One million people ordered to court for unpaid Council Tax

Over a million people were summoned to court last year because they failed to pay their Council Tax in full, research by the Liberals Democrats has found.

A survey of more than 170 councils found that in the last year:

• More than 1m people have been summoned to court for falling behind with their Council Tax payment
• Bailiffs were called to collect Council Tax arrears from almost 600,000 people
• Councils filed for bankruptcy for over 1,700 people in order to collect Council Tax arrears

The Liberal Democrats are calling for all public bodies, including local authorities and government departments, to follow a Code of Conduct to ensure that families are not bankrupted unnecessarily during the recession.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Local Government Secretary, Julia Goldsworthy said:

"This survey shows the devastating effect that failing to pay Council Tax can have on families, especially those already struggling to cope with mortgage repayments and rising bills.

"Just as lenders are being asked to reduce repossessions, public bodies should do everything they can to ensure that bankruptcy is only ever a last resort.

"This is not a licence to avoid paying bills, it is about ensuring that court appearances and bankruptcy are avoided where possible.

"It is high time the unfair Council Tax was scrapped and replaced with a fair tax based on the ability to pay."

Baker: Trainspotters and passengers stopped using counter-terrorism powers

Figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats reveal that nearly 160,000 people were stopped by police officers on railway property in the year between October 2007 and September 2008.

Of these, more than 60,000 were stopped using counter-terrorism powers. A further 60,000 were stopped using police stop and search powers.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Transport Secretary, Norman Baker said:

"While it is important to be vigilant about the threat of terrorism to the transport network, the sheer scale of the number of people stopped by police on railway property is ridiculous.

"The anti-terror laws allow officers to stop people for taking photographs and I know that this has led to innocent trainspotters being stopped.

"This is an abuse of anti-terrorism powers and a worrying sign that we are sliding towards a police state.

"Trainspotting may be an activity of limited and indeed questionable appeal, but it is not a criminal offence and it is not a terrorist threat.

"Law-abiding passengers get enough hassle on overcrowded trains as it is without the added inconvenience of overzealous policing."

 

It's time to do things differently

2009 must be a year of real change and of hope says Nick Clegg in his new year message.

 

Transcript:

Britain is facing a difficult year.

Every day, 200 families are now at risk of losing their homes, and three million people could be out of a job.

The government got us into this mess and haven't got the right ideas to get us out of it. The Conservatives want to do nothing - they wouldn't lift a finger to help.

As the New Year starts, it's time to do things differently.

There is a path to recovery.

Liberal Democrats will do things differently.

We'll get practical help to families who are struggling - more money in their pockets with big, permanent and fair tax cuts.

That way people will be able to afford the bills and get spending again.

And Liberal Democrats will put the economy back on track with a big, green investment programme.

Instead of wasting billions on a pointless VAT cut that makes little difference we would invest that money to cut your fuel bills, create thousands of jobs and deliver what our country needs for the future.

Warm homes, schools and hospitals, clean energy, public transport we can all be proud of.

I know we can fix the economic mess Britain's in. If only we do things differently for once. Instead of making the same old mistakes the same old parties have made for generations.

Both Labour and the Conservatives keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect something different to happen. They are parties of the past, prisoners of their own special interests.

Perhaps the greatest danger of today's recession is that it will mortgage the future of our children. We must prevent that from happening.

That's why in the first three months of this year, Liberal Democrats will be focusing on the help we can give to children and young families.

Good quality childcare for every family, so children can flourish and mothers and fathers can get out to work - or look for work - without worrying about the nursery or childminder fees.

Extra funding for children from deprived backgrounds, to help raise standards in schools for everyone.

And we'll be unveiling a pledge to reduce infant class sizes to 15 - so every child gets the individual attention they need to get the best start in life.

This is a time of crisis. But crisis can bring renewal. It can bring change.

