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Council tax bills double in a decade under Labour
Alex Stephens, Evening Standard31 Jan 2008
Londoners paid nearly £3billion in council tax last year - more than double a decade ago, figures reveal.
Data gathered by the Conservative Party shows that when Labour came to power in 1997 the total revenue raised from council tax payers in London stood at £1.4billion. This has since increased by 108 per cent to £2.9 billion.
The figure is set to rise with council tax bills due to go up by £35 on average. From April, the amount paid by a typical household will increase from £1,258 to £1,293.
Ken Livingstone's share of the tax, which includes contributions to the police and fire brigade, will rise by 2.4 per cent, or £7.38. This means the Mayor will receive £311.25 from people paying a benchmark band D bill.
Shadow local government minister Bob Neill said: "Gordon Brown and Labour have mercilessly picked the pockets of Londoners through council tax hikes. Sadly the public are in store for more misery with inflation-busting hikes set to come into force in April."
The Department of Communities and Local Government defended the rises. A spokesman said: "This Government is delivering a 45 per cent above-inflation increase in funding for council services. Councils in London will receive more than £140 million extra in core funding next year alone. We expect increases to be substantially below five per cent."
Reader views (3)
And don't forget that Livingstone's share of all this has grown by over 150 per cent during his period as Mayor, while the new GLA was hailed by Labour as a "slim line" authority. We're mugs if we continue to put up with it.
- Patrick, London, England, 31/01/2008 15:04
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Now we pay twice as much as 10 years ago and get half the service. All we ever hear about is them cutting services but they still put it up. Also, since 1997, councils have brought in residents' parking (at £90 a year for every car in Camden) which has generated a huge amount of money, but our council still have deficits from 30 years of Labour rule. I'm sure the private companies who are tendered to deliver our public services have done well from it.
- Mike Stern, London, 31/01/2008 13:30
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So Ken gets around 25% of the council tax bill. Not bad considering the original remit for the mayor was that he wasn't going to get anything from council tax.
Then again, tube fares have more or less doubled since 1997, petrol is now almost £5/gallon, more and more people are caught in the 40% tax bracket, the average house price is £300k, students leave uni saddled with debt, crime is out of control and we have lost the battle against drugs, alcoholism, obesity, teenage pregnancies and immigration.
More and more politicians are being caught with their hands in the till in Govt. that was supposed to be a beacon of openess and honesty.
But hey, ho we have New Labour where the famous song once proclaimed "Things can only get better".
- Marc, Harrow, UK, 31/01/2008 13:21
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