Ken faces rethink on council tax rises

Ken Livingstone may be forced to rethink his proposed increase in council tax as a result of being made official Labour candidate for Mayor. He has already knocked three per cent off his spending plans amid repeated warnings from the Government that it will not tolerate " excessive" increases from April.

But now it appears that his concession last month - trimming the increase in his share of the council tax from 12 to 9.9 per cent - may not have gone far enough.

There has been speculation that increases of five per cent are the maximum the Government is prepared to tolerate from any local authority. Only minutes after Mr Livingstone was confirmed as Labour candidate for the 10 June poll, party chairman Ian McCartney appeared to indicate that 9.9 per cent was still too high.

Asked whether a rise of almost 10 per cent was acceptable, Mr McCartney said: " The process is going through, isn't it? It's a bit of a hypothetical question - he's not completed his budget yet, has he?"

If Mr Livingstone is allowed to increase his share by 9.9 per cent, this would add an average of £24 a year to most household bills.