Council Tax increased by more than inflation due to the Government's action

2.02.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 29th Mar 2006

Council Tax has increased by more than inflation every year since 1992 as a result of actions by the Labour Government. Lib Dem MP, John Hemming MP has asked Labour Government Minister Phil Woolas MP when Council Tax would be high enough to meet the governments targets.

John Hemming said "It has been government policy since 1992 to increase Council Tax more than the rate of inflation. The underlying cash increase from government is 71.9% up to the last financial year. The figures have not been revealed for this year. There has to come a point at which Government thinks that Council Tax is high enough. Then they should stop pushing it up beyond inflation. It is no use the government claiming that increases all come from local government, a large proportion is caused by the treasury."

John Hemming MP is also a Birmingham City Councillor and he ended his questioning with a local example "The Largest Local Authority, Birmingham, has done well to keep its council tax increase below inflation at 1.9%. However, this is very difficult given the pressures from central government to push the tax up by more than inflation."