Lib Dem Leader hits back at capping threat - London's Labour Mayor allowed 13.3% rise - York demands missing £1.25 million (York Liberal Democrats)

York Liberal Democrats <info@yorklibdems.org.uk>

Lib Dem Leader hits back at capping threat - London's Labour Mayor allowed 13.3% rise - York demands missing £1.25 million

March 28, 2006 11:20 AM

Cllr Steve Galloway, Lib Dem Leader of City of York Council, has hit back at the Government over its capping threat, branding the move as 'political'.

Speaking after the announcement today, Cllr Steve Galloway said "Make no mistake, if the Government decide to enforce a cap, it would punish local people and harm York's services.

"The government said we should have £1.25 million extra funding, but refused to give it to us. Now they are trying to force us to cut services and hurt residents because we tried to raise a small proportion of this money through the Council Tax.

"York has one of the lowest Council tax bills in the whole country. Our proposed rise is just £49 on a Band D property. The national average rise is £54. City of York's Council Tax will be just £940 for a Band D property, well below the national average.

"The government is suggesting we rebill every single household, at a predicted cost of £120,000, to bring our Council Tax down by just £3.43 per household - 7p per week. The cost of rebilling itself will be at least £1.45 per household - 3p per week. The Government is quibbling over 0.003% of York's total budget of £98 million.

"If the government sticks to its guns we would be forced to cut around £400,000 of services from York's residents. Given that we have already made more than £6 million savings this year, this will be very, very tough.

"The most annoying thing about this is that Labour's Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, has proposed and been allowed a 13.3% increase - it appears to be one rule for Labour politicians and another rule for the rest.

"It time the Council Tax was scrapped, not capped."

Notes:

£940 is the City of York Council portion of the Council Tax bill. In addition to this there are precepts for the Fire Authority (£54) and Police Authority (£180). Therefore, York's proposed Band D Council Tax for 2006/07, including Fire and Police precepts but excluding Parish Precept is £1,174. The national average is £1,268.

York's total budget for 2006/07 is £98,309,000. The total difference between a 5% rise, and a 5.49% rise is £284,500. This is equivalent to just 0.003% of York's budget. The estimated cost of rebilling 83,000 households is £120,000.