Council Tax Rise

12.00.00am GMT Wed 11th Feb 2004

Reacting to the Council's announcement of a 5.6% increase in council tax, Vincent Cable MP said "the Conservative Council's announcement was complacent in tone and careless with the facts. A 5.6% increase is only moderate set alongside last year's record increase; it is at the outer limit of what the Government is tolerating without 'capping'; and it is more than double the increase that pensioners and others on fixed income will be getting. A Band D council tax payer will be paying £6 a month more, which for people struggling to manage on small budgets is not trivial."

Vincent Cable also said that the council was being "profoundly dishonest in claiming credit for 'the fight against crime' as its leading achievement. The - very welcome - increased policing we are seeing is through London Government not the Council, and the Conservatives opposed the increase necessary to fund increased policing."

But Vincent Cable agreed that the borough "gets a relatively poor deal from central Government" and has approached the Minister for Local Government to secure a meeting with him: "Richmond gets less government grant per head than any other London borough, as it did through the period when the Liberal Democrats controlled the council. This is a battle we have to continue to fight on a cross-party basis."