Tories can be trusted to deliver lower taxes

Published: 9:40 AM October 16, 2008 Updated: 10:36 AM February 20, 2021

George Osborne s commitment that a Conservative government would allow councils to freeze council tax for two years, if a council holds its underlying proposed increase to 2.5 per cent or less, has been widely welcomed around here. Careful readers of Ca

George Osborne's commitment that a Conservative government would allow councils to freeze council tax for two years, if a council holds its underlying proposed increase to 2.5 per cent or less, has been widely welcomed around here.

Careful readers of Camden council papers will know that the council's current planning assumption is for a 2.5 per cent increase in the coming two years, so if a Conservative government is in place, we would be eligible for extra government grants to keep Camden's council tax increase to zero, in return simply for efficiency measures we are doing anyway.

This is good news - so it is dismaying and curious that Labour and Liberal Democrat council leaders across London have rejected this out of hand.

I hope they will be more pragmatic when they actually come to deal with a Conservative government.

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Voters are feeling the pinch. They have seen wasteful spending in parts of the public sector, and they want to see action to reduce damaging tax increases.

Boris Johnson's welcome announcement that the GLA charge will be frozen next year (after it doubled under Ken Livingstone) shows that when it comes to tough action to keep taxes down, Conservatives can deliver where others can't or won't.