Poll Tax (Hansard, 6 November 1991)

§ 15. Mr. Cohen
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what recent representations he has received for funds for local authorities to allay costs associated with the poll tax.

§ Mr. Portillo
We have received a number of representations from local authorities.

§ Mr. Cohen
Has the Minister looked up the statement made by the Secretary of State on 21 March? According to column 403 of the Hansard report, the right hon. Gentleman said that the Government would pay grants to local authorities which had lost income in collecting the poll tax, and would cover authorities' additional administrative expenses". In the case of my local authority, that would amount to about £14 million—it has cost other local authorities millions of pounds, too. When I wrote to his ministerial colleague I was told that the Minister did not even know that such funds were available. Will the Government now pay up to the local authorities?

§ Mr. Portillo
The hon. Gentleman misquotes from the column in question. What my right hon. Friend said was that we would pay grant for the administrative expenses arising as a consequence of the Bill"—[Official Report, 21 March 1991; Vol. 188, c. 403.] He was talking about the Bill that brought about the £140 reduction in the community charge. We are paying grant both in respect of the income forgone because of the £140 reduction and in respect of administrative expenses incurred by authorities that had already sent out bills—authorities that had to send bills out twice. We are paying Waltham Forest money under the first heading. We have not yet had a claim for it in respect of its administrative expenses, but if it cares to send one in, we shall consider it.

§ Mr. Ron Brown
The Government wrote off debts in excess of £15 billion when the public utilities were privatised. Is not it a bit odd, therefore, that, according to them, an amnesty cannot be granted to those who clearly cannot afford to pay this tax, which benefits the rich at the expense of the poor? If the Prime Minister can go to the third world—and the Minister must always remember that we have a third world in this country—and talk about writing off its overall debts, which I applaud, surely the debts of those in this country who are suffering unnecessarily because of a tax imposed upon them against their will can also be written off.

§ Mr. Portillo
The hon. Gentleman should have declared an interest in calling for an amnesty, as I believe that he is one of those who refuse to pay community charge. I welcome this opportunity to say that there will be no amnesty for those who have not paid their community charge—even though some of them have been so badly misled by those whom they elected to the House.

§ Mr. Gould
Is not it clear that the greatest burden on local councils in respect of the poll tax is the 20 per cent. contribution rule—a point made forcefully, as the Minister will know, by the Audit Commission and by virtually the whole of local government? The Government have recognised that that rule was a mistake, as they have demonstrated by doing away with it for the council tax. Why will they not act on the same principle for the poll tax? Why do they insist that, by virtue of that rule, local authorities spend money that they have no hope of recouping and issue more than 7.5 million summonses in what is rapidly becoming the biggest debt collection exercise in the history of the world?

§ Mr. Portillo
When we introduce a new system of taxation—which we hope to do with the co-operation of the Labour party, although we are not sure about that—we shall introduce a new system of rebates, but as long as we have the community charge, and as long as social security benefits are uprated by sums appreciably above the average amount of the 20 per cent. that people have to pay, it is right that those people should pay and that local authorities should take enforcement action. The hon. Gentleman would have done better in his question to condemn his colleagues who have been urging nonpayment and to make it clear where the Labour party stands on that issue.