Tax overhaul should not burden the poor

RE: ‘Call for overhaul of council tax’ (Aug 24). Yet again Councillor Glenn Williams wants to take us back to the days of Margaret Thatcher.

Has he really forgotten that her policies led to the loss of 60,000 jobs in Coventry in just one year alone. With 10,000 of those lost in one day!

Has he also forgotten that Margaret Thatcher’s policies of the poll tax, which he seems to want to bring back, led to riots in cities and towns all over the country? And, has he also forgotten that it was this policy, more than any other, that led to the Conservative Party getting rid of her as their leader?

I suppose the only good thing that came out of that was the number of Conservative councillors on Coventry City Council dropping to just four members.

Of course, Cllr Williams describes himself as an independent councillor, whereas he was never elected as such. He was elected as a Conservative councillor but resigned from the party. The honourable thing for him to have done would have been to resign his seat and seek re-election as an independent.

Now we read that Cllr Williams seems to think that it is perfectly okay to charge a family of four – all on a low-income – the same amount as a millionaire living alone on a country estate should be charged.

However, I do agree with Cllr Williams when he says that the system is out of date. It is. He is absolutely right. The system was brought in 27 years ago, and since then house prices have escalated. I would suggest that we need a re-evaluation of house prices and an increase in the number of bands.

As pointed out in your article, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) argues that currently poorer families spend a far greater proportion of their income on council tax than the wealthy. It would seem that Cllr Williams would like poorer families to carry even more of the burden. Councillor John Mutton (Lab) Cabinet member for Strategic Finance and Resources Binley and Willenhall ward ■■THIS is a reprint of a letter originally published on August 30 which was cut short owing to a production error. Our apologies to Councillor Mutton.