Axe the Tax

9.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 17th Sep 2004

Council Tax Must Go! That's the message from the Forest of Dean Liberal Democrats who are campaigning to replace Council Tax with a Local Income Tax which is based in ability to pay.

"The Council Tax is a crazy and unfair tax." says Chris Coleman. "It hits pensioners particularly hard. Because it takes no account of people's ability to pay, a nurse or a pensioner can pay more than a millionaire."

Council Tax rises across the Country this year have been higher than every because the Labour Government is providing less support to local Councils through central grants in order to keep tax down. Instead they have forced the Council Tax payers to make up the difference.

Liberal Democrats would replace the Council Tax with a fairer local income tax which would be based on people's ability to pay rather than what their property was supposedly worth in 1991.

Astonishingly, the Conservatives nationally still support the Council Tax. Local Tories are also committed to keeping the Tax despite its crippling effects on families and pensioners.