John Hemming, MP for Birmingham (Yardley) "political cost of the council tax has been substantial over time"

10.27.07am GMT Tue 8th Nov 2005

Speaking in the House of Commons at around 7.25pm on Monday 7th November 2005 John Hemming, MP for Birmingham (Yardley) said "the political cost of the council tax has been substantial over time. Part of that has been caused by the continuation of the Conservative Government's policy of increasing council tax by more than inflation. At standard spending, in 1993-94 council tax was £492.66, and in 2002-03 it increased to £769.16. It then changed to the assumed national council tax, putatively £1,000.83, which has increased to £1,101.96. That is a 71.9 per cent. increase in the council tax, while inflation has been 34 per cent."

His point was commended by David Howarth MP who said "he made a good point."

John Hemming, who is a Councillor on Birmingham City Council, said "People are surprised when I tell them that the government intentionally drove up the Council Tax. The fact is, however, that the Council Tax at Standard Spending in 1993/4 - which was the governments expected figure - was £492.66. The Assumed National Council Tax is now £1,101,96. There has been a continual drive from civil servants in what is now ODPM to push Council Tax up beyond inflation. We are at the moment wondering what Gordon Brown has up his sleeve. We won't know until later in December, but we are worried that he is intending to push Council Tax - a regressive tax - up yet further".

ENDS

Note for Editors

In 2003/2003 CTSS was changed to ANCT which is why the real cash increase in Council Tax according to government figures is 71.9% rather than 123.7%.

If you can read HTML properly with your email the following table explains all the figures.

Assumed Band D Council Tax values

ANCT (before floors & ceilings calculations) % increase CTSS (Council Tax at Standard Spending) % increase

2005/2006 £1,101.96 3.8% 1.1010461 1.719

2004/2005 £1,061.46 2.3%

2003/2004 £1,037.46 3.7%

2002/2003 £1,000.83 * £769.16 5.2% 1.561239

2001/2002 £730.90 5.1%

2000/2001 £695.54 4.6%

1999/2000 £664.88 4.8%

1998/1999 £634.62 7.0%

1997/1998 £593.09 4.2%

1996/1997 £568.94 3.2%

1995/1996 £551.56 4.6%

1994/1995 £527.41 7.1%

1993/1994 £492.66

Notes

• The large change between 2002/03 and 2003/04 was due to the effect of Resource Equalisation, which aligned the CTSS (renamed ANCT) more closely with actual local authority Council Tax values. A notional figure for ANCT in 2002/03 was calculated by ODPM (by assuming the Resource Equalisation had happened a year earlier) to show the trend without the effect of Resource Equalisation