http://www.phillip-lee.com/politics-home/137-council-tax-conservatives-helping-families/ The Blog Of Phillip Lee Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:29:52 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 http://www.phillip-lee.com/politics-home/137-council-tax-conservatives-helping-families/comment-page-1/#comment-44 Graeme Hoskin Wed, 24 Jan 2007 11:26:11 +0000 http://localhost/?p=137#comment-44 Might be worth asking what they have cut to make these savings. As soon as Croydon went Tory they started slashing social services which, apart from schools, make up the largest chunk of council budgets. In Berkshire Wokingham District Council Tories are making cuts to their social care provision to keep council tax down. In Reading we may end up with a slightly higher council tax increase (although maybe not) but we won't be removing care from people in desperate need. The real issue is the Council Tax, invented by the Tories and maintained by Labour. It needs to be reformed but governments are too scared of the potential losers to change. Keeping council tax down by slashing services to those most in need is old Tory politics, I was hoping the Tories were moving on from this but clearly this is not the case with Tory councils across the country. You're right about one thing though, this is likely to help the Tories in local elections but will the cllrs be able to sleep at night? Might be worth asking what they have cut to make these savings. As soon as Croydon went Tory they started slashing social services which, apart from schools, make up the largest chunk of council budgets. In Berkshire Wokingham District Council Tories are making cuts to their social care provision to keep council tax down. In Reading we may end up with a slightly higher council tax increase (although maybe not) but we won’t be removing care from people in desperate need. The real issue is the Council Tax, invented by the Tories and maintained by Labour. It needs to be reformed but governments are too scared of the potential losers to change. Keeping council tax down by slashing services to those most in need is old Tory politics, I was hoping the Tories were moving on from this but clearly this is not the case with Tory councils across the country. You’re right about one thing though, this is likely to help the Tories in local elections but will the cllrs be able to sleep at night?

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