Elderly facing unfair council tax increases (From Western Telegraph)

Elderly facing unfair council tax increases

THE National Assembly should be petitioned for special financial support to alleviate the effects of unfair increases in council tax.

The call came from Cllr Tom Richards, who was speaking on a notice of motion he and Cllr M. E. Evans submitted to the county council on Thursday.

He said that fixed income senior citizens, who could not afford to move from houses they had occupied for many years, were the hardest hit.

Cllr Mike Stoddart queried a statement in the budget report that there would be a 5% increase in council tax. The figure given at a recent seminar was 13%.

He said the amount of tax to be collected next year was £27.85 million, compared with the current figure of £24.66 million, which he said was 13%.

Director of finance, Mark Lewis, agreed that the band D increase would be 5%, but said that the overall settlement was expected to increase by 10% due to the effect of revaluation and rebanding. The fact that the authority was spending a little bit more than the increase on standard spending assessment added another 3%.

Cllr Stoddart asked who was going to get the extra money and Mark Lewis said the Assembly grant would be reduced to compensate.

Council leader, Cllr John Davies, said the council was only a collector of taxes and it was really indirect taxation by the back door, on behalf of the Assembly.

Cllr John Allen insisted that the poorest would be hardest hit.