st Jun 2004

Lib Dems show commitment to reforming the Unfair Council Tax

Local MP for Mid Dorset, Annette Brooke, has asserted that only the Liberal Democrat party has made a commitment to replace the unpopular, expensive and unfair Council Tax.

The Liberal Democrats have considered the alternatives, assessed the costs and proposed a different means of charging people for local services based on ability to pay and actual income. If it is fair for people to pay income tax based on how much they earn - and therefore can afford - why not apply the same principals to a local tax? Many other countries have implemented this system successfully. A local income tax will need to be adjusted according to population and income rates around the country, but significant savings will be made by cutting bureaucracy in administering the tax at the local level.

Annette Brooke said:

"Council Tax was unfair when the Conservatives invented it, after their failed Poll Tax, yet Labour's underfunding of councils has made it worse. Neither accept that the Council Tax is a unfair tax on the most vulnerable and should be scrapped, they simply attack each other."

While the Labour government continues to blame everyone but itself for any increases in Council Tax, the Conservative Party has not formulated, costed or proposed any alternative to the tax but insists that the party will have a policy in place in time for the next general election - likely to be less than 12 months away. Liberal Democrats believe that while the other parties delay, pensioners pay and launched their new Local Income Tax policy in January 2004.

The Government contradicts itself by refusing to take responsibility for massive increases in Council Tax and pensioner poverty but then promises an additional £100 per pensioner over 70 to help pay the burdensome tax.

By maintaining that pensioners have received increases in other benefits and allowances since it came to power in 1997, Labour implies that pensioners should stop complaining about their lot when all pensioners really want is a fair tax based on ability to pay.