Unfair Council Tax Must be Scrapped!

The Labour Government’s funding of Kingston goes from bad to worse. The rise in central grant to Kingston Council next year will almost all be taken back with rises in landfill tax and business rates imposed on the Royal Borough - by central government.

Almost all councils are getting a bad deal next year – but London Boroughs are the worst hit, with Kingston getting London’s lowest % rise.

That means a toxic combination of council tax rises and spending cuts will be forced on us by the Government once again.

This is despite huge efforts last year by people from across Kingston in our “Fair Deal Campaign” to tell Ministers, enough was enough.
 
So I am not optimistic for the success of this week’s Kingston Council delegation to the Local Government Minister that I and Susan Kramer joined. We made a compelling case – and, with politics the art of the possible, suggested a few small changes he could make to ease the lot of Kingston’s council taxpayers.
 
Central to our argument were the many examples where the Government is penalising Kingston for being successful: the only local authority in the country to deliver a new Pathfinder secondary school (Chessington Community College) on time? Not able to take up “supported borrowing” help from Whitehall, because our grant rise is so low. The first council to deliver a Government policy called “Business Improvement District”? Threatened by new plans for a business rate supplement to pay for Crossrail.
 
We shall soon know the results. Even if we do win some welcome crumbs, I remain firmly of the view that it’s time the whole unfair council tax system was replaced.