§ Mr. LetwinTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether it is his policy to permit local authorities a greater discretion in the setting of discounts for council tax payable by single people. [82573]
§ Mr. LeslieOn 19 November, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister announced that we would include provision in our Local Government Bill to enable English and Welsh local authorities to introduce their own locally defined discounts and exemptions. This would allow local authorities to increase the national 25 per cent, single person discount if they so wished. Local authorities would not have power to reduce or remove the current 25 per cent, discount.