Worcester News says "Abolition of Council Tax is the solution"

Written by Richard Burt, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for West Worcestershire on Mon 23rd Oct 2006

A recent comment in the Worcester News' influential Opinion column that "council tax needs to be abolished in favour of a local income tax that takes into account people's ability to pay" [4 October] drew a revealing response from my Conservative opponent, Harriet Baldwin.

She is clearly in favour of keeping the unfair council tax, but I'm afraid the figures she trotted out about the average rise for "a typical working family" are far from typical.

Last year the Tories based their figures on how much Local Income Tax an "average" household would pay assuming a household with earnings of £48,000 a year! In fact the median UK household income at the time was just £21,700 a year, meaning that 70% of people would pay less or be unaffected by a change to Local Income Tax.

Council tax currently hits older people and those on low and average incomes hardest, and is not based on the ability to pay.

But perhaps we shouldn't expect too much enlightenment from a former city speculator about a tax introduced by the last Conservative government!