Anger over council tax 'U-turn'

Pensioner Sylvia Hardy was jailed for refusing to pay her council tax

The Conservatives have accused ministers of delaying council tax revaluation to avoid a backlash from people whose bills would rise.

They said the U-turn was an attempt to protect the prime minister from poor results at May's council elections.

A bill to postpone the revaluation of homes to re-adjust council tax has received its second reading and now passes to a committee of MPs.

Lib Dem spokesperson Sarah Teather said the revaluation was a "waste of money".

Job losses

Ministers announced in September their plans to postpone the revaluation of 22 million English homes for council tax until after the next election.

At the time, Local Government Minister David Miliband labelled the decision a "vaulting, 180 degree, full U-turn".

The credibility oft he prime minister apparently is at stake and the prime minister's credibility is so low that he fears the results of the electorate in May Eric Pickles Tory local government spokesman

But during debate on the Council Tax (New Valuation Lists for England) Bill in the Commons, he conceded that £60m had been spent on the move and that 1,250 jobs would be lost as a result.

The bill removes the requirement in previous legislation for there to be a revaluation in 2007 and at 10-yearly intervals afterwards.

There will also be powers to set a new date for revaluation, likely to be 2010.

Sir Michael Lyons' inquiry into local government funding, which has been extended to include the role of councils, is set to report late next year.

'Complex issues'

The Conservatives are opposing the bill because it does not cancel revaluation outright.

Erick Pickles, the Tory local government spokesman, said: "This is nothing more than a panic attack.

"This is nothing more than a fear of wipe-out at next May's elections.

"The credibility of the prime minister apparently is at stake and the prime minister's credibility is so low that he fears the results of the electorate in May."

Mr Miliband retorted that the Tories were now the "roadblock to reform".

"Sir Michael Lyons has made clear that any proposals for reforming the funding system raise complex issues," he said.

'Serious problem'

"The government has agreed that they need to be set firmly and explicitly within the context of a clear, shared understanding of the role of local government and of councils' accountability."

Labour ex-local government minister Nick Raynsford said the government had done nothing to specify when the postponed revaluation would take place.

"I do have a problem with a U-turn that replaces a sensible policy with a void, a vacuum, an empty space in which revaluation may happen at an unspecified future date but only if the secretary of state decides to hold one," he said.

"I have a serious problem with this because politicians are traditionally very wary of revaluations because they fear electoral unpopularity."

Local income tax

Ms Teather, for the Lib Dems, said the bill "does nothing to actually solve any of the problems councils and council taxpayers face".

She said ministers should be bringing forward legislation to scrap council tax and replace it with a local income tax.

Every home in Wales was revalued last year, with a third moving up at least one valuation band and 8% moving down.

But it has been 14 years since the last valuation in England and property prices have risen sharply since, particularly in London and the South East.