Seriously, Claire, look at the cuts to local government finance put in place by a government backed by both the Tories and the Lib Dems (which incidentally makes them look distinctly hypocritical at the local level). Even raising council tax at the rate of inflation (which I'd be perfectly happy with, but I bet if Labour proposed it some Tory berk would pop out of the woodwork talking about spendthrift socialists, so they won't) wouldn't make up the difference. Councils are being forced as a matter of government policy aimed at shrinking the state to sell their property, and obviously property developers are going to be first in the queue.
The delicious thing about this from the point of view of the ideologues in Westminster is that the councils get the blame. |