Council tax U-turn ‘politically driven’
The government came under fire yesterday over its plans to postpone the revaluation of council tax until after the next general election.
Both the Tories and the Lib Dems have accused ministers of eternally putting off the issue over fears about its political fall-out.
“[Postponement] was nothing more than a panic attack – nothing more than the fear of wipeout at next May’s [local] elections,” said Conservative MP Eric Pickles.
MPs were debating the second reading of a bill that would put the postponement of the proposed 2007 revaluation into law. It would also remove the requirement for regular ten-year revaluations.
Properties are grouped into bands according to how much they are worth, with residents paying a certain amount of council tax dependant on this value.
There has not been a revaluation of the value of England’s 22 million homes since council tax was first introduced in 1992, and property prices are now significantly higher.
A revaluation was due in 2007, and was expected to see a marked rise in people’s council tax bills. This has led to claims that the government is never going to revalue properties because of fears that it will alienate voters.
Local government minister David Miliband admitted when he announced the postponement in September that it was a U-turn, but yesterday insisted it made sense to put off revaluation until the Lyons review into local government funding had been completed.
“Sir Michael Lyons has made it clear that any proposals for reform of the funding system raise complex issues, and the government has agreed that they need to be set firmly and explicitly within the context of a clear, shared understanding of the role of local government and of councils’ accountability to service users,” he told MPs.
However, Lib Dem local government spokeswoman Sarah Teather insisted the decision to delay was “the most reviewed act of dithering that we have ever known”.
“Now there will not be a revaluation until after the next general election – because they do not want the fall-out to affect their chances,” she said.
The Lib Dems want council tax scrapped altogether, while the Conservatives are calling for revaluation to be cancelled, not postponed.
Meanwhile, former Labour local government minister Nick Raynsford expressed concerns that the proposed bill does not introduce any provisions for revaluation in the future.
“I have no problems with U-turns if they replace a poor policy with a better one, but I do have a problem with a U-turn that replaces a sensible policy with a void, a vacuum, an empty space in which a revaluation might happen at an unspecified future date, but only if the secretary of state decides to hold one,” he said.
He added: “It is fundamental that there should be a regular cycle of revaluations in statute, so that that process. will not be postponed simply because of short-term political fears.”
