TORIES CLAIM "LIB DEMS VOTED IN FAVOUR OF COUNCIL TAX REVALUATION" (Caroline Spelman, letter to the Times, 24/02/04)

12.00.24pm BST (GMT +0100) Sat 23rd Apr 2005

Only the Lib Dems have proposed a viable alternative to the unpopular Council Tax

This is untrue

Liberal Democrats have argued for the abolition of council tax since the day it was introduced by Michael Howard in 1993. We have always wanted to scrap it. With no council tax, there would - of course - be no revaluation.

Unlike Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives are not opposed to revaluation. The Conservatives will conduct a revaluation if they win the election. Their Local Government Spokesman, Eric Pickles MP, said this February "Any council tax system inevitably requires some form of revaluation" (Hansard 2nd February 2005, Col., 929.). And the Tories have pledged not to introduce new bands - meaning poorer people will suffer most because houses in the top bands cannot be moved upwards, and houses in the lowest bands cannot be moved down.

There was no vote in the Commons, though the Conservatives did argue for more revaluations, not none. A brief debate on revaluation was held in the Lords, where we advocated scrapping council tax.