Letter HE - Council tax and voluntary sector

12.00.00am GMT Wed 24th Mar 2004

Dear Editor,

Anthony Steen has made much comment recently about Council Tax rises and, to be sure, none of us want to pay more than we have to for local services. He avoids the real issue. How do we finance local government services? He represents a party led by Michael Howard who introduced the Council Tax. The present Conservative shadow chancellor intends to raise Council Tax by 10% across the board, even before inflationary pressures are taken into account, and he has no plans to make the system fairer.

Liberal Democrats are the only party to have a fully costed, realistic and workable system to replace Council Tax. Our proposals for a local income tax would be fair and related to the ability to pay. They have been welcomed by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and the Audit Commission. At the last local elections we called upon central government to implement our proposals and, as an interim, pay each tax payer £100 to ease the burden. The Government have responded in a cynical way by giving £100 as a one off payment to certain pensioners but with no plans for repeating this or changing the system..

Mr. Steen calls for a radical solution for social services - let the voluntary sector take the strain. Are we really at such a stage in a civilised society where we expect our magnificent voluntary organisations to take over the government's responsibility for those that need help most? These organisations do a wonderful job in helping with, and adding value to government services, but to expect them to take over to save the state money is surely a step too far.

Yours sincerely,

Mike Treleaven