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Conservatives to scrap council tax revaluation
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| Tories: Council tax pledge |
The Conservatives have launched their campaign for the May 5 local elections with a pledge to scrap council tax revaluation.
Party leader Michael Howard said the Tories would not apply new tax ratings to homes for the course of the next parliament.
Labour has said it will wait for the outcome of a review of local government funding before setting out plans to make the system fairer.
Tony Blair told GMTV that it was "the most desperate opportunism" from the Conservatives because "a week ago they said they were going to proceed with the revaluation".
The prime minister said that Labour "will look at the whole of the council tax again".
And the government would "see if it isn't possible to construct a better, fairer system that commands some sort of consensus across the political parties".
But speaking on Wednesday, Howard turned his fire on Labour's council tax record, saying the prime minister had "spent the last eight years talking" but not acting on the problems facing families.
"And while he has talked families have been struggling - last year, for the first time in a decade, their average incomes fell thanks to Mr Blair’s stealth taxes," said Howard.
And the Conservative leader said the most "punishing" of all Labour’s stealth taxes had been the council tax.
Five-point plan
The Conservatives said they will tackle the council tax issue with a five point action plan.
The party promised to abolish unnecessary and costly regulations on local authorities to keep council tax down, and the Tories would ensure fairer funding from Whitehall with greater transparency over grant distribution.
They would also deliver a fully-funded settlement for local government, with an above-inflation increase for local councils, and significant increases for schools, police and health and social services.
By scrapping the revaluation of council tax, the Conservatives say seven million homes in England will be saved from paying more - up to £270 more a year.
And finally, the party says that millions of pensioners will benefit from plans to halve council tax for those eligible.
Choice
Caroline Spelman, shadow local government secretary, said that voters "have a genuine choice".
"The Conservative manifesto for local government is a positive programme to give power to local communities and protect them from the kind of over-taxation they’ve suffered under Labour," she said.
And Spelman joined the attack on Labour's plans for council tax revaluation.
"It's no coincidence that revaluation will not take place in England until after the general election," she said.
"When it happened in Wales recently, one home in every three was pushed up a band. In some wards, 90 per cent of houses were affected.
"Some commentators think that Labour could raise up to £2 billion through revaluation - not to improve local services but to help fill Gordon Brown’s black hole."
She said scrapping revaluation would save £100m in administration costs.
And Spelman also said deputy prime minister John Prescott’s unelected regional assemblies would be abolished, along with other tiers of regional administration, to save more money.
'U-turn'
However, rival parties have accused the Conservatives of offering a pre-election bribe that shows they are not serious about winning power.
"The Tories today have done a u-turn," Lib Dem local government spokesman Ed Davey said.
"They won't go ahead with revaluation. What they won't tell you is this is a change of their position announced in the House of Commons two months ago."
"I think this is a seminal moment in the campaign. I think it shows that the Tories no longer believe they can win and they've done this panicky u-turn," Davey added.
But Howard denied any suggestion the Conservatives had changed policy.
"We voted consistently against this revaluation every time there was a vote in parliament," he said.
"We are not ruling out a revaluation for all time. We are ruling out a revaluation in the course of the next parliament.
"You only need a revaluation where there are disparities that have emerged in property prices. The most important disparities are regional disparities.
"We have been looking very carefully at the information which has become available.
"The latest information has only become available in the last seven days from the Halifax, which shows that regional disparities are becoming much less acute."
Local votes
Despite being overshadowed by campaigning for, and coverage of, the general election, a series of important local government elections are taking place across England and Northern Ireland.
All 34 county councils in England face elections, as do some unitary authorities.
Local mayoral polls are also set to go ahead in towns and cities around the country.
There include Bedford, Doncaster, Hackney, Hartlepool, Mansfield, Stoke, North Tyneside and Watford.
Voting will also take place in all 26 councils in Northern Ireland.
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