Council Tax (New Valuation Lists for England) Bill

The hon. Gentleman would be fairer if he acknowledged that the level of grant to Essex has increased in line with inflation or above it in every year since 1997. He can hardly say, therefore, that the increase in council tax was the result of taking away funding. He says that the Government were accused of having an underlying political motivation. That implies that all the areas that lost out on some of the funding changes, relative to what they would have received, were controlled by his party, which is not the case.