Wed scrap the council tax, say LibDems

25 Sep 03
The Liberal Democrats will try to place the abolition of council tax at the centre of their campaigning in the next general election.

26 September 2003

The Liberal Democrats will try to place the abolition of council tax at the centre of their campaigning in the next general election.

Edward Davey, who shadows the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, told the party's Brighton conference on September 23 that he hoped 'scrap council tax' would resonate with voters in the way that the party's policy of a 1p income tax rise for education did in 1997.

Davey said that by switching to a system of local income tax, 'hundreds of millions of pounds' would be saved by 'piggy-backing local income tax on to the national PAYE system'.

He accused the government of running a council tax system that unfairly penalised people on low incomes while damaging the autonomy of local authorities.

Speaking at a Local Government Association fringe meeting earlier in the week, Davey accused local government minister Nick Raynsford of going back on promises not to cap councils rated good or excellent by the Audit Commission.

The conference also passed a motion calling for the National Health Service to provide long-term care for elderly people and to end prescription charges for the chronically sick. Health spokesman Evan Harris called for a switch in resources in the NHS away from hospitals into 'prevention, health promotion and primary care'.

He argued that this would be more cost-effective, as good primary care could prevent people from developing conditions that required expensive hospital treatment.

Harris denounced as 'sinister' the government's proposed Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection. He said: 'In the health bill there is a sinister proposal to create a new inspectorate that is less independent and is an arm of government.

'The Chai will agree its programme with government, it will inspect outcomes set by politicians not patients and it will relate everything it does to government policy.

'It will take a brave hospital, manager or staff member who puts a patient's needs before achieving their target.'

PFsep2003

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