A Two Year Council Tax Freeze

Conservatives will freeze Council Tax for two years.

Under Labour council tax bills have more than doubled.

In 1997 the average Band D bill was £688. This year the average bill is £1,374.

It’s time the Government tightened its belt like the rest of the country. Conservatives will slash wasteful spending on Government advertising and expensive private sector consultants – and with the co-operation of local councils, use the money to freeze your council tax bill.

Instead of rising council tax bills under Labour, millions of families
will get help at the time they need it most.

Conservatives policies to help families cope with the rising cost of living:

HELP AT THE PUMPS
We will introduce a Fair Fuel Stabiliser − when fuel prices go up, fuel duty would fall.

HELP FOR FAMILIES
As we save money on wasteful welfare, we will abolish Labour’s couple penalty in the tax credits system – giving 1.8 million couples an extra £2,000 a year.

HELP FOR FIRST-TIME BUYERS
We will permanently abolish Stamp Duty for first-time buyers on purchases up to £250,000 − nine out of ten first-time buyers will pay no Stamp Duty at all, saving an average of £2,000 each.

HELP WITH YOUR BILLS
We will cut the energy and gas bills of up to four million people by £100 by reforming Post Office Accounts to allow families without bank accounts to access cheaper tariffs.

HELP FOR MOTORISTS
We will oppose Labour’s new tax on family cars, which will hit 1 million owners of family cars bought up to 7 years ago with tax rises of up to £250.

Worrying numbers of home owners in West Lindsey are facing debt problems

Effect of credit crunch and rising mortgage interest rates

Giles McNeill, Conservative Candidate for Nettleham Ward, today expressed his concern at new figures which warn that 5 million families across Britain could be at risk of defaulting on mortgage payments and losing their home.

The analysis, conducted by The Spectator magazine using data from credit agencies, shows that 6,378 households in Gainsborough Constituency have a ‘sub-prime loan exposure’, and may be now struggling with debt.

This comes as the latest official Government figures show that 19,015 homes across the Midlands were hit with repossession orders last year, with 447 orders being issued by Lincoln County Court. The Bank of England has also warned that banks and building societies are planning to cut back their lending further in coming months.

The crisis in the credit market is reducing the availability of cheap loans and mortgages, hitting people on the housing ladder and those not yet on it. This year, 1.4 million mortgages will come to the end of their fixed rate periods. As interest rates are higher now than they were two years ago, this could add £200 to the average monthly mortgage bill, placing yet more pressure on severely stretched family budgets.

Conservatives are calling on mortgage lenders to do more to help these families by:

· Contacting home owners 3-6 months before the end of their fixed rate mortgage period,

· Offering free financial advice, and

· Not imposing sudden hikes in repayments.

First time buyers are suffering from the credit crunch too, as mortgage lenders are demanding larger deposits. In response, Conservatives are calling for stamp duty to be abolished by the Government for first time buyers, for homes up to £250,000.

Giles McNeill said:

“This week has brought more worrying evidence that under Gordon Brown, our economy is built on debt. Labour’s record is one of economic incompetence.
“Thousands of families across West Lindsey are now exposed to the possibility of losing their home. With many households facing soaring bills as their fixed rates come to an end, mortgage lenders should do more to help home owners with the soaring cost of living and help reduce the hardship under Gordon Brown’s Government.”

Concern raised over tax collectors snooping on local homes in West Lindsey

Secret deal between tax inspectors & estate agents must be cancelled – Giles McNeill
Giles McNeill, Nettleham Parish Councillor, today expressed his concern at news of a secret deal between the taxman and estate agents. It has been revealed that detailed information on 9 out of 10 house sales and rentals in West Lindsey are being collected and logged in a ‘Big Brother’ database to prepare for council revaluation tax hikes.

· Estate agents and tax men plunder your data: Unsuspecting homeowners across West Lindsey are putting their property on the market for sale or rental, without realising that the tax collectors will use it to plan for new council tax hikes. HM Revenue & Customs, which has lost millions of personal tax and benefit records, is systematically raiding estate agency records to build up a property database for its council tax inspectors. Rightmove holds 16 million property records, with millions of individual entries being updated every month.
· Big Brother database invades privacy: People selling their home are not informed that information given to their estate agent, which is then passed to internet portal Rightmove Plc, is in turn passed on to the Government’s tax inspectors. Local estate agents in West Lindsey have been kept in the dark about Rightmove’s actions.
· Details on people’s homes: The personal property data being passed to the taxmen include internal and external photographs of the home, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, conservatories, parking spaces, and particulars such as area, layout, style, features and other ‘value significant’ features. The Government claims that the Data Protection Act does not apply to information about people’s houses. HMRC’s council tax inspectors will instruct local councils to increase the council tax on these homes.

Giles McNeill said:

“We already knew that Gordon Brown’s tax inspectors have recklessly lost the tax records of millions of law-abiding citizens. Now the same people are disregarding data protection rules to build up a chilling database of every home in the country.

“Residents across West Lindsey will be alarmed that detailed information on 9 out of 10 house sales and rentals is being passed secretly from estate agents to tax collectors, without public consent.

“Gordon Brown must cancel this deal immediately. Only Conservatives will stop this data plundering of people’s private homes, end Brown’s stealth tax revaluation and abolish state inspectors’ rights of entry into our homes.”