Letter: If Councils Had the Power to Raise Local Taxes…

Published on: 6 Aug, 2023
Updated on: 6 Aug, 2023

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From: Ben Paton

In response to: Centralisation of Power Can Only Be Tackled By Constitutional Change

It is very simple, always has been. Government’s power and legitimacy derives from taxation.

Remember the Boston Tea Party, or Charles I’s Ship Money?

And why is Russia a dictatorship? Because the government is funded by the country’s natural resources (gas, oil, nickel, coal, diamonds etc) and not by the citizens.

In England, central government raises the lion’s share of the taxes. So it decides how the money is spent.

If you really want local politicians to have serious power you must give them the power to raise local taxes.

For example, if Guildford Borough Council wanted to build a tunnel for the A3 and it really believed that borough residents would pay for it, it should have the power to raise the money to pay for a tunnel.

If local councils could raise significant sums in taxes local politics would suddenly assume great importance for the voters – and local politicians would quickly discover what people are prepared to pay for.

The arguments against giving local politicians the power to raise a lot of tax include: 1) poor scrutiny of local government finances (no audit for 5 years in Woking!); 2) limited competence of local government to handle large government works contracts; 3) few local politicians with the time and expertise to take on the massive responsibilities that local fundraising would entail.

Guildford has apparently got a capital expenditure budget of £750 million. Can a single resident explain what comprises that £750 million? Or explain how it will benefit local council tax payers?

Woking is well over £1 billion in debt. How did that happen? That is still not properly explained.
None of this has much to do with the constitution. It has everything to do with who can be trusted to spend the taxpayer’s money.

It took Guildford Borough Council over ten years to put in place a Local Plan that is considered by most to be a disaster. If there was a referendum would local council tax payers support giving the council the power to raise local taxes?

Responses to Letter: If Councils Had the Power to Raise Local Taxes…

Mark Stamp Reply

August 7, 2023 at 4:50 pm

I am not in favour of local taxation powers, just less control from Whitehall of the money distributed but the arguments Mr Paton puts forward can be quite easily solved:

1) poor scrutiny of local government finances (no audit for five years in Woking!) – caused by a lack of trained auditors which no one in government thought was a problem they should solve, just leave it to the market for auditors to choose if they want to get high pay in private practice or work in the public sector. Some money from any local tax would need to pay for auditing itself;

2) limited competence of local government to handle large government works contracts – is local government any worse than central government on this? See for reference HS2, multiple MoD equipment orders etc. More funding would mean more expertise would exist in local government;

3) few local politicians with the time and expertise to take on the massive responsibilities that local fundraising would entail – we would get better and more diverse local politicians if we actually paid them a wage where they could spend their full time on it. Instead, we have people who are either retired, can rely on the income of a partner or have to fit their council responsibilities around a full-time job.

In short, at the minute local government gets what it pays for.