Why is council tax cheap in wandsworth

Births, death and ceremonies. Business and licensing. Early years and childcare. Health and social care. Leisure and culture.

Planning and Building Control. Rubbish and recycling. Roads and transport. Borough leaders last night froze the council's share of the bill - a startling decision amid the growing furore over soaring bills and slashed services. However, both boroughs buck the London average. An Evening Standard survey of the 33 boroughs found bills would rise by 5. Wandsworth has prided itself for years in being a low-tax borough, and was able to set bills for zero pence for two years running in the early s during the days of the poll tax.

But its new budget, which will be ratified on 10 March and becomes effective on 1 April, also means cuts to the voluntary sector. But the council says only one other London borough funds a similar facility, which it believes should receive NHS rather than local authority grants. Deputy council leader Maurice Heaster said Wandsworth had achieved the impossible by keeping its bills down. He said it had been done without any help from the Government, which he accused of redirecting funds from London to the North.

Council tax is unfair to older people, renters and those on low incomes. The multi-billionaire Warren Buffet once noted that while he paid For his near-neighbour Rakesh, a solicitor, it is much less than 1 per cent of his income. If the council increased tax by the maximum allowed it would only raise enough money to cover 0. Or to put it another way, enough money to run the council for another 8 hours.

Many older people on low, fixed incomes have been unfairly caught in this trap. Helen lives in the family home near Wandsworth Common that she has occupied since the s. Council tax is not shared fairly between residents. Nearly a third of homes are privately rented in Wandsworth. Tenants have to pay tax on properties they could not hope to buy. The owners — who increased rents by an average of 14 per cent last year — pay no property taxes.

Under Labour pressure, Wandsworth has removed its reduction for second homes and introduced a pc council tax charge for long-term empty homes that could be rented out. As a property tax to help bring empty homes back into use, council tax is pathetically ineffective. Decisions over tax, like many others, have been taken away from local councillors. Five years of incentive payments to freeze council tax have been backed up by the requirement to hold a local referendum on any increase above 2 per cent.

Naturally, councils have been reluctant to put this issue to the electorate. The government has, in effect, nationalised council tax setting. The time of council tax as a political issue is passing.