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Green way to freeze tax and save jobs
• DESPITE an extremely generous 6.2 per cent increase in the government’s grant for Camden, the Lib Dem-Conservative administration chose to freeze the Camden element of council tax, and to achieve it they raised charges for social services and cut jobs and community sector funding that will impact severely on some of the most vulnerable in our society.
Yes, the council tax is a regressive tax, as it is not based on ability to pay, but the Tories seem to have forgotten it was introduced by a Conservative government.
It didn’t have to be this way. The first Green group budget amendment would have increased the Camden element of council tax by less than the rate of inflation and combined with the Greater London Authority precept would have seen council tax rise by 2.7 per cent, the current rate of inflation and a freeze in real terms.
The additional funds raised would have enabled some of the worst cuts in the administration budget to be reversed, including the massive cut to funding for advice services, and some of the jobs, for example in welfare rights and mental health.
We would also have reversed the planned 20 per cent increase in charges for community meals and would have been able to spend more on recycling, waste reduction and other environmental measures.
The Lib Dems nationally have just ruled out supporting the Conservatives in a hung Parliament. Typical Lib Dem opportunism. In practice, Lib Dems here in Camden, on the London Assembly and elsewhere are not so much Social Democrats but closet Tories, intent on cutting our voluntary sector and public services to pay for tax cuts.
CLLR ADRIAN OLIVER
(Green)
Town Hall, WC1
• I WOULD like to bring to your attention the fact that Islington Council is stopping its funding for clients at St James’s House, a mental health project in Camden Town.
In my view this is reprehensible and the decision should be reconsidered.
SERVICE USER
NW3
(Name and address supplied)
• I SUPPORT Camden Council’s budget for next year. As promised by the Conservative-Lib Dem administration, the council tax has been frozen for the first time in 20 years.
Historically, the tax went up and up under Labour. After the local election in 2002 they raised it by a staggering 14 per cent. Camden’s council tax became the highest in inner London, and it is right that we freeze it next year.
Council tax hits pensioners and people on low and fixed incomes the hardest. It is unfair to further impose on these groups when they can ill afford the tax, even as it stands.
To achieve the freeze, layers of unnecessary management at the Town Hall have been cut, and bureaucrats in administrative roles removed. Front-line spending has actually been increased by £10 million, including an extra £5 million for social services. The voluntary sector budget – already one of the highest in London – has been protected.
For the first time, some of this money has been moved around between groups to make sure it is spent to best effect.
It is good management to make sure we are funding the voluntary groups best able to deliver outstanding services.
CLLR CHRIS PHILP
(Conservative)
Town Hall, WC1
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