Angela Rayner has said there are no plans to increase English council taxes but declined to say whether she would scrap the single-person discount to the bill.
The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government told the Commons her Government “is about making sure that working people are better off.”
However, she did not directly answer whether the Government has plans to scrap the single-person discount to council tax – which is worth 25 per cent.
It comes as Tory MPs said the discount is “important to pensioners” who are already losing out on the previously universal payment to pensioners of up to £300, which the new Labour Government has announced will be available only to eligible benefits claimants from 2024.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner
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Kemi Badenoch speaks to Angela Rayner
Commons TV
MP for Beverley and Holderness Graham Stuart urged Rayner to “guarantee today, put gladness into all their hearts across the country” that she would not look at removing the discount.
The Deputy Prime Minister responded by saying: “I find it astonishing that members opposite, after running down the economy in the way that they have, after the Chancellor had to come to this House to talk about the billions of pounds black hole, that they’re now trying to claim that this Government is about raising taxes.
“This Government is about making sure that working people are better off and we intend to do that.”
It comes as shadow housing, communities and local government secretary Kemi Badenoch earlier told MPs that Rayner was being “lobbied to increase council tax.”
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Kemi Badenoch speaking at a Conservative Party leadership campaign event
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The Conservative leadership candidate and MP for North West Essex said: “It’s been reported that the Secretary of State is being lobbied to increase council tax and remove discounts like the single occupant discount.
“Will she take this opportunity to reassure the House that the Government has no plans to increase council tax as they assured us before the election?” Rayner replied: “Yes.”
Rayner, also the Communities Secretary, criticised the previous government for “stoking division” as she pledged to address issues of community cohesion.
In 2019, the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on British Muslims devised a definition of islamophobia as “rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.”
Afzal Khan
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Labour MP Afzal Khan (Manchester Rusholme) had previously written to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, urging him to host meetings with Muslim community leaders and to formally adopt a definition of anti-Muslim prejudice put forward by the APPG.
In the Commons on Monday, Khan said the riots had caused “fear and distress” amongst his constituents and members of the Muslim community across the UK, and asked what engagement the Government had had with those communities.
Rayner said her department is “at the heart of the Government’s work to restore order and unity”.
Source Agencies