Imagine a better Britain - where no-one is held back by their upbringing, everyone has the power to change things for the better, and anyone who struggles gets a helping hand.

A Britain with fair taxes and safe, properly run banks - so that everyone who works hard can make it. A Britain that switches to green energy so the planet is protected and new jobs are created. A Britain where every child is given the chance to succeed.

2009 must be a year of doing things differently. A year of real change. A year of hope.

And that's what the Liberal Democrats offer.

Happy New Year.

Clegg: Government and Tories must apologise for Iraq

Responding to Gordon Brown’s statement to Parliament on the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq, Nick Clegg said: "This was the single worst foreign policy decision for the last 50 years."

It is time the Government and the Conservatives held up their hands and said sorry to the British people for Iraq.

"We have paid a huge cost for our decision to cover George Bush's back: a human cost, the cost to our standing in the world, the cost of increased terrorism, and instability in the Middle East.

"The Prime Minister must commit to a full public inquiry into this whole disaster. The Government must not be allowed to end this war as it began it: in secrecy and misdirection.

"But we don't need an inquiry to know where the blame lies for the invasion of Iraq five and a half years ago. The Government voted for this disastrous war, Gordon Brown signed the cheques and the Tories cheered them on.

 

Nick Clegg launches the Green Road out of the Recession

On his first anniversary as leader, Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg will today set out plans to put Britain on a Green Road out of the Recession, creating jobs and leaving a legacy that will save energy, put money back into people’s pockets and fight climate change.

The plans will cost £12.5bn, which would be paid for by scrapping the proposed VAT cut. The vast majority of that money will be spent immediately, making a real impact on the economy and people’s lives right away.

Green Road out of the Recession proposals include:

• A five-year programme to insulate every school and hospital, with 20% completed in the first year
• Funding insulation and energy efficiency for a million homes, with a £1,000 subsidy for a million more
• Building 40,000 extra zero-carbon social houses
• Buying 700 new train carriages
• Reopening old railway lines and stations, opening new ones, electrifying the Great Western and Midland mainlines and beginning the Liverpool light rail network
• Installing energy and money saving smart meters in every home within five years

Nick Clegg said:

“As the recession deepens, every day we hear news of more workers being laid off, more families struggling with bills and more elderly and vulnerable people plunged into fuel poverty.

“The Government’s answer is to borrow £12.5bn to tinker with VAT when what is really needed is fresh, bold thinking.

“For the same money that it costs to make that tiny VAT cut, the Liberal Democrats propose a huge economic programme that will put the unemployed back into work and leave a lasting legacy that will save energy, reduce bills and fight climate change.

“Instead of a meaningless VAT cut that people won’t notice, we will insulate every school and hospital in the country and the homes of a million people languishing in fuel poverty.

“We will build thousands of desperately needed social houses, install money-saving smart meters, re-open rail lines and build new trains.

“Gordon Brown and David Cameron argue about whether we should borrow money or not. They are two dogs fighting over the wrong bone. The real question is what we borrow for and how we invest it so that we all benefit in the end.

“These are real, achievable goals that would make a real difference to people’s lives now, create new jobs today, and leave us with the infrastructure for a long-term, green economic recovery.”

Liberal Democrats call for annulment of wasted VAT cut

Liberal Democrats lead opposition to the Government’s VAT reduction in the House of Commons

Vince Cable, Shadow Chancellor for the Liberal Democrats, introduced a motion to annul the Government's VAT reduction, declaring that the measure would do little for consumers it was designed to help.

Vince said the Liberal Democrats supported the principal of a fiscal stimulus, but that the Government had "grossly overstated" the idea that the VAT cut was the fairest way to provide this:

"There are very simple ways of testing the proposition that a tax change is fair. The Institute for Fiscal Studies...points out that the impact of the VAT change on the richest 10% of the population will be to make them 1.6 % better off, and the impact on the poorest 10% will be to make them only 0.6% better off. Obviously, most of the commodities most used by people in low-income groups, notably food, children's clothes and energy, at least at a lower rate, are exempt."

