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David Boothroyd
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The problem with the council tax is that government grants and redistributed NNDR covers the vast majority of council spending, so a fairly minor budget change means a vast difference in marginal tax rates. Also the discretion of an individual council in budgeting is nowadays almost nothing. Basically there is almost nothing you can tell about the way a council is run from the level of its band D council tax.
I am not a Henry George adherent but I do endorse the principle of public authorities benefiting from planning gain. A wealth tax might be a good principle but it's totally impractical. But it is reasonable to use property value as a basis for assessing liability for local taxation. Of course it is interesting that the Conservative Party keeps as quiet as possible about the fact that it both invented the council tax, and continues to endorse it as the means of raising money for local authorities.
Council Tax stealth hikes exposed
The Mail on Sunday has a detailed expose on how plans for Council Tax revaluation will punish middle England. Homes with roof terraces, balconies, gardens, patios and a scenic view will get extra penalties. As the paper adds it sounds reminiscent of the hated 1696 Window Tax - which people avo...
You clearly meant 'raises the question' not 'begs the question' - look it up.
Wales did go through a revaluation, which had a different approach to band setting (basically they cocked it up and allowed band inflation) so the actual Band D council taxes are significantly lower than in England where they are raising the same amount. Therefore Welsh council taxes are not comparable. In any case Wales is devolved and the Assembly Government decides council grant allocations, not the DCLG.
It's quite wrong to say that a more subtle approach to valuation being introduced for the next revaluation amounts to "a change in the basis of valuation". The first and only valuations were very cheap and cheerful, with whole estates being valued just by looking at the outside of one house.
Really there should be no bands and local taxation assessed as a small proportion of the capital value of property, with suitable discounts for single occupation and rebates for people with low income.
Council Tax stealth hikes exposed
The Mail on Sunday has a detailed expose on how plans for Council Tax revaluation will punish middle England. Homes with roof terraces, balconies, gardens, patios and a scenic view will get extra penalties. As the paper adds it sounds reminiscent of the hated 1696 Window Tax - which people avo...
There are other councils where Labour and Conservative have deals to keep out the Liberal Democrats. Stockton-on-Tees has a Labour/Conservative coalition with a Conservative leader although Labour is the largest single party. In Ashfield, the Conservative/Independent group recently supported a minority Labour executive into power to get rid of a hated and incompetent Liberal Democrat one.
Labour join Conservative-led coalition in Cumbria
Cllr Jim Buchanan, a Conservative councillor, is the new leader of Cumbria County Council. It means that every county council in the country has a Conservative leader. Independent and Labour councillors will be joining the coalition. The Lib Dems will become the official opposition. Even if the ...
I raised this point on the committee. The idea was that the statue would balance General Eisenhower, and it wasn't being sponsored by the Embassy but by a separate committee to fund a Reagan statue so I would imagine it will stay there. (That's one of the reasons it got permanent permission not the five years asked for)
Westminster Council approves Reagan statue for outside US Embassy
The Young Conservative has the story: "London is to have its memorial to freedom after Westminster council granted full planning permission for a statue of Ronald Reagan outside the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square. At a meeting of the council the planning request met with unanimous approval, an...
One possible objection to introducing recall of Members of Parliament is that the system in the USA applies only to executive officials - Mayors, State Governors - and not to representatives. Members of Parliament have no executive responsibility.
We should have the right to recall MPs
Should we have the right to 'recall' MPs? It can be done in America, why not here? Few of us had heard of recall until 2003 when California Governor Gray Davis lost the recall ballot to the 'governator', Arnold Swarzenegger. The idea is simple, as a Civitas online briefing proposed yesterday. S...
Taking up the procedural aspects of the Carswell motion: from what was said during the Points of Order after the Speaker's statement, it seems as if the motion has been put down today for debate tomorrow. That certainly does not mean that it will be debated tomorrow.
The way things work is that a whole load of items of business are formally set for debate on a particular day, but not actually selected for debate. The selection of business for debate is done by the Leader of the House of Commons - a Government minister.
Any Member can put a motion down for debate and there is no procedural mechanism for requiring the Leader of the House to select it; some longrunning motions (such as allowing recall of the House by Members) have been put down years ago but never selected for debate).
None of this process has changed since 1997, incidentally.
The Speaker denies the Commons an opportunity to debate his future and promises another meeting
The Speaker's statement offers little new - after an apology to the nation he suggested talks within 48 hours with the party leaders to discuss faster action on reforms of expenses and allowances. Another meeting! Wow. Relying on advice from a Commons clerk Michael Martin then goes on to deny ...
Dennis Kucinich, one of the most left-wing Congressmen, voted in favour. There was one dissenting Republican who voted Present (ie abstained), Rep. Peter King of Long Island, who is known for his support of Irish Republicanism.
US Congress pays tribute to Lady Thatcher
The U.S. House of Representatives has just passed a resolution "recognizing the 30th anniversary of the election of Margaret Thatcher as the first female Prime Minister of Great Britain." The resolution, proposed by Congresman Ted Poe of Texas, was passed yesterday by 339 votes to 64, with all 1...
I also think this is a speculative story. The reason Crossrail died in the mid-90s was that the small group of members of the House of Commons looking at it in committee were persuaded (for different reasons) that it wouldn't pay its way. This time we've long since gone past that stage and the Crossrail funding package is basically agreed.
It has a very good business case behind it and a good deal of political will. The Standard seems to think it is an alternative to work on the tube which isn't actually true.
(11) Delaying Crossrail
Today's Evening Standard reports that an incoming Conservative Government could yet postpone or cancel the Crossrail project if elected next year. Work on Crossrail - which will link Maidenhead in Berkshire with East London and Essex - is not due to begin until the end of next year, so David C...
Exactly right to say that getting 80p in the £ from Heritable deposits, and only after waiting three years, is not good news. The important thing to learn from all this is as Steve Horgan writes - councils making investments should not be just ticking the boxes "Yes they've got the required Fitch rating, so get the money shovels out", but checking on any wider news about the safety of institutions.
Icelandic banks: Will Councils really get a refund?
Mark Wallace of the Taxpayers Alliance says urges caution Discussion of the public finances this has rightly focussed on the Budget and its horrifying predictions of £700 billion of extra public borrowing in the near future. In local government, though, there was more news regarding the £1 bil...
If, hypothetically, a supporter of the Buff Party joins the civil service during a period of Mauve Party government, with the hope of obtaining embarrassing documents and passing them on to a Buff Party politician of his acquaintance, what would be your comment?
Damian Green's arrest severely undermines democracy
I am usually very cautious about comparing incidents in this country with those in totalitarian and authoritarian regimes. I work with dissidents from countries like Burma who have experienced the very worst possible violations of human rights. I have met people who have endured the barbarity of...
The Prime Minister is also Minister for the Civil Service and has therefore personal Ministerial responsibility for maintaining the security of confidential Civil Service documents. If he was indeed aware in general terms of an investigation into a Civil Service leak then this would not merely be unsurprising, it would be a inevitable matter of routine.
A curious statement from Gordon Brown about the Damian Green affair
Iain Dale is right, it is always difficult to comment over breaking news stories, but there are two eye-catching things about the Downing Street statement on the arrest of Damian Green, which Sky News is reporting here. According to Sky, the word from Downing Street is this: "This is a matter fo...
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