Welsh Conservatives Debate: Council Tax

Motion NDM5681 Paul Davies
To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:
1. Notes that the Welsh Government has not used previous Barnett consequentials from the UK Government to provide local authorities with the ability to freeze council tax for residents in Wales;
2. Further notes that band D council tax households in Wales would be £149.31 a year better off if the Welsh Government had acted to freeze council tax in each year since 2010;
3. Regrets that council tax bills have increased by over 150% in Wales since 1997/98, and believes that such crippling rises have placed undue pressure on hard-pressed households; and
4. Believes that local authorities have a duty to spend public money with care and prudence, in order to ensure that council tax rates are set as low as possible for residents and that council tax rates provide value for money for the taxpayer.

16:00
Janet Finch-Saunders
Diolch, Ddirprwy Lywydd. I wish to open this debate and, by doing so, to propose that the National Assembly for Wales notes that the Welsh Government has not used previous Barnett consequentials from the UK Government to provide local authorities with the ability to freeze council tax for residents in Wales.

Point 2 further notes that band D council tax households in Wales would be £149.31 a year better off if the Welsh Government had acted to freeze council tax in each year since 2010, and regrets that council tax bills have increased by over 150% in Wales since 1997-98 and believes that such crippling rises have placed undue pressure on our hard-pressed households, and we believe that local authorities have a duty to spend public money with care and prudence, in order to ensure that council tax rates are set as low as possible for residents, and that council tax rates provide value for money for the taxpayer. They are the fundamentals of our motion laid today by Paul Davies AM and the Welsh Conservatives.
Today, households across Wales wait with bated breath as their local authorities assess the level of council tax they will be charging for the coming financial year. They will have read that indicators suggest that the majority of Wales’s 22 local authorities are planning, once again, to raise council tax by between 3% and 5%. History proves though, doesn’t it, that Labour in power simply does not support the taxpayer and that it is a high tax Government? Nothing is more evidenced by this than the constant huge increases, year on year, here in Wales.
On average, over the border, people in England living in Conservative-led authorities pay around £89 a year less for a band D than those held by Labour. And, under Labour in power in the UK, between 1997-98 and 2013-14, the people of Wales suffered from crippling rises in their council tax bills. In 1997, average band D council tax was £495; by 2014-15, it is £1,276. This is an increase of 158%. Those who are affected have seen their pay frozen and their savings diminish.
Labour-led Welsh Government has refused to freeze council tax while also wanting to add new taxes and costs to the building of our family homes here in Wales. Labour councils across the country charge more and deliver less, showing that all Labour offer is more inefficiency, more ineffective spending and higher council tax bills. However, we, the Welsh Conservatives, do believe in cutting council tax to give people more financial security for themselves. The Welsh Conservative policy and commitment would freeze council tax and would’ve made our average band D council tax householders in Wales £149 better off.
In 2013-14 in Wales, the Welsh Labour Government and the Minister presided over £83 million of council tax going unpaid. This was money that could be used to keep bills down for our law-abiding residents. I would ask the Minister, especially as you’ve brought out one or two statements and White Papers recently, what are you going to do about the very poor collection rates that we have in some authorities across Wales.
In the Localism Act 2011 in England, that ensures that our residents are protected and that councils cannot increase their council tax by more than 2% without a community referendum. However, here in Wales, when we ask about capping, there is silence and no action. It is a fact that Welsh council tax payers are spending more on council tax as a percentage of their average weekly earnings. In realistic assessments the Conservative-led UK Government made on public spending, their response was to give extra funding to town halls to help freeze council tax, cutting their bills in real terms by more than 11%. In Scotland, they’ve enjoyed a freeze for years, and it’s guaranteed until the end of this term.
Now, the continual Welsh Labour rebuttal to this fact is always that the average bills in Wales are cheaper than England. Well, then, can the Minister tell me why council tax is higher in 2014-15, now, in Cardiff and Swansea than it is for those living in wealthy London boroughs, such as Kensington and Chelsea? That argument holds no water.

Time and time again, Welsh Conservatives have called on Welsh Government to address the rise in council tax, and there are many ways it could do this. Now, the UK Government actually produced ‘50 ways to save: examples of sensible savings in local government’. I’m going to spare you all 50, but they are sensible, and they’re what’s needed here in Wales: transparency to cut waste; publish spending contracts and tenders; tackle duplicate payments—and yes, believe it or not, councils do pay bills more than once—clamp down on corporate charge cards; tackle fraud; get more for less by improving procurement—

16:05
Jeff Cuthbert
Will you give way?

16:05
Janet Finch-Saunders
Okay.

16:06
Jeff Cuthbert
Does that list also include, as they did in England, cutting the income of councils by up to 40%?

16:06
Janet Finch-Saunders
Get more for less, as I say, by improving procurement; utilise their reserves creatively. I ask the Minister today: £1.6 billion in reserves? Surely you should be looking to encourage and support local authorities to actually be kind to the council tax payer, and actually help them, and not be allowing councils just to point the finger and ensure that people are paying more council tax as a result of your poor settlement and their own inefficiencies. We go on: improve council tax collection rates; better land and property management; hot desking; estate rationalisation and sub-letting—doesn’t that sound a little bit like collaboration or even voluntary merger? Cancel away days in posh hotels and glitzy award ceremonies. Cut senior pay—well, it’s better late than never. Share senior staff—sounding a little bit like voluntary mergers and sounding a little bit like collaboration, two things that you’ve failed in doing so far.
Now, there’s an interesting one here. and I would like the Minister’s response to this: scrapping the chief executive post entirely. We’d like your opinion, Minister. Introduce a recruitment freeze. Being as there’s so much uncertainty in local authorities at the moment, do you support a recruitment freeze? Freeze councillor allowances and end councillor pensions—your thoughts on that, Minister? Cut spending on consultants and agency staff—and I have to say it is not only local authorities where it’s fair to say that millions get wasted on that. Review and reduce absenteeism; earn more from private advertising. What is the Minister doing to encourage sponsorship, with authorities bringing in their own money so that they can actually again offset the balance, and so our residents are not continually, sort of, having to, you know, pay larger council taxes? I really like this one: scrap the town hall ‘Pravda’. In Conwy Council alone, they were spending over £100,000 on propaganda and newsletters that were going out. Cut printing costs, stop producing glossy brochures, publish online, and finally—and I like this—ask your staff for more sensible savings ideas.
‘Your staff will be the most informed and actually the most enthusiastic about cutting waste.’
Minister, there are numerous ways in which you could empower, encourage, support, guide, direct and lead our local authorities to have another alternative than to keep bashing away at our council tax payers, our pensioners and our hard-working families. I fully support the motion, and I look forward to further contributions.