Council tax rebate - who does it really benefit?

In the last Full Council meeting there was a proposal following a hastily, albeit well prepared report to allow a 5% rebate on the council tax for this year.  This followed the decision to freeze council tax.

The Labour Group decided to vote against this and considered it to be electioneering by the controlling Tory group.  You may be thinking "Why did you vote against a rebate?"

Well, firstly, what does it mean for residents?  A5% rebate represents an extra 12p per week per household on average.  We do not consider this to be a significant amount, certainly nothing that will change anybody's lives for the better and this will not benefit those most in need of help.

How does this affect the council?  Basically £270k of the general fund will be allocated towards this giveaway of which at least £20k will be swallowed up by administration.  Within the report it did highlight the risks involved.  With the current political future unsure the council has limited visibility over future funding and £270k is a large chunk of money to giveaway.

How else could the money have been spent? On the report were various options including the granting of disability living grants (these can change someone's lives), using for current projects including Leisure Centre improvements, upgrading of IT systems and also building maintenance.  The report had been put together at such short notice that several possible ideas were not considered that may have benefitted our own local communities and address problems such as street cleanliness.

If there had been some way that the money had been put forward to something that would pave the way for an improved service that would either improve people lives or aid the council to work then it would have been worth more consideration.

Our deluded opposition are still coping with the news that the Financial Crisis was driven by global economic factors.  They still like to blame Labour for issues and love to tell the lie that you can't trust Labour with the money. As this article demonstrates  here in South Derbyshire we are deeply concerned about the public purse.