He went on to outline Liberal Democrat proposals for a "progressive change in the income tax system, cutting taxes for people at the bottom end of the income scale and raising them at the top by changing the system of allowances. That would have a differential effect on spending. It would be tax-neutral; it would not affect the deficit or public debt. However, it would provide a stimulus to the economy."

A further stimulus, said Vince, should come from a substantial programme of public investment in social housing, home insulation and public transport. (Details of Liberal Democrat plans to do this were published the following day.)

The Government, he said, had failed to properly analyse the behaviour of consumers who would attempt to save in view of future tax rises needed to pay for the cut and, as predicted deflation takes hold, wait for prices to fall further before spending. 

He said that with retailers already reducing prices in many shops by 20-30%, the VAT cut would barely be noticed.

The Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor also pointed out that the "enormous" £300 million administrative costs of implementing the tax cuts would particularly affect small businesses. The "managerial time and practical problems of conversion...will substantially reduce much of the benefits."

Despite Conservative support for the motion to annul the VAT changes, it was defeated with 223 votes for and 303 against.

PMQs: Cable warns of housing associations collapse

Vince Cable urges the Government to act with repossessions policy reaching fewer than one in ten people in housing arrears

Vince Cable, standing in for Nick Clegg at Prime Minister's questions, criticised government policy for failing to impact on an impending housing crisis. The Government's funding formula for housing associations was "crippling" six leading bodies now in danger of collapse, said the Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader. He accused the Leader of the House, Harriet Harman, of being complacent by relying on a repossessions policy failing to reach the majority of those in housing arrears.

Read the full exchange below:

Dr. Vincent Cable (Twickenham) (LD): May I add my condolences to the family of the brave serviceman who died in Afghanistan?

When the Leader of the House last stood in at Prime Minister's questions, I asked her about the vicious spiral that was developing in the economy, with rising unemployment and a collapsing housing sector. Since then, it has been confirmed that housing starts this year are at the lowest level since Ramsay MacDonald led a Labour Administration in 1924.

Dr. Cable: Labour Members ought to remember, because they are in danger of repeating that history. The Leader of the House may not be aware either that, a few days ago, the regulator of the housing associations warned that six of the leading associations are in grave financial difficulty and in danger of collapse. What are the Government proposing to do about it?

Ms Harman: We are very concerned about the housing situation, and that is why we will bring forward capital investment, rather than cut it or postpone it. We will be backing up the Housing Corporation, and for those people who fear that a temporary fall in their incomes will cause them to risk losing their homes, we are making arrangements for them to be able to defer their mortgage interest payments, and those who lose their jobs will not have to wait 39 weeks to get their mortgage interest paid; they will be able to get it paid after 13 weeks. We are very concerned about housing, and we will do everything that we can to protect the housing market.

Dr. Cable: Basically, that was a complacent answer - does the Leader of the House not realise that the investment is not happening, because the housing associations are bust and the Treasury is imposing a crippling funding formula on them? The housing repossession policy is reaching fewer than one in 10 of people in housing arrears. Will she now give the same attention to the financial crisis in the housing associations as the Government are giving to the banks? Will she tell us which of them are in grave difficulty and what the Government are going to do to rescue them and to ensure that the public sector can play a role in kick-starting the moribund housing activity?

Ms Harman: We agree that the public sector has an important role to play in capital investment in the construction industry in the housing market. We took the action that we did on the banks so that they can be in a position to start lending again into the mortgage market and to stabilise the housing market for the future.

Government is not doing enough to tackle pensioner poverty

Paul Rowen speaks at second reading of National Insurance Contributions Bill

Paul Rowen speaks at second reading of National Insurance Contributions Bill

Liberal Democrat Shadow Work and Pensions Minister Paul Rowen welcomed proposals to simplify tax and national insurance systems, but expressed reservations over the second part of the Bill as it failed to address how to combat pensioner poverty, which is increasing as a result of up to 40% of pensioners not claiming benefit.

