March 27, 2008
Playing a blame game with local government
Confirmation earlier today of our story this morning that a handful of police authorities are to be capped after trying to lift their council tax payments by more than the target 5 per cent. One of these, Lincolnshire, had gone for a 79 per cent rise - so perhaps no surprise it was curtailed.
The net effect could be fewer police on the streets in parts of the country.
A more peculiar capping is that of Portsmouth City Council, the only council to be thwacked today by the department for local government. It had the temerity to go for a 5.04 per cent rise.
Gerald Vernon-Jackson, leader of the council there, says its bills are the lowest out of 13 councils in Hampshire. The 0.04 per cent breach amounted to “a quibbling 75p”, he pointed out. “It will cost more to send out a new bill and I’m quite cross.”
Portsmouth would have gone for 3 per cent but needed the extra money to meet the £1.3m bill for offering free bus passes to the elderly - a policy imposed by central government.
So why is the DCLG bothering? Could it be an attempt by Whitehall to demonstrate that it’s not to blame for this year’s inflation-busting council tax rises around the country? If so that would seem disingenious.
The word in from John Healey, local government minister, is that police numbers have risen by 14,000 since 1997 thanks to extra funding from Labour. In that light, he says, it is “disappointing” that police authorities demanded more cash.
He said: “Let me be clear, I am not today announcing a cap on the council tax of these authorities. I am confirming the start of a process not its conclusion, and during the coming weeks I am inviting all these authorities to come and make their individual cases to me before making final decisions.”
