Just watched a piece on the BBC proposed increases on Landfill Tax being imposed by the guv'mint on Local Authorities... and hence on to us.
I do hope this is an April fool, like the flying penguins (great CGI)**.
Because the other day I opened my council tax demand, and it was not small*. In fact on top of massive increases across the board in other areas, from energy costs, food, BBC licence fee, car tax, etc, I am still trying to cope with a council rise of 4.5%, with police and fire broken out on top at 4.9%.
So when is this new one going to kick in?
And, as noted in the piece, no matter how good at reusing or recycling we might be, it seems it is to be imposed on you no matter what. I thought there were 'per use' proposals in mind, or is that too close to the 'poll tax' nemesis of Mrs. T's era?
I also thought the BBC piece was a bit twee, showing a householder*** strolling out to the garden to deal with the food waste in 3 separate bins. Good on her. But what was not mentioned is the poor sods without such land area options, or the fact that no matter how diligent one is there is going to be a load more that really is very hard to deal with. I have every plastic tray stacked up in the basement in testimony!
________
*Or...apparently not (My house is perhaps the exception?):
PR as received, edited for length (ie: deleting bullsh*t obfuscation from various breeding groups of over-salaried and golden-pensioned senior public parasites, whose empires and personal nests all this is really to fund than any better services):
(CLG) Lowest increase in council tax for 14 years announced
Eleven successive years of above inflation grant increases from Government - and a continued threat of tough action against excessive increases - have led to the lowest increase in council tax for 14 years, and the second lowest ever, Local Government Minister John Healey has announced.
Figures for 2008/09 published today show that the average Band D increase in England will be 4.0%. 265 (58%) authorities will have increases below the 4.1% Retail Price Index, 69 (15%) below the 2.5% Consumer Price Index, 18 (4%) have no increase and three (0.66%) are reducing council tax bills.
Ministers have said consistently that they expect the average council tax rises to be substantially below 5% and the vast majority of local authorities have complied.
"Our commitment to take action combined with our 45% above inflation increase in Government grant for local services up to 2010-11 has helped bring down council tax rises to a fourteen year low, and most councils have contained their costs and budgeted prudently.
The Minister announced that authorities' 2008-09 budget requirements are excessive if they set a budget requirement increase of 5.0% between 2007-08 and 2008-09, and a council tax increase of more than 5.0% in the same period. Authorities must exceed both principles to be designated for action.
All of the authorities designated for action have 21 days in which to make their case. The Government will carefully consider any representations made before taking further decisions.
Information on capping principles, budget requirement and council tax increases for all authorities is available on the Communities and Local Government website.
**Brand Republic - BBC launches iPlayer campaign with flying penguin footage
Penguins
***I owe the lady in question if not an apology but at least a clarification. In her blog - 'The Rubbish Diet' - she makes very clear the case pro and con. And shows herself to be highly thoughtful on all the issues. I still have maintain that I often find the major media less diligent in what they punt out, from slavish agenda propaganda by some government supported entities, to highly superficial scare stories that ignore commercial realities or local conditions such as LAs can face from tabloid rags. The losers, inevitably, are the consumer, and in their confusion or kicking back, the environment.
ADDENDUM - STOP PRESS!!!!
But it's all OK. prices of things such as vacuum cleaners and TVs have gone down. So... let me get this straight... they are really trying to offset trying to put a roof over our heads, eat and stay warm with buying a bunch of tat once a decade?
ADDENDUM 2 -
I am grateful to reader Christine of isitfair (hope I have the correct URL link) for some nice humour, albeit gallows, on the subject!
6 comments:
Newsflash
London 01-04-2008 00:00:01
Brown Scraps Council Tax
In an unprecedented u-turn, the Prime Minister Gordon Brown will today
announce that Council Tax is to be scrapped with immediate effect, and that he has appointed Christine Melsom of Isitfair to put forward proposals for a replacement system that is fair to all and based on an individual’s ability to pay.
