Brighton's council tax revolution could strike a blow for democracy
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Version 0 of 1. 'I love bashing local government," Eric Pickles boasted to his fellow MPs as he slashed and kicked it round the back alleys of Westminster on Wednesday. They laughed. They all knew he had a wink and a nod from the boss, Don Cameroni. As he stood over his blood-stained victim, Pickles said their relationship remained "deep and loving". To him, love is something out of The Sopranos. We must now hurry down to Brighton. Next month the city's Green administration hopes to stage the first anti-Pickles backlash. The Royal Pavilion will echo to cries of freedom. The Steine will echo the rage of Tahrir Square. The wheelchairs of Hove will charge with the scythes of Boudicca's chariots. I carry no flag for the Green party. It is the Ukip of the left, pawn of the tycoons of Big Renewables. But it runs a minority administration in Brighton, and wants to hold a ballot on a council tax rise of 4.75%. The party campaigned last year against such a rise but its exotically named council leader, Jason Kitcat, says central cuts now make it vital. The money is to protect adult social care in a city with way above the national average of older people. He rightly wants a new mandate for the policy change, in accordance with the government's 2011 Localism Act. The intention is utterly commendable. Brighton has no virtue in this department. As a one-time resident I can attest that its government has long been awash in waste and union power. For Kitcat to cite "the vulnerable old" looks suspiciously like shroud-waving. Nor is the city a star in the localist firmament. It has long been in thrall to dreadful property profiteering. The most hideous conference centre in England dominates the seafront. The glorious West Pier has been left to rot into the sea, an eyesore inconceivable in any more self-respecting resort. A monstrous marina has defaced the majestic cliffs of Kemptown, wrecking the coast. But revolution rarely has the luxury of choice. Local capping was invented by Margaret Thatcher, in her first great swipe at local democracy in 1984. Labour fought it when in opposition but continued it when that party came into power. The continuance was then cynically opposed by the Conservatives in turn. David Cameron declared that capping "takes the power of decision about local spending and local taxation out of the hands of local voters and hands it to remote central bureaucracies". Like many newcomers to power, he realised promises were a phenomenon of opposition. As soon as Cameron found himself controlling a "remote central bureaucracy" of his own, he discovered it to be a cosy custodian of fiscal virtue. In a meagre attempt to honour his fallen pledge, Cameron proposed in his 2011 act that any council wanting to raise council tax by more than 2% above a centrally fixed level, currently a freeze, should be forced to hold a referendum. Spending below the cap required no such mandate. (Nor was there any suggestion that George Osborne's budget tax rises might also require mandating.) Most councils have obeyed Cameron's policy, none raising its tax demand by more than the approved 2%. But the mere fact that many have come near to 2% has infuriated Pickles. He calls them "democracy dodgers", and immoral. He has told cabinet colleagues he wants to cut the threshold for a referendum to 1.5%. Ironically this has upset Theresa May, whose beloved police commissioners are also capped. Close to bursting with rage, Pickles has won cash from the Treasury to bribe councils to obey his council tax freeze. Osborne is thus in effect raising taxes to bribe others not to raise them. If Brighton council declines to hold its referendum, Pickles has offered it £2.4m over two years, or £70 off a band-D tax bill. Money is being splurged by the centre simply so Pickles can boast that he has "held down council tax", which should be nothing to do with him. Welcome to the crazy world of coalition public finance. Some councils have contrived to handle cuts in central grants, cuts which have taken 150,000 jobs out of local government in the past year alone. Tory Kensington and Chelsea's merging of some services with adjacent boroughs produced £43m a year in savings. This week they announced a celebratory £100 cut in council tax bills, despite 25% less in central grant. How much longer such bravura can go on is doubtful. Osborne's autumn statement shows UK tax revenue rising overall by 4.6% in 2014-15, and central income tax revenue by nearly 8%. Local council revenue is not just capped but the local tax base, property, is denied revaluation, leading to a perpetual real-terms decline. Since so much of central spending, on health, education and pensions, is ringfenced, the long-term squeeze on local councils is remorseless and intense. Councils are banned from doing what central government can do, which is relieve any pressure by raising taxes or borrowing. They are going to hell in a handcart. How a Brighton referendum would turn out is entirely a matter for its voters. But a great public benefit would be served by holding one. Someone, somewhere, must stand up to the bullying, hectoring hypocrisy of Cameron's "localism" act and his henchman, Pickles, in full "screw democracy" mode. The queen of the south coast can at last redeem itself by writing a new chapter in the story of British government. |