Councils wary over Osborne’s tax plans

One question that’s been hovering above George Osborne’s council tax pledge is whether his expectation that “100 percent” of councils will sign up to it is overly optimistic.  If a survey of London council leaders in today’s Standard is anything to go by, it may well be.  That survey finds that 16 of London’s 32 boroughs – every one run by Labour or the Lib Dems – would oppose the measure, and – allegedly – there are grumblings from Tory councillors too. 

Their beef is that a freeze on council tax would force services to be cut back, and could even cause taxes to be artificially higher in subsequent years. These are not worries that the Tories should leave unanswered.  Any hint that their efforts to loosen the fiscal squeeze are either inadequate or half-hearted will only fuel Brown’s “novice” attack.  It’s now down to Team Osborne to provide more evidence that the proposal would work as well in practice as it sounds in theory.