Being a bit of an anorak, I am currently dipping into the history of the Audit Commission, Follow the Money, and, like all chronicles of government, there is a great sense of deja vue. Take this extract on page 232 for example. In 1990, in the midst of the poll tax debacle, Audit Commission chief Howard Davies made a presentation to the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, at Chequers, proposing ways of reducing the burden of the tax. One of his suggestions was to transfer responsibility for collecting vehicle excise duty from central to local government. He further proposed that local authorities should be able to levy differential rates on cars, say by taxing them more in cities than in rural areas. Davies added that not only was there ‘an environmental case for higher taxation on cars' but that ‘some of the opprobrium attributable to higher rates would be attracted to local councils.' Thatcher declined to pursue this particular suggestion and as we know the poll tax was eventually bailed out by an increase in VAT. But I would have thought that 18 years on Gordon Brown might wish to revisit it, if only to get himself off the hook. The backdated green hike for vehicle excise duty on middle-ranking cars set for next April – weeks before local elections – is another huge minefield for him to negotiate. But just imagine if it were nothing to do with him and down to councils? And why stop there? Why not let local authorities collect petrol tax as well or even VAT? Or tobacco tax, like they do in Japan? After all the money is spent locally so why not collect it locally? And think of the attraction for ministers who can simply blame councils rather than take the flak themselves. It won't happen of course because ministers have already made it plain after the Lyons report that they will avoid any reform of the balance of funding. Yet it is also clear, as they have shown with the ‘announcement' last week that they will fund councils for free swimming that they are perfectly prepared to adjust that balance when it suits them politically. Michael Burton Editor, The MJ
