Brussels Wants to Scrap Rebate for Booming Britain
by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

Defying warnings from London of a veto, the European Commission yesterday proposed scrapping Britain's 20-year-old budget rebate and charging British taxpayers the biggest share of the bill for the European Union's mushrooming £660 billion budget.

Michaele Schreyer, the German budget commissioner, said Britain would have to pay most towards the EU's eastward expansion after vaulting up the wealth league with a "wonderful, magnificent, economic development" since the 1980s.

"We're reasserting the principle of solidarity," she said, although the main effect of her plan would be to switch the burden from Germany to Britain, which is now the richest of the big EU states with a per capita income of 111 per cent of the EU average in 2003.

The complex proposal would double Britain's total payments to Brussels by 2013 and drive up net contributions from around £3.5 billion to nearer 6 billion a year, according to Treasury estimates.

A Government spokesman dismissed the proposals as "ludicrous", saying they had no chance of surviving over the next 18 months of arduous negotiations.

"This proposal is a crude smokescreen by the Commissioner to divert attention from their bloated budget proposals," he said, referring to the commission's attempt yesterday to slip through a £35 billion increase in the EU's budget.

Even with the rebate, Britain is the second biggest net contributor overall. The new scheme would make matters far worse.

Chris Pattern, the external affairs commissioner, attacked the plan as "manifestly unfair" in a stormy meeting of the full commission yesterday. "I am deeply disappointed and concerned that the proposals will set back our ability to argue a positive European case in the UK," he said.

Instead of tackling the root causes of Europe's warped spending structure - chiefly the Common Agricultural Policy, which goes mostly to French and Spanish farmers -
the Schreyer proposals merely divide the rebate among other big contributors: Germany, Holland and Sweden.

The rebate was secured by Margaret Thatcher at the Fontainebleu summit in 1984 after a legendary bout of handbagging, capped by her words: "I want my money back".

At the time, Britain was paying twice as much as it got in return, though the British were then much poorer than the French and Germans. The picture has changed dramatically since then.

EU diplomats say Mrs Schreyer has been under heavy pressure from Berlin to axe the British rebate, which has acquired an almost mythical status in the German press.
The Daily Telegraph, 15th July 2004

Middle Class Face Council Tax Bombshell
by Patrick Hennessy

Council tax bills for well-off householders will almost treble following a shake-up of the controversial system to be announced by the Government this week.

A leaked draft copy of the long-awaited Balance of Funding Review, expected to be published on Tuesday, suggests that the eight council tax bands should be revamped in 2007, when a nationwide property revaluation takes place.

The Sunday Telegraph understands that ministers are keen to bring in two or possibly three new bands - one at the bottom of the current scale and the others at the top. If implemented, council tax bills for people living in the highest value homes would rise from their present level of about £2,300 to £6,200 in three years' time.

The aim is to see poorer households pay less tax, with the shortfall made up by bigger charges for those in higher-value homes.

A new system of rebates will also be brought in for house-holders who are either elderly or on benefit and entitled to discounts on their bills….

….The current system values homes according to 1991 property prices. The average band D property, valued at between £68,001 and £88,000 under the 1991 system, has seen its actual worth rise to between £155,127 and £200,750, according to data supplied by Halifax, the mortgage lender.

Under a similar revaluation, and using the 10-band model, supplied to the government review group by the NPI, the average council tax bill for a band D home would remain at its present current level of £1,167. Band D homes would be classed as those worth between £130,000 and £170,00. Those with homes valued at less would see their bills fall while those with homes valued at more than £170,000, would see them proportionally rise.

For the highest value homes, worth more than £620,000 at current prices, the average council tax bill would go up from £2,334 to £6,224. Those in homes between £310,000 and £440,000 would see bills rise from £1,949 to £2,982.

The new charges are expected to bite hardest in London and the South-East where property prices have boomed in the past few years. Such a move would prove difficult politically, however. Many householders, particularly pensioners have led protests against the rise in council tax.

John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, whose department will publish the review, has come under fire for presiding over a regime that channels resources away from local authorities in the South East and towards "deprived" areas in the North West.

Caroline Spelman, the shadow local government minister, said: "Across the country, Council tax has soared by an average of 70 per cent since Labour came to power across all types of home. But worse is to come."

"The Government is clearly planning to use the 'Balance of Funding Review' and the revaluation to increase council tax further by stealth. This will punish pensioners and hard-working families who have lived in their homes a long time, the value of whose homes has risen but who are on modest incomes and cannot afford even larger tax bills."

A member of the Government review group said: "Many people have been enriched by the boom in house prices over the past few years. It is only fair that they should put something back into the system through higher charges."

Bringing in such a huge rise would represent a big political gamble for Labour, even if ministers could claim that less well-off households would have their bills cut under the plans.

This year the average council tax rise for a typical band D property was 5.9 per cent nationwide, and a record 12.9 percent last year.
The Sunday Telegraph, 18th July 2004

PHILLIP DAY'S COMMENT: Whoever is in favour of Britain's participation in the EU cannot any longer be unmindful of the fact that Britain is now simply being raided to fund the modernization of poorer Europe as well as ex-Soviet states.

At present, the EU is costing Britain around a staggering £1.3 million AN HOUR for no identifiable benefit to us not changing your money out when you go to Alicante. Oh, and Labour and Conservative's "We must be at the centre of Europe" mantra. Switzerland is at the centre of Europe geographically and this country has said a round 'Nein!' to the new EU Soviet, and for good reason. Switzerland is extremely solvent and wishes to keep things that way. The poorer nations, such as Greece, Portugal and Ireland are among the EU's staunchest supporters because they're having everything paid for (unfortunately by us). Now Britain's rebate is to be clawed back, look for that £1.3 million AN HOUR to double. To the British taxpayer, this will mean more taxes, more VAT on everything, further local council tax increases (local councils are now administered directly from Brussels), oh, and around 300 less vitamins and nutrient sources with effect from 1st August 2005 when the EU Federal Vitamin Polizei take over.

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At the moment, the British can still exercise their freedom of choice to regain independence and self-rule. Not for much longer. Once the EU Constitution is ratified within the next two years, that, as they say, will be that.

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