Michael Fabricant says: “Official Government figures have revealed that households across Lichfield District, Birmingham, and elsewhere in the West Midlands will benefit from a real terms cut in their council tax bills – and this is great news! This is thanks to the third year of the Conservative’s council tax freeze initiative, which offers funding to help local authorities keep council tax down.

“Under the last Labour Government council tax in Lichfield District and in Birmingham soared 130% in Lichfield when Staffordshire was mainly controlled by Labour and 59% under Conservative controlled Birmingham City Council increasing from £632 in 1997 to £1,453 in 2010 in Lichfield and from £794 in 1997 to £1,261 in 2010 in Birmingham.

“However, since the last General Election, there has only been a rise of 0.5% in council tax in Lichfield District over the last 3 years and 0.6% in Birmingham keeping it below inflation and delivering a tax cut to provide families and pensioners with real help with the cost of living. This is way below inflation so is a real terms cut.

“I am surprised that Chris Williamson, Labour’s Shadow Local Government Minister, has attacked the freeze initiative as ‘nothing more than a gimmick’ and asserting there is ‘a real problem with the council tax freeze… taking the grant would clearly create significant problems’. That does not help hard pressed residents of Lichfield or Birmingham” Michael adds.

On 27 March 2013, the final outturn council tax statistics for 2013-14 were published by the Department for Communities and Local Government. The figures for Lichfield District and Birmingham are the Band D data and drawn from these official statistics.