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Council Tax

First, I thank the hon. Gentleman for his kind initial remarks. Let me deal with his points in the order that he raised them. On extra resources, we have a mature working relationship with the Local Government Association that allows us to make a serious analysis of the pressures that councils say that they face. I have made it clear that the new burdens principle will be implemented, but on the basis of net rather than gross new burdens, and on a shared understanding and analysis of those pressures. We believe that the exercise leading up to the two-year settlement satisfied the Local Government Association’s major recommendations, either by establishing self-funding regimes in the case of fees—particularly in regard to licensing—or by providing the extra resources that we were able to announce in the settlement. I notice that the hon. Gentleman did not welcome that extra money but, shucks, I guess I will just have to live with that. The hon. Gentleman said that council tax had gone up by 84 per cent. I said in my statement that the 12.9 per cent. increase some years ago had been unacceptable. It is also true that significantly more resources had been given to local councils in that period. I also mentioned the 39 per cent. real-terms increase in Government support for local authorities. The hon. Gentleman asked about the £200 assistance for pensioners, but he failed to mention two important points. One is that about 14 per cent. of council tax is now paid through council tax benefit, and that people on full pension credit pay no council tax at all. All right hon. and hon. Members would like to see 100 per cent. take-up of council tax benefit, and I would ask Conservative Members to join us in encouraging that take-up, as many Conservative-run local authorities already do. Secondly, the hon. Gentleman ignored the other help that pensioners receive. The hon. Gentleman’s fifth question was about billionaires. I feel that it is only right to ask him what is the Conservatives’ actual policy on a property tax. I must remind the House that this property tax—the council tax—was introduced by the Conservatives, and we all remember the circumstances in which that happened—[Interruption.] Well, I have asked before in the House about their policy on a property tax. Do they have a commitment to a property tax or do they not? They introduced the eight bands in 1991. It would be perfectly possible for them to put a proposal to Sir Michael Lyons’ inquiry for an increase in the number of bands, so as to include a billionaires’ band. Perhaps they should propose that, but I suspect that they will not. I cannot accept the hon. Gentleman’s accusation that the grant system is politically biased. That is not borne out by the facts, the figures of the House of Commons Library, or the representations that have been made to the Under-Secretary of State, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Poplar and Canning Town (Jim Fitzpatrick) and other ministerial colleagues. The hon. Member for Wigan (Mr. Turner) is not in his place, but if he were, he would be reading out statements from the special interest group of municipal authorities—SIGOMA—many of which are floor authorities. It is a bit rich of the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar to make such an accusation, which I deny outright. Indeed, having studied the formulae and the method of grant distribution in detail for nearly 12 months, I defy anyone to come up with a formula that would achieve what he is accusing us of doing. I reject his analysis. The hon. Gentleman referred to what he described as last year’s ““fiasco””. In my view, however, there is a relationship between the decisions that we took last year on excessive budgets and council tax levels, and our success this year—and in future, no doubt—in keeping council tax levels down. I suspect that the hon. Gentleman is not quite sure whether he would prefer there to be higher council tax increases so that he could blame central Government, or lower council tax increases, for which he would no doubt give the credit to Conservative-run councils—but not Labour ones—in the forthcoming local government election campaign. He cannot have his cake and eat it, although he always tries to do so. The hon. Gentleman’s final point related to the comparison with the Greater London authority. I repeat for the benefit of the House that the principles involved this year and last year relate not just to council tax levels but to budget requirement levels—in layperson’s terms, expenditure levels—of the authorities concerned. It is important that that point is understood.