Leeds Liberal Democrats

Lib Dems will highlight Unfair Taxes & Tuition Fees at Next Weeks Council

Lib Dems will highlight Unfair Taxes & Tuition Fees at Next Weeks Council

Next week Leeds City Council will be debating two White Papers submitted by the Liberal Democrat Group. One calls on the Council to support the scrapping of Council Tax and its replacement with a local income tax; while the other congratulates the six Labour MPs who have signed the Early Day motion opposing Government plans for Tuition Fees and also calls for the Council to back the fight against Tuition Fees by Leeds students.

Cllr Greg Mulholland (Lib Dem, Headingley), who will be moving the motion on a Local Income Tax, said "With people in Leeds facing yet another increase of 3 or 4 times the rate of inflation in their Council Tax bills this year the issue of how we pay for local government is particularly important at this time. Council Tax was an idea thought up by the Tories to get them out of a hole they dug for themselves with the hated Poll Tax, but in many ways it is just as unfair. What is needed is a local tax system based on peoples ability to pay, a fair system which does not penalise some of the worst off people in Leeds. The Government is currently holding a review of how funding for local authorities is raised, but they seem to have already decided to oppose a local income tax. They really ought to be open and look at all the options, not play party political games. This debate will give the Labour Group on the City Council the opportunity to make their position clear, it will be interesting to see if they continue to support massive increases for pensioners and other low income groups, or if they will support a fair and progressive local income tax."

Cllr Ralph Pryke (Lib Dem, Burmantofts), who will be moving the motion on Student Fees, said "159 Labour MPs have signed the Early Day Motion on 'Alternatives to Variable Top Up Fees' indicating their opposition to Government plans for tuition fees. This includes 6 of the 7 Leeds Labour MPs able to sign the motion (it is convention that Government Ministers do not sign EDMs). I think it right that they should be congratulated for doing so, and also think it right that the Council should express its position on the issue.

"In Leeds we have tens of thousands of students attending our Universities who already face years of debt after their graduation, in addition there are young people in our 6th forms, along with their families, who face agonising decisions on whether they can afford to go to University in the next couple of years. Liberal Democrats have opposed the principle of top up fees and will continue to do so, indeed a keystone of our agreement to go into partnership with Labour in the Scottish Parliament was the scrapping of tuition fees in Scotland. Other parties on the Council will be able to express their own views, will the Labour Group back their Government regardless or add their voice to the Labour rebels? I am sure that local people will be interested to know."

Note

The wording of the White Paper Motions is as follows :

White Paper 1

This Council:

 Notes with great concern the major and unfair impact that successive council tax increases have on the citizens of Leeds and recognises that this is substantially due to the Government's management of grants to local authorities, as well as flaws in the system;

 Regrets that the present system of local taxation takes no account of ability to pay;

 Recognises that council tax therefore places a disproportionately high burden on residents with low incomes, such as pensioners;

 Notes that since the Labour government came into office in 1997, the Band D council tax bill in Leeds has risen by £307.63, a rise of 46%;

 Recognises that the huge increase in the level of direct and ring-fenced grants, combined with rising costs and additional duties imposed by Government on local councils has left authorities with the stark choice of huge cuts in services or massive increases in council tax, or a combination of both;

 Regrets that the present system of local government finance is so confusing and lacking in transparency that accountability for the tax levied is blurred, with very few citizens able to penetrate the Government's use of smoke and mirrors to paint every settlement as generous, regardless of the facts.

This Council calls on the Deputy Prime Minister:

 To propose future funding settlements which provide mainstream grant for local authorities sufficient to ensure the provision of high quality, locally accountable public services;

To replace the council tax with a local tax based on income, reinstating the principle of progressive taxation, that the more one earns, the more one pays.

White Paper 5

This Council thanks Leeds MPs Paul Truswell, John Battle, Colin Burgon, George Mudie, Harold Best and Fabian Hamilton for signing Early Day Motion 147 opposing their Government's plans for variable top-up fees for students

Councils supports their stance because :-

 access to higher education should be based on ability to learn, not ability to pay;

 the plans would widen the social divide and make it less likely that students from poorer backgrounds will access Britain's top universities; and

 the Government's top-up fees would triple students' overall debt, leaving many to pay off their debts for the rest of their working lives.

Council furthermore supports the campaign by Leeds students to scrap tuition fees and top-up fees.