Ipswich has lowest Council Tax increase in Suffolk - again!

1.15.00pm GMT Thu 1st Mar 2007

Cllr Richard Atkins calls for a fair tax based on ability to pay

For the 3rd year since Labour were kicked out of the administration of Ipswich, the joint administration has set the lowest council tax increase in Suffolk.

Labour has quoted the terrible "cuts" suffered to achieve this: replacing loss making catering at Crown Pools with vending, and shutting Chantry plant nursery and buying at lower cost from local suppliers.

At the same time, the losses at the Regent have been halved, and more affordable homes have been built than Labour ever dreamed of.

Cllr Richard Atkins, LibDem group leader, said "it isn't just the difference in percentage increases that show the difference between us and Labour. Their last 2 increases were 92% and 83% respectively of those years' average increases across England. We came in at 58.5% and 48.8% of the average increases in England in our first two years. After increases of just 2.4% and 2.2% in the last 2 years, we have set an increase of 2.94% for the coming financial year - another superb achievement."

But Richard Atkins also criticised council tax as "as stupid tax to replace an even worse one, the old poll tax. The professional body of public service accountants ("CIPFA") has confirmed LibDem estimates of the multi-billion saving that a local income tax would bring. It would mean a tax based on the ability to pay, not on the value of your property in 1991."

The billions of savings every year by changing to a fair tax would either have funded 6 months of Blair's illegal war in Iraq - or more usefully, bailed out Heath Road and other Suffolk hospital, and left money over.