Summary
THE OLYMPICS budget has risen to almost Pounds 10 billion and included in that figure is a provision for costoverruns of Pounds 2.7 billion. But what happens if this amount is insufficient? Much of the cost of the Games will now come from the National Lottery itself a contentious move but this paper has found that the Government has been considering a far more inflammatory measure to meet any overspend, namely, a roof tax on newly built London houses and business premises. A leaked Whitehall memo from late 2005 reveals that the roof tax was one of the options seriously mooted. This, it should be noted, would be in addition to the extra Pounds 20 per annum per household which already will be levied on London council-tax payers.
Of course, the document has been overtaken by the published budget, but as Hugo Swire, the Tories spokesman for Culture and Sport points out, this shows that the Government could impose a roof tax if costs continue to rise, though ministers will devoutly hope that they will not have to do so. Let us make quite clear that this would be completely unacceptable.See the full content of this document
Extract
No Roof Tax
The Ga...
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