Today (Thursday) will launch the Labour
Party’s local election campaign in Swindon with an
announcement that Labour would freeze council tax this
year if in government, a move funded by a proper windfall
tax on oil and gas giants.
It comes as the Tories are once again effectively forcing
councils to put up council tax – with bills set to rise
on Saturday – by reducing funding to councils and then
granting them additional ‘flexibilities’ to raise council
tax. This is resulting in a council tax rise of 5.1% on
average, topping £2,000 for the first time.
The Labour party is also publishing new analysis which reveals
that on average, Labour controlled councils charge £345
less than Conservative controlled councils. Average Band D
council tax in Labour areas is £72 lower than in Tory ones.
At the launch in Swindon, Labour leader will say that Labour is
on the side of families during a cost of living
crisis, and pledge to:
- Freeze council tax for this year, funded by a proper windfall
tax on oil and gas giants.
- Keep energy bills low for good by insulating 19 million
homes.
- Reverse the Tory decision to hand the richest 1% of
pension savers £1 billion in the midst of a cost of living
crisis, and instead introduce specific measures to keep
doctors in work.
- Close the non-dom tax loophole, so people who live and
work here pay their tax here, and use that money to fund one of
the biggest expansions of the NHS workforce in history and
Breakfast Clubs at every primary school.
The Office for Budget Responsibility has said that
the hit to living standards over the past two years is the
largest since comparable records began.
Labour Leader is expected to
say:
“We’ve got to send a message to this Government: What they’ve
delivered to our country after 13 years in power is nowhere
near good enough.
“Just look around Britain. Seven million on NHS waiting lists.
Crime – totally unpunished. The biggest hit to living standards –
the cash in your pocket – on record.
“Does anyone honestly think that Britain can’t do better than
this?”
The Labour Leader will add:
“We’ve got to get out there and show people the difference Labour
can make. Let them see our hunger for change.
“We have to prove that this suffocating cost of living
crisis, the path of decline the Tories have set Britain on, the
endless sticking plaster politics, is not inevitable. There
is a choice.
On Labour’s plans to freeze council tax this year if in
government, will say:
“There is a choice on tax. A Tory choice – taxes up for working
people, tax cuts for the 1%.
“Or a Labour choice. Where we cut business rates to save our
high streets and where, if there was a Labour Government, you
could take that council tax rise you just got and rip it up.
“A Labour Government would freeze your council tax this year -
that's our choice.
“A tax cut for the many, not just for the top 1 per cent.
“So take this message to every doorstep in your community: Labour
is the party of lower taxes for working people.
“That’s the difference we can make. That’s the choice in May. A
better Britain.”
Ends
Notes
- Labour would increase the rate of the windfall tax to match
Norway’s rate of 78%, backdate the windfall tax so that surging
profits from January 2022 are included and end the loophole that
means billions are handed back to oil and gas giants.
- Together these changes would raise £10.4bn over 2022/23 and
2023/24, using figures published by the OBR in their March
2023 Economic and Fiscal Outlook that forecast the amount of
energy profits levy receipts and north sea investment in those
years. This would be used to fund the one-year council tax freeze
which would cost around £2.7 billion. Economic and fiscal
outlook - March 2023 - Office for Budget Responsibility
(obr.uk)
- Labour announced that it would reverse the government's
decision to abolish the pensions lifetime allowance if it got
into power, with specific measures to keep doctors in work as we
argued for before the Budget.
