Government can't even convince own members of council tax plans, claims MP

Published by 24publishing for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Central Government, Local Government

A Labour MP has claimed that the Government’s plans to localise council tax support is in such a “shambles” that they can’t even convince their own members to support it.

That claim came from Labour MP for Warrington North Helen Jones in a debate on council tax support yesterday afternoon in the House of Commons.

Jones was bidding to amend an amendment secured in the House of Lords last month to narrow the independent review into the effects of the policy to England, as council tax support is a devolved matter in Wales.

Previously, peers had successfully secured the main amendment ordering Eric Pickles to commission a formal independent review of council tax support three years after its implementation.

Jones said the Government knows that their policy on council tax support – which will devolve the benefit to councils from next April and will see the funds given to local authorities cut by 10% - is a “shambles”.

Critics of the reform point out that cuts will be pushed onto low-income working age claimants as pensioners will be protected.

She said the policy was unfair as councils that are better off with fewer claimants can afford to subsidise the scheme, while others cannot.

She said: “The Government know that their policy on council tax is a shambles. It is so bad that they cannot even convince their own Members to support it. Their councils in North Yorkshire, including the foreign secretary’s council, have campaigned against its unfairness. The departmental secretary of state’s own county council says that it has major implications for some of the most vulnerable members of the community. West Oxfordshire, the prime minister’s council, has refused to implement any scheme at all and will rely on the default scheme. Westminster, the Tories’ flagship local authority, which we hear so much about, says that it will not implement it because residents are already adversely affected by changes to local housing allowance and other benefit cuts.”

One of the quotes from Westminster’s documents on the matter – cited by Jones – read: “The previous Community Charge (Poll Tax) experience shows that there are inherent difficulties in asking benefit claimants to pay small sums of council tax. This can make the debt difficult, and in some cases uneconomical, to collect.

“A decision to pass on the funding cut to claimants would be a reputational risk for the council, as residents will perceive the cut as a local authority decision (rather than a central government given benefit cut).”

She also criticised the timing of the £100m transitional grant announced by the Government in October. “Councils have begun consultation on their schemes, but now the Government want them redesigned to qualify for a transitional grant,” she said.

Tory MP for Bromley and Chislehurst, Bob Neill, said the Labour Government’s “doubling of spending on council tax benefit is not a success; it is a mark of failure.”

He also said he’d not heard one word on what Labour members would do to redress the situation.

Jones said: “Labour front benchers believe in a fair deal for vulnerable people wherever in the country they happen to live, and we do not believe that a disabled person in Wokingham should be treated differently from a disabled person in Wigan. Our principle is that the help that someone gets should be dependent on their situation, not on where they happen to live. That is a key part of our policy.”

On the amendment itself, Brandon Lewis, the parliamentary under secretary of state for communities and local government, said he could not support Labour's bid to ensure that a review would only apply to England. 

He said: "I believe that if the secretary of state is required to review the operation of local schemes in England that are provided for under powers in this Bill, such a review should also take place in relation to schemes that are similarly provided for in Wales.”

In defence of the policy itself, Lewis said: “This is a localised scheme in which local councils will do what they want to do. Different councils are consulting on different schemes, and in response to some of the consultations the Government have made provision to allow local authorities some transitional money to help them to move to what might be a better scheme for their area. But—this is the key point—that money is part of a voluntary scheme. It is up to local authorities whether they take part in it, or whether they go ahead with what they believe is the right scheme for them.”

MPs agreed to an independent review of the council tax support scheme, but Jones’ amendment to limit the review to England was defeated by 312 votes to 245.