Cash advance could ease council tax worries amid dispute
(21 November 2005)

Southerners are effectively subsidising their northern counterparts' council tax, according to claims – but wherever you live in the country, a short term loan could help you to both meet your necessary bill payments and do your Christmas shopping.

The South-East County Leaders group, composed of the leaders of 11 counties in that region, says that residents in the south pay for half of their town hall's outgoings, whereas those living up north only have to cough up 25 per cent.

Resultantly, the group's members claim that they have to raise a pound from council tax payers for every pound received from the Treasury – while northern councils only raise a pound for every three they are given.

They also noted that southern counties receive a lesser per-person subsidy - £793 – than those located elsewhere, particularly as the national average is £983.

Ken Mitchell, leader of Oxfordshire County Council and spokesman for the group, said: "We are not asking for special treatment. The South East provides the Government with £18 billion in taxes every year, for redistribution to other parts of the country.

"Unless the Government gives us back some of that money, we will be left to cut the public services on which everyone in the South East depends."

With average earnings in Sussex smaller than those in, for example, the north-east, the group says that extra money should not be taken out of families' pockets in this area for redistribution elsewhere.

If bills and other expenditures are mounting up with Christmas only weeks away, then a short term loan could be worth your while to ease some of the immediate challenges that this time of the year brings.


© Adfero Ltd