GOVERNMENT'S CASH SQUEEZE ON GUILDFORD AND WAVERLEY WILL HIT COUNCIL TAX PAYERS, WARNS DOUGHTY

12.00.00am GMT Wed 19th Nov 2003

GOVERNMENT'S CASH SQUEEZE ON GUILDFORD AND WAVERLEY WILL HIT COUNCIL TAX PAYERS, WARNS DOUGHTY

Commenting on today's Local Government Finance Settlement, Guildford MP Sue Doughty said:

"Guildford and Waverley have both received a derisory 2.4% rise for their funding settlement. With inflation taken into account this amounts to a big 'zero'. Yet again the Government are leaving our Council Tax payers to make up the funding gap.

"The Government is giving people in Guildford or Waverley a tough choice between more tax rises or cuts to services. They may even take this choice away from us with threats to cap Council Tax Bills now that people are starting to blame the Government for double figure rises.

"The Government is in a mess on Council Tax. They have made this unfair Tory tax even worse by failing to fund the extra work they are making our councils carry out. The real solution to the hated tax is to scrap it, not cap it."