Freedom Central » Council Tax

Breaking News: Welsh Lib Dem’s success on service personnel council tax!

Newswire — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:43:21 +0000

Success!

The Minister for Social Justice and Local Government, Brian Gibbons, has just announced during a Welsh Liberal Democrat debate pressuring him on the issue of council tax that he will be ending the anomaly that sees service personnel charged full council tax in Wales. In Scotland and Wales service personnel are currently charged only 50% council tax.

The following press release has just been issued by Peter Black AM. You can read his previous comments on the issue here.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats have welcomed the decision by Brian Gibbons, the Minister for Social Justice and Local Government to give service personnel a 50% discount on their Council Tax.

The announcement was made during a debate submitted by the Welsh Liberal Democrats, who had put pressure on the Government to change the anomaly that means service personnel in Wales had to pay full Council Tax on their properties due to being classed as a second home, unlike in England and Scotland where they received a 50% discount.

Peter Black, the Welsh Liberal Democrat Shadow Minister for Local Government said:

“This is fantastic news for our service personnel who will get recognition for the risks they take for serving their country. I am glad the Minister has decided to listen to us on this issue and that common sense has finally prevailed.”

“Unfortunately the Minister has decided to ignore all our further suggestions for flexibility in the council tax system that would give councils greater powers to use Council Tax as a tool to tackle the blight of empty homes and to help communities and the people that live in them”

A fair deal for our armed forces

Peter Black — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:24:42 +0000

The campaign to end a council tax anomaly which means that Welsh army families are not offered a tax discount available in England and Wales is absolutely right and has the full backing of the Welsh Liberal Democrats.

Service families are routinely charged twice for council tax, once on their family home and once for their service accommodation. In England and Scotland an automatic 50% discount applies to the charge on the family home, but the scheme does not apply in Wales, leaving dozens of families – many with loved ones serving in Afghanistan – with significantly higher bills.

The anomaly seems to have arisen after a change in the law in 2004 that allowed Welsh councils to levy 100% council tax on second homes if they wish. Though both Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan offer a 50% discount in the same way as England and Scotland.

One of the problems is that the Council tax is not fit for purpose in the first place. It relies on a series of discounts that are unsophisticated and difficult to manipulate to fit in with wider policy considerations.

We must be careful for example, in making the change for armed forces personnel, not to do away with the provision for Councils to charge full Council tax on holiday homes or on different types of second home such as those held for business reasons.

Equally we should look at another change and that is enabling Councils to charge more Council tax on homes that have been empty for two years or more so as to provide an incentive to owners to bring them back into use. There are 26,000 such homes in private hands across Wales.

This is not to undermine the efficacy and the justness of the change for armed forces personnel but it does recognise that an opportunity exists for further reform of what is already an unfair tax. It also underlines why this desirable amendment to the rules is not as straightforward as we would all wish.

Coming home to roost

Peter Black — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 08:38:00 +0000

The decision of the Labour-Plaid Cymru Coalition Government not to pass on all of the 4.6% increase in grant they received from Westminster to local councils is starting to come back to haunt them.

News is filtering through that local government is being forced into making swinging cuts in services whilst at the same time seeking council tax increases as close as possible to the 5% capping limit.

Cardiff and Bridgend are looking at council tax rises of 4.3% and 4.9% respectively whilst cabinet members in Rhondda Cynon Taf have been warned of service cuts, including shutting swimming pools, and a council tax hike of up to 5%.