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Tories promise to slash council tax for over 65s

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21st Feb 2005
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The Conservatives have promised to "slash" council tax bills for millions of pensioners.

In advertisements placed in some Sunday newspapers, party leader Michael Howard declared: "I believe that Britain's pensioners deserve better ' The council tax has been Mr Blair's most punishing stealth tax and it has hit people on fixed incomes particularly hard."

He promised to stand up for the older generations who had been "air-brushed out of Mr Blair's Britain", adding that he would increase the value of the state pension in line with earnings.

The Conservatives announced today that millions of pensioners would have their council tax bills "slashed by half" should the party win the general election.

The party said its first Budget "will herald changes in the law to ensure that people aged 65 and over will benefit from savings in council tax payments - up to a maximum of £500 a year".

Experts calculate that 3.8m household will qualify for the discounts, which will not be means tested, it added.

The announcement is "the first of the party's package of targeted tax cuts, benefiting more than five million older people, and to be funded by central government at an annual cost of £1.3bn".

The money would be found from £4bn worth of efficiency savings already earmarked by shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin.

Howard said: "I will give every home where the adults are sixty-five and over a 50% council tax discount up to a maximum of £500. This will ensure that five million pensioners have their council tax bills cut."

Pensioners over 65 would "self-certify" on their council tax form, in the same manner as a single person household would register for the single person's discount, the party said.

Deputy prime minister John Prescott said: "The truth is none of the Tories' sums add up and today's promises from the Tories are not worth the paper they are written on. The Tories have to find more than £50bn of cuts to pay for the tax and spending commitments they have made - a scale of cuts that could only be found through frontline cuts to schools, hospitals, the police and vital public services."

The Liberal Democrats said the Tories' plans were "insufficient, unfair and shortsighted".

Local government spokesman Edward Davey said his party's proposals to scrap council tax "will save the average pensioner far more than the Tory plans, with more than half of pensioners would paying no local income tax at all".

He added: "The Tories have once again failed to target the most vulnerable. After revaluation, many pensioners would still struggle to pay, even with the Tory discount.

"Pensioners should be wary that this is a promise based on uncosted figures and a cheque from the Conservatives is going to bounce. Scrapping council tax is the only way to make local tax fair and get the most help to vulnerable pensioners."

Andrew Goodall
[email protected]

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