In a statement issued by Downing Street, the Prime Minister said;
“I have today announced that Council Tax will be scrapped in England and Wales with effect from 1 April 2008. The tax was originally introduced on April Fool’s Day and I now acknowledge that it has been no joke for the millions of taxpayers who have had to pay it.
“Since coming to power in 1997, I was mis-guided to believe that I could better manage peoples’ personal budgets than they could, by using the Council Tax system. I acknowledge that as a result of my abuse of the system, I have caused untold misery to millions of people, robbing them of their hard earned incomes and savings, and forcing some to take desperate action, like going to prison.
“I further realise that I have also damaged Local Government by constantly blaming them for the annual, year on year, inflation busting increases. The huge increases have been caused by Central Government manipulating the grant they allocate to each local authority, and then ordering them to spend more money than they readily have available. The only option they have had is to raise the shortfall in revenue from the local council tax payers.
“The loss of Council Tax revenue will be made up by additional funding provided by the Treasury, and from cutting Government waste. This change will not affect our fiscal position. The money has always been available, I just chose not to spend it, in order to control peoples’ finances.
“I have asked Christine Melsom who founded the Isitfair campaign to head up a consultation with her fellow members and supporters, in order to put forward proposals for a new replacement system of local government financing. The proposal must be fair to all, and based on an individual’s ability to pay.”
End of statement.
The Conservative party were stunned by this announcement and had no one available to respond. It was clear that they have no alternative to offer.
The LibDems trotted out their usual Local Income Tax solution. However, when it was pointed out that what they are proposing is a national tax collected locally, they were unable to comment further.
Meanwhile, at Westminster, Local Government Ministers Blears and Healey were left fuming. Gordon Brown has effectively wiped their jobs out. Both were said to be deeply worried as they would find it difficult to get new jobs in the real world. Aides said that they are currently claiming all their expenses and allowances for the remainder of this year, incurred or not, as they both fear that they will face real hardship when the gravy runs out.
Isitfair ©
Dear Christine,
Ta for the best giggle today.
On a serious... much more serious note.. I have signed up!
LOL Peter....the householder in the twee Landfill clip was me. Apparently I'm getting a bit of a reputation in my neck of the woods. Anyway, glad you saw it ;-D
Oh, cripes!!!
I can see my quick tongue getting bitten off one day soon.
At least I appreciated what you were doing, he said, digging furiously.
I just wonder.. was that all they filmed? Or was it edited to fit a quick section?
As you'll gather, I am concerned about how these things get packaged and served up.
My comment came following a chat with my Mum's (she has dementia and lives in an annexe, so I am over there a lot) carer who took one look and said 'It's all well and good them telling me I should be doing that... but how in my flat!'. I won't mention what she had to say on the price hike!
We have to be careful not to outpace those less able, through time, money, practicality or just getting to grips with new concepts. And appreciate they are having enough trouble just coping with all else is lobbed their way these days.
Mind you, she now stores up all Mum's recycling for me to pop out mind.
Congrats on the feature BTW - were you creditted (I didn't see)?
Of course I'd kill for such a plug here, but then I'd worry how they'd spin it.
Christine,
Absolutely brilliant - it would be even funnier if if were not quite so close to the truth in parts!
Shame you couldn't get one of the majors to run it.
D.
Just saw your update Peter and cheers for the clarification. You're right though it was all very twee...all I needed was my flowery skirt and a hair-do and it would have been a real Stepford Wives shoot...now that's scary.
I certainly hadn't expected to be billed as a "model citizen" because that's not my style. I'm still pretty flabbergasted that I've been able to sort out my internal rubbish crisis. The one thing that has surprised me is that there were solutions available, which I hadn't previously known about, even if it's just the aerosol drop off point at our local council facilities.
You've made some great points, which highlights different household scenarios and it would have made a rounder report if other households could have been included, from those with stay-at-home mums, those who work like me, right through to retired households, not forgetting those with teenagers.
Fingers-crossed that this comment will now appear after my fudged attempt yesterday.
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