The Tories' march to take Labour's progressive banner at its heart is one of the cheekiest moves in political strategy this year. The Guardian has been running a series of articles this week on the New Tories and their policies. Today, the paper focused on "ten policy areas and their progressive impact". One of these areas was local government and housing.
With Alex Salmond's plans in Scotland for a local income tax shifting the debate onwards about financing local government, the Conservative ideas will be interesting. As detailed by the Guardian, the plans include overall funding being decided centrally but distribution set independently. Hmm, Whitehall's controlling hand is proving impossible to remove. They would allow LAs to keep a portion of local business rates, a mere 17 years since the power to set them was removed from councils by the then Conservative government.
The most eyebrow raising idea is the removal of council tax capping and replacing it with local referendums to approve increases in council taxes above "the norm". The Conservatives have never had much time for a replacement the council tax. Maybe the Poll Tax memories are still be vivid. Instead they talk about how the public has no appetite for higher local taxes.
The David Hencke article in the paper shows the interesting difference between town and country Conservative councils and how Boris Johnson's backing for a "living wage" and illegal immigrant amnesty is opposed by David Cameron. The Conservative are the largest local government party by some distance and they pledge a genuine devolution. The Guardian's concern was whether any of these plans would help economic development in poorer areas. I'm wondering whether Tory local authorities who feel compelled to keep raising council tax levels to maintain funding gaps fancy holding referendums on the issue when the economy continues to bear bad news.