The Conservatives have urged the Government to come clean on what they are calling a ‘council tax cover up'. They have accused the Government of refusing to publish details of which homes have been wrongly banded for council tax purposes. ‘Labour is only really interested in changing council tax when it raises extra money for prime minister Gordon Brown's coffers,' said Eric Pickles, shadow local government secretary. ‘Ministers have been caught, red-handed, fiddling the tax system to make families pay more. The Labour Government has broken its moral obligation to ensure taxes are correctly levied.' Despite pressures on councils, according to the Local Government Association, town halls were making ‘enormous efforts' to keep bills down and the average rise for 2008 was likely to be close to the rate of inflation. CIPFA revealed the actual average of council tax hikes would be 3.9%, partly due to the threat of capping by the Government. CIPFA's statistics have revealed wide regional differences with council tax demands in the South West rising by £61 compared with only £22 in central London. Welsh council tax looks set to increase by an average of 3.8%.
