• I RECENTLY received my council tax bill from Camden Council, which has risen by 4.2 per cent: 8.8 per cent increase from the Mayor of London and a further 3 per cent increase in the amount taken by Camden.

These increases were voted through by Labour and Lib Dem councillors. In a year when household incomes are being squeezed due to commodity-price and food-price inflation, this seems to be the wrong approach.

Along with the bill, residents received what can only be described as taxpayer-funded propaganda for the Labour Party; a letter that claimed that councils are required to increase council tax. But this is not what has happened in Conservative-run Barnet, Westminster, or Wandsworth.

As an accountant, I looked into how other councils could do it while Camden claimed it couldn’t. It turns out that, excluding any change in council tax, the government would have increased the council’s core funding by £17.5million this year.

That means the government is giving Camden five times more in additional funding than Camden’s council tax increase takes from residents. So that letter Camden sent out on behalf of the Labour is simply not true.

Conservatives proposed a budget amendment but this alternative budget was defeated by Labour and the Lib Dems. As a result of years of Labour mismanagement Camden’s council tax is £1,000 higher than Westminster’s or Wandsworth’s.

Camden can’t continue with Labour increasing council tax every year and Lib Dems meekly waving it through. Only electing more Conservative councillors on May 5 will ensure better value for money and lower council tax.

AARTI JOSHI
Conservative candidate for Belsize ward