Houseley speech says vote to scrap Council Tax

12.18.14pm GMT Sun 6th Mar 2005

Every vote for the Liberal Democrats in this year's County and General Elections is a vote to scrap the hated Council Tax, Andrew Houseley told delegates on Sunday.

Speaking at the Liberal Democrats' Spring Conference at Harrogate, Mr Houseley said that the settlement 2 years ago, which forced all County Councils in the East of England, regardless of political control, into massive tax hikes, is inevitably still felt today. "To get out of this quagmire requires a national solution," he said. Along with other speakers, including the Party's national spokesman on Council finance, Ed Davey MP and Commons Chief Whip Andrew Stunnell MP, Mr Houseley drew attention to the threat of revaluation of Council Tax Bands, already causing problems in Scotland and Wales and due to take effect in England in 2007.

"Council Tax: Created by the Tories, shamelessly exploited by Labour, a body blow for Pensioners and really hard for anyone on a modest income - and there are plenty of those in my area, pensioners and those on modest incomes," he added.

Mr Houseley spoke to conference delegates from all over the country and reminded the Party of its success 14 years ago in a famous by-election victory in Ribble Valley, when the Party's Local Income Tax proposals were seen as a solution to the Poll Tax. "That win was swiftly followed by Tories scrapping the Poll Tax and introducing Council Tax, a stop-gap measure that thanks to Gordon Brown has turned into a monster. And as revaluation looms, potentially a mutation of that monster, we can make it happen again, this time with a better outcome."

"The Tories have no credible answer: Reintroduce the Poll Tax, that was a 'faux pas' quickly retracted. Then months of silence. And now, discounts for Pensioners, part of a raft of dubiously costed measures and less effective at cutting Pensioner poverty than our proposals.

"If we make scrapping Council Tax part of an integrated campaign in the General and Local elections, a policy that will liberate financing of local services after years under the government cosh: Now that's something to get out and vote for."

ENDS