Taxing question stumps Labour

The charge did not start with Labour, but that is no defence. It made a manifesto pledge to keep council tax "under control" but, with the bill for the average Yorkshire home rising by 21 per cent since 2005, it did not live up to its ballot box rhetoric.

Ministers will point to the fact that council tax levels are set by the local authority but they had promised to get tough on those councils which squeezed the pips of residents in its area. They have not done so.

Now, with a General Election looming, they will have to face the judgment of hard-pressed taxpayers who are already having to cope with the recession, soaring food and fuel prices and wage freezes.

Labour has failed to put sufficient pressure on local authorities to change the way they provide, and pay for, their services. Councils, however, must also be held accountable. Too much spending is wasted, particularly on spin doctors and self-congratulatory leaflets about the quality of their work, while the failure to resolve the strike by refuse workers in Leeds, until it had gone on for 11 weeks, was a failure of leadership that damaged the city's reputation

around Britain.

Virtually all council taxpayers would accept they have to pay a fair sum to ensure their rubbish is collected, their roads are maintained and their schools have the right equipment. Yet an average increase in Yorkshire of 188 since 2005 is far too high. While there is council tax benefit available for those who find it hardest to pay, the fact that about a third of those entitled to it do not claim shows that neither the system, nor the way of explaining it, is working properly.

Ministers promised to get tough on local authorities which charge too much. They didn't – and now voters might be about to get tough on them.