Borough to freeze council tax for three years

Residents of a London borough could have their council tax frozen for the next three years.

The suggestion comes from Harrow council, which has agreed to freeze the tax for the next financial year and could continue that until 2013 if the Conservatives win the general election.

The Tory council's leader David Ashton said the proposal is based on the fact that the authority is following all guidelines, including those set out in a Green Paper mapping out strategy for a David Cameron-led administration.

Mr Ashton said: "We are committed to providing value-for-money services. By freezing council tax for at least the next year we can do this while helping residents keep their household bills down in the tough economic times."

He stressed he was aware of challenges such as the need to save £50million over the next three years because of the ageing population, inflation, landfill taxes and cuts in grants.

But he said a three-year freeze on council tax rises was a reality as the authority had quadrupled reserves to £5million while investing £4.5million next year in services.