Forum Brief: Council Tax

Local government minister Nick Raynsford has announced that councils will be free to limit council tax rises for pensioners, under powers to come into force next month.

Eric Pickles, shadow secretary of state for local government and the regions, told ePolitix.com: "We understand and sympathise why Kent is acting to protect pensioners from the government's council stealth tax.

"We will wait and see how this works in practise as will a number of Conservative councils who lost money following Labour's fiddled funding of the grants settlement."

Forum Response: Local Government Association

A spokesman for the LGA told ePolitix.com: "This isn't actually 'capping'.

"The new measure allows councils to give groups of their choice a discount on council tax but this has to be made up by other council tax payers in their area. So it actually amounts to local redistribution.

"The LGA welcomes the fact that councils now have this power to discount. It is up to each council how they wish to use it."

Forum Response: Help the Aged

Richard Wilson, incomes policy officer at Help the Aged, told ePolitix.com: "This is not a long term solution, but a short-term fix aimed at taking the heat out of next year's council tax rises. The underlying problem of council tax being unfair and regressive remains.

"Pegging increases in council tax to the increases in pensions will be welcomed by hard pressed pensioners, but many of them will also be concerned that this will cause big increases for younger people on low incomes, who may resent 'special treatment' being applied to older people.

"Councils must also ensure that they are running effective Council Tax Benefit take-up campaigns. Nationally, one in eight pensioners are already missing out on Council Tax reductions worth £580 million."

Forum Response: Local Government Information Unit

A spokesman for the Local Government Information Unit told ePolitix.com: "The LGIU promotes the use of the powers available to local authorities that help them to promote the well-being of local people, in this case by enabling councils to discount council tax rates for pensioners.

"Local councils are well-placed to judge whether this measure will relieve more hardship than it exacerbates in their communities.

"This idea is not, however, the most efficient way of relieving hardship and would only be a temporary fix pending what we hope will be a fundamental reform of the council tax.

"The current council tax is highly regressive and we want its replacement to be linked more with incomes.

"This would also pave the way for local government to raise more than half of its income locally, the outcome that we would want from the balance of funding review."

Forum Response: Age Concern

Gordon Lishman, Age Concern's director general, said: "Pensioners will welcome the latest moves to ease their council tax burden but they are only a short term fix. Long-term, older people need a basic state pension of at least £100 a week if they are going to meet all their bills including council tax.

"It is also worrying that £580 million council tax benefit is going unclaimed every year when people are experiencing so much hardship. Council tax benefit can only make a difference if people are encouraged to claim it."