Graham, Tom and Ian

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“Osborne tax” hits Police and council – local people foot the bill

by Lib Dem team on 9 February, 2016

In a U-turn that took pretty much everyone by surprise, George Osborne has revealed that the Government is taking more money than expected from council and police forces – and asking local residents to make up the difference with higher council tax.

The Coalition helped councils to freeze council tax – as Stockport has done for four or the last five years. Now, the Conservative government has taken the opposite approach.

It was announced just before Christmas that Osborne would take millions of pounds more than previously planned from the Police and local councils – and he expects council tax to go up every year to cover the gap.

“We already knew that for 2015/16 we faced the biggest ever cut in funding in the history of Stockport.” said Cllr Iain Roberts. “The Government then announced it was taking even more – an extra £2.8 million – not just this year but every year until 2020 – and they expected us to raise council tax to cover the gap.”

The Lib Dems will always work to get the best deal for local residents. Under Lib Dem leadership, Stockport is the second-lowest spending council in Greater Manchester, spending less per resident than Trafford or Manchester. But it’s clear that we can’t resist Osborne’s tax rise – leaving the announcement so late has made it all but impossible to find additional savings to cover the gap.

   13 Comments

13 Responses

  1. Bruce says:

    Stockport still has the dearest rates compared to Manchester and Trafford. When Mark Hunter was in opposition he wanted to change the rating allocation formula so that Stockport residents would pay lower taxes. However when in government he seemed to have forgotten that commitment.

    The council tax freeze was a Tory policy by the way

  2. Halifax says:

    Well the money for the Tax Credits, which LibDem successfully campaigned against cutting, has to come from some where. And part of that somewhere is our Council Tax.

    As ever the LibDems played a blinder

  3. Iain Roberts says:

    Bruce – no, Mark hasn’t forgot the wish to sort out the rates, but among the many things he was able to achieve as our local MP, that wasn’t one of them.

    Stockport is the second lowest spending council in Greater Manchester – we’re careful with our money and spend less per head than Trafford or Manchester. We also get less money from the Government than they do.

    Halifax – the money for tax credits is coming from cutting Universal Credit, not from local government funding! The Conservatives have made a political choice to cut spending faster than we – and most economists – think is either sensible or necessary. That’s their choice, and our local MP has voted for the cuts. Now we see if they are going to accept the consequences or try to wriggle out of it and pretend someone else is responsible for their decisions.

    • Halifax says:

      Iain – all tax collected goes into one pot, it is then divided up.

      If you increase costs somewhere, then that has got to be gained from either:

      a) borrowing
      b) Raising taxes elsewhere (i.e Council Tax)
      c) Cutting elsewhere

      And when you say ‘most economist’, can you justify that statement, as the economic papers I have read indicate that we are still borrowing far too much and have not cut nearly enough.

      For anyone in any doubt about how bad our borrowing is please see the link below

      http://www.nationaldebtclock.co.uk/

      • Iain Roberts says:

        Hi Bruce – when the chancellor did the tax credit u-turn he decided to get the money back by making bigger cuts to universal credit. That was his decision – we have a majority conservative government so I assume you agree they should be responsible for their own decisions!

        • Halifax says:

          Iain – you may the bold statement about ‘most economists’ supporting you view. I have asked you to justify that statement, as I assumed you had evidence to back up such a statement, but you failed to do so.

          I take it then that you made this statement up.

          • Iain Roberts says:

            No, I didn’t make it up. The statement came from reading I’ve done over the last five years, looking at what different economists on all sides of the argument are saying. You’ll appreciate that isn’t something I can put into a blog comment – others are welcome to do their own research and reach their own conclusions!

          • Halifax says:

            Iain – yes you are making it up. You have absolutely no idea what ‘most economists’ think.

            I’m going to guess you don’t even know how many economists there are, so how on Earth would you know how many is ‘most’? – I don’t want to be rude but your comments are ridiculous.

            It suits you own agenda to say ‘most’ but no one would know what most is.

            I can say, hand on heart, that the economists that I have read up, have mainly been of the view that we have not cut nearly enough. And when you see the UK’s borrowing and nation debt (growing at over £5,000 a second), I would have to agree.

            So based on your theory I could just as easily state, ‘most economists think we haven’t cut enough. And like your comment it would be ridiculous

          • Iain Roberts says:

            I think the suggestion that to use the phrase “most economists” you have to know how many economists there are in the world, is stretching things a little! You could indeed say most economists think we haven’t cut enough, and I would indeed think it was ridiculous – but because of my reading rather than any exhaustive survey of the world’s economists.

          • Halifax says:

            Iain – so what you really meant to say was ‘that out of the few economists you have read, most agree that we have cut too fast and too much’.

            I wonder if the economist you read are the same ones who failed to spot the financial crash until it hit is like an express train, or advised Gordon Brown to sell the UK Gold reserves when they were at rock bottom prices.

            I still can’t understand why you think we have cut too fast and too deep when we have a debt of £1.6 trillion (£1,600,000,000,000) and it is being added too at a rate of £5,000 per second.

            In the time it took me to write this the UK debt went up by about £150,000 (and I don’t type slowly) – how bad does it have to get?

  4. Fredrick Kenny says:

    So we are going to get a 4pc council tax increase ?

  5. June says:

    We should perhaps recognise the deterioration in local infrastructure and services caused by cuts in Local Government spending and think harder about the desirability of low taxation.
    We all notice bigger potholes in the roads and lack of flowers in public spaces but cuts in important services to people in their homes remain hidden from view.

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