| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:How the cut in Council tax gets paid for | |
| Posted by: | Greg Smith | |
| Date/Time: | 13/03/09 19:02:00 |
| Mr Broadbent, you are clearly very entrenched in your political views and wish to attack the Conservative Council with no regard to the facts. The truth is that we have cut Council Tax by waging war on waste, introducing competition to council services and by cutting the £160 million debt that we inherited from the previous Labour administration. Examples of how we have saved money include: - Saving £4 million by reducing our reliance on agency staff. - Market testing £90 million of council services which will deliver up to £5 million in savings while improving service quality. - Reducing the historic debt by £20 million, saving council tax payers £1.7 million a year in interest. - Promoting smarter working, where cutting accommodation costs is saving £1.1 million. - Cutting communications costs by £300,000 to the lowest levels in London. Furthermore this is not a "50p" a week cut as you assert. Since Council Tax was introduced in 1993, the previous Labour Council increased Council Tax by an average of 7.7% per year. Had Labour won the election in 2006 and carried on increasing Council Tax at this rate, residents would be over £700 worse off. Therefore, residents are actually £700 better off under the Conservatives, not 50p. Remember, Labour even stood on a manifesto commitment to carry on increasing Council Tax in the 2006 elections. For full details, I recommend reading the Leader of the Council's budget speech from February, which can be found at: http://hfconservatives.typepad.com/residents_first/2009/02/hf-conservative-council-passes-third-successive-3-council-tax-cut.html Cllr Greg Smith Cabinet Member for Crime & Street Scene Hammersmith & Fulham Council |