Councils shouldn’t be allowed to raise tax by 25%

It is easy enough to trace the point at which local authorities embarked on the sad, downwards journey which has led to several going bankrupt. It was when they renamed their town clerks ‘chief executives’. In doing so they started posing as private businesses, with salaries and bonuses to match. But their pretensions were not matched by business acumen. Twenty of them are now weighed down with a combined £30 billion of debt. Several councils have got into trouble by entering the commercial property business at a time other investors were starting to flee. Woking is in difficulty after turning property developer, trying to build a posh high-rise hotel in its town centre. Others bought up shopping centres just as retail business was draining away to the internet.

No, councils are not businesses. Real businesses, when they get into trouble, do not go to the government pleading to put up their prices, as eight councils are doing, claiming they need to increase council tax by up to 25 per cent.