Mr Rowen said:

“We are disappointed with the proposed change because, although we are moving forward the date for the introduction of the upper accruals point, we are doing nothing to tackle pensioner poverty. The difference between the Liberal Democrats and Labour has been the Labour Government’s insistence on using pension credit as a means of tackling pensioner poverty. If we compare child tax credit with pension credit, we find that the former is claimed almost universally by those who are eligible for it. It is a flat rate payment; it is not means-tested. We have had a long-standing aim - we want it to be met earlier than the Government do - initially to restore the link between earnings and pensions and secondly to introduce a citizen’s pension. We believe that the Government are taking far too long to achieve that and that far too many existing pensioners are in poverty.”

“We would have liked the additional sums of between £290 million and £450 million to be used precisely to achieve that. In 1950, the pension was worth 18.4 per cent. of the average wage. Today, the pension is worth only 15.9 per cent., which means that today’s pensioners who rely solely on the state pension - and we should recall that up to 40 per cent. of those entitled to pension credit do not claim it - are worse off.”

“I would make two observations. First, we do not believe and have never believed that pension credit, which is a means-tested way of paying pensioners, is the best way of tackling pensioner poverty. I return to my earlier point that 40 per cent. of eligible pensioners do not claim it. It is also a fact that even if we grant all the Government’s proposals, 50 per cent. of all pensioners will still be means-tested in 2030. I have already spoken about the importance of having a pensions consensus and I believe that my party and the Government have much more in common, but the Government need to move further towards accepting the principle that people are entitled to a certain level of pension regardless of the contributions that they have paid or the amount that they have earned. We need to get all pensioners up to a level where they can live with dignity without having to undergo what they consider to be the indignity of putting their income and all their savings through tests.”

“The pension consensus should therefore be to give all pensioners, regardless of who they are, what they have earned in the past or what contributions they have made - thereby including many women who take time out to have a family - a decent citizen’s pension. Well, the pension credit does not work. It is not being claimed. The test of the success of any benefit must be whether it is understood and claimed. Whether the Government like it or not, the reality is that pension credit is not understood or claimed as it should be.”

The Bill was approved by 291 votes to 161, with the Liberal Democrats voting against.

Click here to read Paul Rowen’s speech in full

Clegg: Brown can no longer hide from full public Iraq inquiry

Commenting on the announcement that British troops will leave Iraq next summer Nick Clegg said: "After five long years in which the enormity of our forces’ courage and sacrifice has been matched only by the enormity of the Government’s mistake, it is a huge relief that the end is at last in sight."

“But Gordon Brown cannot be allowed to sidestep the massive part he played in signing the cheques for the biggest foreign policy disaster in half a century.

“There must be a fully independent public inquiry into how this was allowed to happen. The time when Brown has been able to hide behind our troops’ ongoing presence in the country is coming to an end.

“The death and injury of hundreds of British troops and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians in this futile war cannot simply be swept under the carpet.”

 

Cable: Government must come clean on pension overpayments

Responding to the Government’s admission that approximately 100,000 public service pensions have been overpaid across the UK over 30 years, Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor, Vince Cable said: "These figures highlight decades of incompetence. Ministers apparently knew about this in March but completely failed to come clean."

"The Government must not claw back any money from the workers affected. Pensioners should not have to pay the price for government error. Ministers must ensure that any claims already made are withdrawn.

"The Government must confirm whether local government, fire and police pensions have been affected, as they have been in Scotland.

"There must be an immediate investigation to find out if there are problems with any other pension payment contractors and establish whether the Government or private contractors are responsible.

"If there are big reductions to pensions when the changes are introduced in April, ministers should look at ways of staggering the new rates, while ensuring that in the end people are paid no more and no less than the pension they are entitled to."