Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord Harper and Brandon Lewis
Mr Mark Harper (Forest of Dean) (Con)
11. What recent assessment he has made of the effect on local authorities of the freeze on council tax.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Brandon Lewis)
Council tax freeze funding has thus far helped cut council tax in real terms by 11% since 2010. Forest of Dean is one of the excellent authorities; it is now in its fourth year of a council tax freeze. The Government have made £5.2 billion available to support councils that freeze and have built the funding into the spending review baseline.
Mr Harper
The situation is even better than the Minister set out: all three Conservative-led councils in my area have frozen council tax, in contrast to the Independent police and crime commissioner, who put council tax up without making a real effort at savings. I urge the Minister to continue with the programme because freezing council tax makes a real difference to the budgets of families and helps make ends meet in difficult times. Please will he continue that policy?
Brandon Lewis
My hon. Friend makes a good point. What the Government have been able to do with the council tax freeze has shown a real saving for families across the country in keeping council tax down. That is in the context of the fact that council tax roughly doubled under the Labour Government.