Tax blame (From Penarth Times)

Tax blame

READING the article in the Penarth Times (March 17) about Bill Ellis and his horror at receiving a council tax bill for £353 more than last year, due mainly to the re-banding that affects 48 per cent of households in the Vale, it struck me that from his comments Mr Ellis and many other householders are totally unaware of what exactly has happened regarding the latest tax levy to arrive from our Labour government.

Firstly, leader Jeff James is correct to say that the Vale has managed to keep its yearly increase down to 4.7 percent.

However, what perhaps was not made clear is that the unnecessary house re-banding which accounts for Mr Ellis's massive increase is due to the present government forcing all local councils to re-band properties, collect extra revenue and to hand it over in its entirety to central government coffers.

Put simply, Gordon Brown has raised an ongoing yearly levy on 48 percent of the houses in this area and successfully given the false impression that it is the individual councils that have raised and kept this increased tax, thus deflecting the true situation - that Mr Brown has stuffed the lot in its entirety into the increasingly empty coffers that are funding his calamitous economic mismanagement.

I hope that by making it clear who exactly is actually collecting and keeping this money, Mr Ellis and others can now direct their ire in the right direction.

I hope that this explanation is much clearer than that of Labour AM Lorraine Barrett who managed to be quoted on this subject while completely failing to inform readers of why they are being hit with yet another central government tax.

Kevin Mahoney

Bendrick Road

Barry