It looks likeĀ Greenwich Labour are breaking theirĀ promise to improve the level of support given to low income residents with Council Tax bills from this April.
A year ago Greenwich Conservatives put forward a fully costed proposal to lift up to 15,000 low-incomeĀ residents out of Council Tax altogether, by increasingĀ the supportĀ given to qualifying working-age residents in the Council Tax Support scheme to up to 100% of their bills, up from the current 85%.
Labour councillors voted this proposal down – as with most of our good ideas – and tride to claimĀ they were Ā intending to implement the change anyway, promising that it would come into effect in April 2019. I blogged on the dubious basis for this claimĀ at the time here.
Either way, the promise was made. Ā DuringĀ that budget-setting meeting, then Council Leader Denise Hyland told me:
āTheĀ Fairness Commission has made a recommendation for that, and that is for an introduction in April 2019. So itās already under way with the working party for social mobility – itās already a recommendation that has been accepted.ā
Cabinet instead recommending no change
But fast forward a year, and at their Cabinet meeting tonight, Labour councillors are set to make a recommendation toĀ next weekās Full Council meeting that no change is made to Council Tax Support for the coming year. Continue reading Greenwich Labour set to break their promise on Council Tax Support
