New regional Assembly will create hike in Council Tax, warns Malcolm Moss MP

Government plans to create a new tier of regional politicians will add new levy on Council Tax in the midst of the recession

Malcolm Moss, MP for North East Cambridgeshire, has warned that the Government’s plans for a new tier of regional politicians and a regional levy on council tax are back on the political agenda.

It has emerged that the new Minister for Regional Government, Rosie Winterton, intends to champion John Prescott’s lost cause of an elected regional assembly for the East of England region.

Elected regional assemblies had been killed off when the public overwhelmingly rejected regional government in the 2004 North East referendum. Despite 78% of voters saying ‘no’ to the new tier of Government, new ‘Integrated Regional Strategies’ are to be imposed over the head of Fenland District Council under new laws being pushed through Parliament.

Under Labour’s blueprint, regional assemblies would need a new tier of politicians and elections. The elected assemblies would be funded by a regional levy on council tax, like the Greater London Authority. It is not known how much the increase to council tax would be in Cambridgeshire but, in London , the regional tier of government costs the taxpayer an additional £310 a year on Band D bills.

Malcolm Moss MP said:

“It appears that regional assemblies are now back from the dead under Labour. The Government won’t listen to the verdict of the people who overwhelmingly rejected a new tier of regional politicians and the regional council tax to pay for it.”

“We need to stop the creation of new and distant tiers of regional government and give power back to local communities. This new tier of governance is not needed. It will only add to the bureaucracy and will increase Council Tax significantly, something Gordon Brown should be avoiding in the current economic climate if he was serious about helping people out of the recession.”