Councils versus the Minister

This is why Eric Pickles, the Local Government Secretary, has offered grants to town halls in order to force them into not to increase bills. He knows households cannot face the prospect of another tax rise – and that it would be politically remiss of any council that declined his offer.

However, the Minister, a one-time leader of Bradford Council, is not being entirely straight with taxpayers once the ramifications are taken into account.

Local authority running costs are still outstripping the 2.5 per cent increase in funds being made available by Mr Pickles – inflation, despite recent falls, still stands at 4.2 per cent.

This is already compounding the cuts, unprecedented in scale, that are being expected of local authorities across Yorkshire – and taking away the right of town halls to set a modest council tax increase makes this process even more painful. Why? Decisions deferred now, even for reasons of political expediency, only put the day of reckoning on hold – it does not remove it from the policy-making equation.

This is why Mr Pickles is being somewhat mischievous as he tries to pass the buck onto local authorities and, presumably, directly-elected mayors if this concept is backed by voters in Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield and Sheffield later this year.

He knows that any unjustifiable council tax increase could favour the Tories at May’s local elections, but he also needs to remember that any job losses incurred as a result of his approach will only add to the nation’s benefits burden at a time when unemployment is remorselessly approaching the three million mark.

Perhaps the Minister’s best approach would be to trust local authorities to act in the best interests of their community – this, after all, is a government that supposedly believes in localism – and insist that any excessive increase can only be imposed if it is backed by residents in a referendum.