Starmer refuses to rule out axing single-person council tax discount

Sir Keir Starmer has refused to rule out scrapping the 25% single-person council tax discount, saying decisions on the public finances had to be looked at “in the round”.

The Prime Minister said he would not be drawn on the future of the tax break for people who live alone ahead of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Budget on October 30.

Scrapping the discount could further hit some pensioners living alone who have already suffered the loss of winter fuel payments, but Sir Keir insisted he was not punishing elderly Britons.

The Local Government Association, which represents councils, has argued that cash-strapped authorities should be given the power to vary the single person discount, which is worth about £3 billion a year.

Sir Keir was challenged about the potential impact of scrapping the discount for elderly people who live alone and denied the assertion it was a “punishment beating” for pensioners.

“No, absolutely not,” he told reporters accompanying him on his trip to Washington.

“And let’s just try to quash this now. The Budget is on October 30. So, between now and then, you are all going to ask me questions, as you did before the election, ‘will you rule out X, Y, Z?’

“And knowing that I’m not going to say before the Budget what we’re going to do, you will then write a story saying, ‘refused to rule out X, Y, Z’.

“I’m not going to say before the Budget what we’re going to do.

“That does not mean that I’m ruling in anything that you might be putting to me, it simply means, like every Prime Minister, we’re not going to reveal what’s in the Budget before we get to it.”

But when it was put to him that Ms Reeves had ruled out other potential cash-saving options such as scrapping free bus passes, TV licences and prescriptions, he said: “We’ve got to look at everything in the round.”