Tory cheek on council tax rises

Media Integrity

The Sun today reports that council tax "has doubled under Labour" - But 30 of the 50 councils with the highest rate of council tax increases are run by Tories.

The Suns today reports that council tax “has doubled under Labour” – but 30 of the 50 councils with the highest rate of council tax increases are run by the Tories, with a further seven Conservative-led coalitions.

The Sun report says:

“Council tax has doubled under Labour – and the average bill in England is set to soar by another £25. Families will have to find £1,439 a year for an average Band D home – costing a record £120 a month.”

The story does not, however, mention that the council tax increases result from decisions taken locally, not in Whitehall. Indeed, central government funding has risen 45 per cent in real terms since 1997. By contrast, funding fell 7 per cent under the last time the Conservatives were in power – another fact overlooked by the Sun.

Five of the top six councils with the highest real term increase in council tax in the past 13 years are all Conservative run: South Cambridgeshire (98%), East Cambridgeshire (97%), Fenland (96%), Westminster (95%) and Wandsworth (94%). The council with the highest increase is, however, Labour-run Tower Hamlets in east London, which has had a 120% real term increase.

But overall, just six of the top 50 councils are Labour run or Labour led – the same as for the Lib Dems – with one led by none of the main parties.

The average council tax in top-tier Labour local authorities for the next year is £1,005 per dwelling, a 1.2 per cent increase on 2009/10, compared to £1,301 in Tory top-tier authorities – a 1.9 per cent rise – and £1,197 in Liberal Democrat top-tier local authorities.

The Sun’s shoddy journalism is compounded  by the fact that the quotes attributed to Ms Spelman are identical, word-for-word, to those used by her in November. Her line that “Council tax is Gordon Brown’s most painful stealth tax”, followed by the claim “you pay more and get less under Labour” is a direct lift from a Tory press release dated 5 November 2009, reported in the following day’s Express.

The Conservatives were unavailable for comment.

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18 Responses to “Tory cheek on council tax rises”

  1. Christine Melsom

    Although the Government insists Central Government Grant went up by 4% this year, they are being economical with the truth. My council received just 1.5% rise this year. The Governments claim that they fund local Government to the tune of 75% can be reveresed here. The council tax payer is having to find 75% of the councils spend.
    If we received as much grant as many of the Lab our Heartlands, we could well be expecting a dividend!

  2. John77

    I forgot to mention the distortion caused by using obviously wrong numbers for population etc – Westminster (coincidentally a Conservative-controlled borough) complained because the quoted figures for their population for calculating their entitlement to government grants was less than the number of individuals paying Council Tax.
    More households than people? New Labour IT success!

  3. paulstpancras

    Tory cheek on council tax rises | Left Foot Forward http://bit.ly/dnzUdS (via @twttimes)

  4. Mr. Sensible

    What I find interesting is how Cameron keeps talking about freezing council tax, seemingly oblivious to the damage it is doing in Nottinghamshire under the Tories.

  5. Mr. Sensible

    And that is I think despite an increase in government funding for Notts of 1.5% this year, contrary to the Tory argument that funding is coming down.

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