Skirmish over council job cuts

A GOVERNMENT health warning should be attached to the distasteful pre-election skirmishing over the future of town hall funding – and conflicting reports about the possible scale of job losses at local councils.

It's simple for John Denham, the Communities Secretary, to blame the Tories and Liberal Democrats. Labour's lack of popular support means that Parliament's governing party has lost much of its influence at a local level.

Equally, many councils will be reluctant to confirm the scale of prospective cuts to staff and services, given the number of voters employed by the public sector and the likelihood that the General Election will coincide with local elections.

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Yet the political obfuscation does not end here. Despite a record budget deficit, the Government still found sufficient money to increase its grant to town halls – which comprises three-quarters of the final council tax bill – by an above-inflation four per cent.

This is the primary reason council tax increases will be minimal on the election's eve; none of the parties wants to be in a position to

justify the exorbitant increases that have seen this bill more than double since Labour came to power in 1997.

The bleak financial outlook should be forcing Labour and the Conservatives to explain how local services will be funded – and, specifically, how more can be achieved with less money in future.

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However, Mr Denham appeared incapable of doing so. He simply wanted to blame the Tories while the Conservatives, who want to freeze future council tax increases, remain characteristically coy about how this will be funded as they promptly cast aspersions on Labour's record.

In playing this political blame game, neither party seemed to

appreciate that the council tax is continuing to cripple many people on fixed incomes, like pensioners, and that this year's pre-election gestures offers no long-term solutions to taxpayers – or all those council workers worried about their job prospects.