Pickles shrugs off Clegg veto on council tax

The Local Government Secretary said he had wanted all increases of more than one per cent to trigger a public vote as he seeks to encourage town halls to freeze rates.

But even his compromise of a 1.5 per cent level was vetoed by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg over fears that it could hit “vital” services.

A source close to Mr Clegg said councils had already been “cut to the bone” and needed to be given more certainty.

“I would have preferred a threshold of one per cent but I was quite willing to compromise on 1.5 per cent,” Mr Pickles told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One. “But two per cent I am relaxed about.”

The average bill for a band D property was £1,444 last year, meaning a two per cent increase would cost householders around £7.20 more than a 1.5 per cent rise.

Mr Pickles has previously signalled his desire to deal with “democracy dodging” councils that raise council tax by 1.99 per cent to avoid a referendum.

He insisted he was not seeking to set a cap and was also “relaxed” about inflation-busting rises of seven per cent or more, so long as they were approved by local electors.

“I’m very relaxed if a council wants to go for five per cent, six per cent, seven per cent even more providing it gets the consent of its electorate.”

Confirming the retention of the two per cent threshold, Mr Pickles told MPs that 137 authorities had so far signalled their intention not to raise the rate of council tax for 2014-15. Budgets are due to be finalised next month.