Town Hall finance chief blames London mayor for rises

THE Town Hall’s finance chief has taken a swipe at London Mayor Ken Livingstone, claiming taxpayers would not have to fork out as much if his administration was more efficient.
Councillor John Mills, who will step down as the borough’s treasurer after 12 years at the helm in April, made the comments as he unveiled his final budget yesterday (Wednesday).
He announced that council tax will rise by just 1.97 per cent after a comfortable government grant settlement.
But residents will also face a 5.5 per cent tax hike in Mr Livingstone’s precept demand.
Cllr Mills said: “London has a historical problem of not being run as efficiently as it could be. And the problem is that when the precept goes up, people think it is the council’s fault because it is the council that collects it. I can’t see why the city could not be governed more efficiently. There are savings that could be achieved. Like everywhere, there are local authorities that are better run than others, and there are cities that are run better than other cities. It is my view, not the Town Hall’s, that London is not one of the better run cities.”
The slim tax increase was immediately panned by Tory rivals as a budget designed to win elections.
Conservative leader Councillor Piers Wauchope said: “A couple of years back there was a big jump because there had recently been an election. Now, with the elections coming up, there is a smaller increase. If you look at the whole term, the increase has been higher than inflation. We would aim to one day have a complete freeze on council tax increases.”
Cllr Mills defended the figures at a press briefing yesterday.
He said: “This is not a slash and burn budget. It would not be sensible to set council tax on the basis of whether or not there is an election or not.
“We are aware that it is important to residents not to have a high council tax.
“Having a high council tax does nothing to help the polarisation of the borough.”