Tories To Freeze Council Tax, Osborne Promises

by Robert Lee, Tax-News.com, London

02 October 2008

The UK's Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne, has stepped up the campaign for a Conservative government this week by announcing that he will introduce a two-year council tax freeze should his party succeed at the next general election.

Osborne's surprise announcement came at the Tory party conference in Birmingham on Monday, where he spoke about his party's plan to address the financial turmoil the country is currently facing by introducing strategically placed tax cuts in areas that will benefit the UK.

The costs for the council tax freeze will be shared between local and central government.

Under the basic guidelines of the proposal, any council that makes savings to keep its annual council tax increase to 2.5% or below will receive additional money from central government to reduce council tax bills by a further 2.5%.

Osborne said that this central government funding will be raised by reducing spending on expensive private sector consultants and advertising by GBP500 million in the first full year of government, and by GBP1 billion in all subsequent years.

This measure will save a typical Band D household over GBP200 and would benefit millions of households, Osborne claimed.

The Shadow Chancellor promised: “Every council tax bill of every family in every council that takes part will be frozen.”

And he said: “Instead of council tax bills that rise year after year under Labour, millions of families will get help at the time they need it most. Conservatives will not leave people to struggle with the credit crunch alone.”

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