Essex leads the way
- Published: 28 August 2008 08:01
- Author: David Blackman
- More by this Author
- Last Updated: 16 September 2008 15:22
Essex is offering residents a fresh approach to council tax.
In the week after UK economic growth officially halted, local government could be offering a rare crumb of comfort for hard-pressed households.
The government is putting the finishing touches on its own package of measures to help households cope with the economic downturn.
But Gordon Brown's room for manoeuvre is limited by the state of the public finances. Essex CC, by contrast, claims it is in a healthy enough financial position to give something back to its hard-pressed inhabitants.
The authority has made a name for innovative solutions, most recently taking the lead on saving post offices. And the initiative targets just the kind of hard-working households from towns like Basildon, who were key in delivering the Tories' 1980s electoral success.
It's early days, as Essex acknowledges. There are no detailed costings showing who will benefit from the cut. Lord Hanningfield's authority will also have to tread carefully to avoid facing a legal challenge, like Kent CC, when it tried to introduce an across-the-board tax cut for all pensioners a few years ago.
But the council's initiative deserves to be applauded as an example of the creative solutions local government needs to show if it is to make the case for greater devolution.
It also sheds interesting light on the way that Conservative tax-cutting philosophy is shaping up.
Back in the party's 1980s heyday, boroughs like Wandsworth LBC handed out across-the-board cuts. Essex is now looking to target its cuts to those suffering the most.
To some extent, this represents the more paternalistic Toryism found in the shires.
It is also an interesting straw in the wind for the softer-edged way the party is developing under David Cameron.
At the very least, as annual party conference season kicks off next month, it shows the Conservatives have moved on from the 'privatise everything' agenda pushed by the late Nicholas Ridley.
