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Warning! A barrage of

tax increases ahead

 

NOVEMBER 18, 2009

 

 

PEOPLE in Carlisle have been warned to expect a barrage of hikes in local taxes if Labour win the next General Election.

John Stevenson, the Conservatives’ prospective parliamentary candidate for the city, says the Government is planning huge increases which will hit both domestic and business council tax payers.

And, he says, it also wants to introduce new bills for getting our bins emptied and for using our cars in town.

He describes the package* as “a tax bombshell primed to explode after the General Election.”

Labour’s plans to introduce higher council tax bands are contained in the official Labour Manifesto for local government which was published at the Labour Party conference

            John says Labour’s plans to shake up the council tax system will result in higher bills, which in some cases in Carlisle could hit more than £8,000 a year.

Council tax bills in Carlisle have almost doubled since 1997, with the 96% increase taking the bill on a Band D home to £1,530, he says.

But with the Government’s plans for a new ten-band council tax system, the bill could increase still further, with more homes being sucked into the higher bands.

And that is not all. John warns that the Labour manifesto also calls for:

  • Higher business rates (with above inflation rises in rates for local firms, ending the explicit link between business rates and inflation),
  • Bin taxes, which – though disguised as “financial incentives and our regulatory powers” to “move away from dealing with residual waste in the black bin” – mean we will be paying extra to have our bins emptied.
  • Road pricing taxes, which will make us pay to use our cars in urban areas, even though no offsetting tax cuts will be made elsewhere.

“All this exposes Gordon Brown’s plans for massive hikes in local taxes on people in Carlisle,” John says. “Only Conservatives are opposing these tax-raising plans and standing up for struggling residents who are paying more and getting less under this Labour Government.”

 

 

* NOTE Source: DCLG and DoE council tax figures and Labour Party, Putting fairness first: Local Labour’s Manifesto for a new term,

http://www.labourgroup.lga.gov.uk/lga/core/page.do?pageId=4660527

 

 

 

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