Tory referenda for council tax

This morning David Cameron announced his plan for referenda to be required for councils planning to increase the council tax above a limit agreed by the relevant parliament or assembly. This is a reasonable plan to try to link the expenditure of councils to their spending.

At present the link between how much we spend on council tax and the improvements to local services seem tenuous. A large majority of this is due to the Government stipulating what councils have to do and then only providing the council with a small amount of Government grant with which to do it.

If I was DC, I would try to make the link more obvious. With schools becoming more independent following on from the Academy programme, it would seem sensible to channel money from the Government directly to the school. It's not apparent any more what influence councils have over their local schools. This would mean a rise in central taxation and a decrease in council tax. If possible I would extend this strategy to other areas. Local taxation should pay for what is controlled locally.

Squiffy.