'Axe The Tax' Update

6.56.37pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 22nd Sep 2004

Jane Carr at No. 10 with Ed Davey MP (right).

Liberal Democrats want to scrap council tax and replace it with a local income tax. Jane Carr, our parliamentary spokesperson, recently visited 10 Downing Street to deliver tens of thousands of signatures for the 'Axe the Tax' petition, along with Ed Davey MP, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for local government.

Jane says: "Council Tax was unfair when the Conservatives invented it, after their much-hated Poll Tax failed. Labour's underfunding of councils has made this unfairness worse. Government statistics show that 5.2 million households pay more in council tax than income tax. The majority of these are pensioners, and many are people with average incomes. This cannot be right.

"People in Milton Keynes are fed up with paying council tax. We should replace it with a tax related to people's ability to pay. Countries like America and Sweden fund local services with a local income tax so that people pay according to their means."