Plymouth councillors to lobby Government for ‘Robin Hood’ tax

Plymouth councillors are calling for the Government to implement a ‘Robin Hood’ tax on the finance sector instead of continuing to make massive public spending cuts.

The full council agreed a motion to ask the Government to raise £20 billion of additional revenue by extending the current Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) and ensure that is spent on protecting valued local public services.

The motion was not supported by Conservative councillors who argued that such a tax would be detrimental to the UK's economy and its economic recovery.

The Council heard that at least 11 European nations including France, Germany, Italy and Spain are moving ahead with FTTs on shares, bonds and derivatives.

Following the Council’s motion, the Chief Executive will write to the Prime Minister and Chancellor asking them to enact the FTT and use the revenues to reverse shrinkage in central grants to the Council.

The motion was proposed by Labour Councillor Nicky Williams, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, who said: “Local government has seen massive real term cuts in central grant funding under the Coalition over the last few years and this places extreme pressure on our budgets.

“Many of these cuts have had a direct detrimental impact on the city’s most vulnerable and needy residents. For example, the introduction of a local Council Tax Support scheme, with less funding, providing less benefit to those people who are struggling to pay their daily living expenses

“There are better, and fairer, ways of generating central government revenue that will ease the need to squeeze local government to the point of crippling front line services and vital support to our citizens.

"I hope the Government will listen to this growing voice across the UK and Europe and do the right thing.”