PROPOSED changes to the way town halls are funded have received a mixed reaction from Kirklees' councillors.

The Local Government Association (LGA) has announced plans to change the way councils are funded including changes to council tax, local authorities regaining control of business rates and getting a part of income tax.

The LGA, which represents councils led by all parties, claims the changes would create a more accountable and transparent system.

At present three quarters of all income received by councils is directly from the Government. The proposals would look to reverse that figure so just one quarter comes from Government, the rest being generated locally.

The LGA also argues the present council tax system is unfair because it is based on property rather than income.

But the leaders of Kirklees Council's three main parties had mixed views on what the proposed changes would mean for the tax payer.

THE Liberal Democrat leader was delighted that a serious debate into scrapping council tax was taking place.

"I am and have long been a firm believer that council tax is unfair and needs to be scrapped. It is unfair because it is based on property rather than income.

"A local income tax would go up but you wouldn't have to pay council tax. Under a local income tax 70 per cent of people would be better off.

"Business rates should remain set nationally. There is an issue with keeping business in line with what is happening nationally.

"I would welcome the localising of taxes because it would give us as a council a greater freedom to spend money on things we know we need doing rather than getting money from the Government that is already earmarked to be spent in a specific area."

THE Labour leader welcomed a change but had his doubts about whether the LGA's proposals were the answer.

"In principle I welcome the change because it will mean more accountability for local councils," he said.

"At the moment a lot of money comes through the Government, which means that blame can sometimes be deflected when a local council does not perform as well as they might.

"My fears are in the administration side of things.

" I think it could be very, very difficult to manage a new scheme like this on a local level."

THE Conservative leader was quick to slam the LGA's proposals, claiming he thought changes would in the end be minimal.

He said: "All the things that have been proposed have major implementation flaws.

"In the end this could end up costing money because of the cost of administrating and managing it.

"As far as localised income tax goes there remains a lot of questions that need to be answered with regards to these proposals.

"What if someone works in Kirklees and lives in Bradford yet the company they work for is based in Leeds?

"That could mean three different levels of rate and we still don't know which one will determine how much someone will pay."