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East Kent Council round the corner?
Eric Pickles plans tax squeeze on 'democracy dodger' councils
Communities secretary's proposal, backed by Tory chairman, causes clash with Home Office over potential police cuts
Eric Pickles, the communities secretary. Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA
Ministers are proposing to reduce to 1.5% the amount by which councils can increase council tax without seeking approval from residents, putting a further squeeze on the autonomy of local government and causing a clash with the Home Office over potential cuts to the police.
Leaked cabinet papers also show that the communities secretary, Eric Pickles, plans to take action against councils that in the past three years have consistently imposed increases just under the current threshold of 2%.
His plans have faced protests from the home secretary, Theresa May, who warned in the cabinet exchanges that police forces needed greater flexibility in funding or they would suffer cuts that could endanger services.
Pickles says in a letter to cabinet colleagues that he hopes next year to take action against councils that have repeatedly gone close to the 2% threshold rather than hold a binding referendum on an increase above that figure.
He has described such councils as "democracy dodgers" and believes they need to be punished to show the government is trying to control the cost of living. He also says he wants to stop councils or police bodies being able to exempt some spending from the cap.
The inter-departmental dispute, which flared up before Christmas, forced Pickles to delay setting the level of the threshold when he announced the overall local government finance settlement for 2014-15.
Unusually, the correspondence shows Grant Shapps, the Conservative chairman, intervened to support Pickles, saying the cap should be reduced from 2% to "say 1.5%".