Gordon's Council tax gimmick

The Chancellor’s announcement of a one-off council tax rebate of £200 for pensioners will do little to assuage the anger of those who have worked hard all their lives and are now being clobbered by tax rises which, as I know from my surgeries, they can ill afford to pay. In a few weeks time, those of us living in Monmouthshire will receive bills for what would have been the lowest increase in Council taxes for years, were it not for the revaluation, which has resulted in nearly half of the houses in the county being put into a higher band.

I have doubts as to whether we should actually continue with this method of taxation given the unfair impact it has on pensioners and those living on fixed incomes. However it is worth remembering that it is not the tax itself which causes the problem – when I first stood for the Assembly the issue was barely mentioned. The issue has come to the fore because over the last 6 years the tax has been forced upwards by the Assembly who have kept local councils short of money, forcing them to raise council taxes at high levels to make up the difference. Any change in the method of taxation would therefore be worthless unless it were accompanied by a commitment from the Assembly to fully finance the extra obligations which they impose on local authorities.