Government figures published this week highlighted that the council still has some way to go in collecting council tax.  In 2009/10 the council only managed to collect 94% of the £82,655 it needed to collect, well below the national average collection rate of 97.01%. 

Eltham South candidate Matt Clare recently challenged Greenwich Council on the recruitment of 2 senior Human Resources posts both offering a salary of £78,000 - nearly seven times the minimum wage.

Alistair Craig, Parliamentary Candidate for Greenwich & Woolwich, warned this week that the Government was planning to engineer a council tax rise next year of up to four times the rate of inflation. This could mean an increase in Greenwich's council tax of £92 taking the typical Band D bill to £1,232 a year.

Alistair Craig, Parliamentary Spokesman for Greenwich & Woolwich warned this week that the revaluation of properties for council tax, starting next year, was a ‘ticking tax timebomb’ that threatens to send council tax bills in Greenwich soaring. By contrast, Conservatives have pledged that they will stop the revaluation being used to further increase the tax burden on local residents.

Conservatives today warned that the Borough's residents were finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet due to rising property taxes and utility bills. The warnings comes amid new research highlighting how much extra a typical family in Greenwich has paid in council tax since 1997. The new analysis reveals that the cumulative change in council tax since 1997 is £997.

Alistair Craig, Parliamentary Spokesman for Greenwich & Woolwich said:

Conservatives have voted against increasing the Greenwich Council Tax this year.  Labour is claiming that its increase is moderate compared with the rest of London, but they have raised the Tax on a Band D property by £52.33 which Conservatives feel is completely unnecessary.

Council Tax in Greenwich has increased by 24% in the last three years, resulting in hardship for many on low incomes, particularly those like pensioners, whose income is tied to general inflation (about 8% over the same period).