Island residents on low incomes who qualify for council tax support will have to pay more from April this year.

The cut from 70% support to 65% was pushed through by the ruling Conservative group at a meeting of the Isle of Wight full council (20 January 2020).

I put forward an amendment to the proposals to keep the current level of support. This was defeated by 20 Conservative votes to 17 (Lib Dems, independents, and one Conservative).

Cutting support to residents who are already among the hardest hit financially cannot be right. This is especially so when so many more are facing hardship due to loss of jobs and income because of the Covid crisis.

I also backed calls to for more to be done to publicise the hardship fund for those who are struggling to pay their council tax bill. The fund is nowhere near as helpful as the proposal I put forward but I hope that more people will make use of it to keep from falling into council tax arrears.