Councils should charge residents for services including bin collections even if it is unpopular or ‘painful’, a senior Liberal Democrat minister has said.
Speaking to the Public Administration Committee, education minister David Laws called on local authorities to take responsibility for themselves and avoid ‘constantly looking to central government’ for funding.
It is thought increasing numbers of town halls are charging their residents for collection of bulky garden waste, with some calling on households to pay up to £35 a year.
Around 137 local authorities are likely to accept Government grants by freezing council tax this year, with many also seeking alternative source of income.
According to the Telegraph, Laws told MPs: ‘I'm sure that's not the vision that every local authority would want because that involves some painful decisions for them locally which are not always popular.
‘But it seems to me that type of trend through whichever route is one which we ought to be seeking to encourage in future so that local authorities can take a degree of responsibility for themselves rather than constantly looking to central government.’
Communities secretary Eric Pickles has long campaigned for councils to undertake weekly bin collections, recently claiming the Government had protected seven day pick-ups for ‘six million people’.
