Cameron vows to give council tax payers veto on sharp rises
DAVID CAMERON today promised council tax payers the right to veto exorbitant increases by holding referendums.
Votes would be triggered automatically if town hall chiefs tried to impose a council tax increase higher than a national threshold. Without local approval, council leaders would have to draw up a new budget. But if they won public support, they would be free to spend as much as they liked.
The system would replace the current policy where Whitehall steps in to cap the most extreme rises. A Tory Green Paper also proposed giving residents the power to force referendums on big local issues, such as planning and spending.
"We want more power for local people to make change happen through the right to hold a local referendum if enough people want one on a given issue," said the Tory leader.
There would also be a dozen more directly-elected mayors for big cities such as Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Coventry, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nottingham, Sheffield and Wakefield.
Other changes would be more localised policing, powers for councils to subsidise post offices, and fewer Whitehall diktats. Mr Cameron said the reforms would restore the link between people's votes and what happened in their area.
