Hyndburn Conservatives 10% tax cut promise is unfeasible

The recent by-election in Spring Hill resulted in a comfortable Labour victory but claims were made on Conservative election literature that they would reduce Council tax by 10% if elected into power in Hyndburn. The idea that this is financially plausible is entirely refuted by the Labour group as it would mean a reduction in the amount available to spend each year by approximately £400,000 and this would have a significant impact on services.

Cabinet member for Resources, Cllr Gareth Molineux, said, "Over the next 2 years the council needs to find additional savings of £4.6 million. This was a saving that the Council already knew about before George Osborne made his latest budget speech but a further spending review is due in the Autumn which will hit us even harder. It will be November before the Council is made aware of additional savings that it needs to make."

He added, "Clearly reducing council tax by 10 % is an attractive election tag line but unfortunately a reduction of that amount would see see all front line services reduced significantly. The local Conservatives are resorting to desperate electioneering, proving that they cannot be trusted to put the people of Hyndburn before their political careers."