Catalogue Number
NMLH.2024.44.2
Object Name
rosette
Title
'Lambeth Council says NO to Government Rate capping cuts. Local people know best.'
Place
Lambeth, London
People
Lambeth Borough Council, Labour Party, Councillor Helen Crossfield
Events
1985 Rate-Capping Rebellion
Description
A red and yellow rosette with a white centre that says 'Lambeth Council says NO to Government Rate capping CUTS. Local people know best.' 'No' and 'Cuts' are in red, the rest of the text is black. The back says 'March 5th 1986'.
Lambeth Borough Council participated in the 1985 rate-capping rebellion under which the council refused to set a budget in an attempt to force the Conservative government to abandon their policy of restricting the spending of local councils by capping the rates councils could charge households. The Rates Bill, enacted by the Conservatives in 1984, was an attempt to curb the spending of mostly Labour run local authorities. Councillor Helen Crossfield recalls, "When council budgets were being cut by the Thatcher government, they were one element of what was seen at the time as a wider attack on the working class - privatisation of services, de-industrialisation, the demonisation of the public sector, and of course the minersâ strike."
Refusing to set a rate and produce a budget was illegal, and of the 15 councils which began the protest, only Lambeth and Liverpool held out. The protest was not supported by the Labour Party leadership, who feared it would bring Labour councils into disrepute and risk Labour being ousted from power in those areas. Both Lambeth and Liverpool councillors (31 in Lambeth and 42 in Liverpool) who participated in the rebellion were eventually found guilty of willful misconduct and individually issued with £2000 fines, equivalent to the amount of interest on tax payments their respective councils had lost, and were banned from holding office for 5 years. Public donations were raised to prevent any councillor having to personally pay their fine.
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