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When it comes to taking tough action to keep taxes down…
• GEORGE Osborne’s commitment that a Conservative government would allow councils to freeze council tax for two years, if a council holds its underlying proposed increase to 2.5 per cent or less, has been widely welcomed around here.
The council’s current planning assumption is for a 2.5 per cent increase in the coming two years. So if a Conservative government is in place, we would be eligible for extra government grants to keep Camden’s council tax increase to zero, in return simply for efficiency measures we are doing anyway. Good news – so dismaying and curious that Labour and Liberal Democrat council leaders across London have rejected this out of hand.
I hope they will be more pragmatic when they actually come to deal with a Conservative government.
Voters are feeling the pinch and have seen wasteful spending in parts of the public sector, and they want to see action to reduce damaging tax increases.
Boris Johnson’s welcome announcement that the GLA charge will be frozen next year (after it doubled under Ken Livingstone) shows that when it comes to tough action to keep taxes down, Conservatives can deliver where others can’t or won’t.
CLLR ANDREW MARSHALL
Conservative Group Leader, Swiss Cottage ward
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