The boring truth about council tax rises

8.08.57pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 25th Apr 2008

Tory councillor Julian Daly may have had some electoral fun and games with residents' council tax demands but he perhaps should have spoken to the council officers to get his facts straight before talking to the press. In contrast, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate Nigel Quinton has been busy getting to the bottom of the issue once Harpenden residents had contacted him concerned about the size of their council tax bill.

"The Tories are trying to make out that the District Council have been dishonest about the size of the district council tax rise, but this is simply not backed up by the facts" says Nigel. "It is not a simple subject, but after a few emails and telephone conversations with council officers I believe the explanation is straightforward."

What he has discovered is as follows:

The District Council costs have risen by 3.5% per council tax payer across the district. However, the district council portion of council tax is made up of two parts: "general expenses" that are paid across the whole district, and "special expenses" that are local to a particular community - such as playing fields, local halls, car parks, toilets and so forth.

What has happened is that general expenses have gone up by more the 3.5%, but special expenses have reduced by a massive 17% across the district thanks to efficiency savings achieved by the district council. Of course the benefits of savings in special expenses can only be felt by residents in the area where these are charged. There is nothing the council can do to change this, that is the system - which was introduced by the Conservatives back in the nineties.

Nigel comments:

"The key things residents should remember are:

• Despite Tory claims, the total district rate has only gone up by 3.5% - i.e. below the RPI rate of inflation

• The disparity across the district is due to Special Expenses - a Tory invention

• The Conservative County Council has hiked its rate by 4.5% - yet continues to fail

• In Harpenden, a Band D council tax payer will pay just £167 for all their District Council services, i.e. planning, waste collection, leisure, housing, environmental services, street cleaning etc etc. They will pay a whopping £65 for the Tory Town Council to do little more than manage the Common and the allotments."