26 Sep 2025
St Albans council leader Paul de Kort has called on fellow Lib Dems to consider an end to the pensions triple lock and introduce higher property taxes.
Speaking at the party’s conference in Bournemouth in support of the Leading the Way policy paper on equitable economic growth, he said he was cautious of the need to make some very well-considered choices should the electorate give them the opportunity to run the country.
“Three years ago my council faced a budget crunch and we began charging for the collection of garden waste. This was unsurprisingly attacked as a bin tax by our opponents.
“But we successfully leaned into our core value of fairness to justify this local policy. Why should residents living in flats with no gardens subsidise large homeowners and their sit-on mowers?
“I’m proud that making this hard choice and others – parking charges anyone? – created the financial headroom to allow us to offer our local Mencap charity an affordable long-term lease on seven new build homes whilst they redevelop their own site to generate desperately needed additional care capacity.
“I imagine some conference organisers are thinking this is exactly why they didn’t want a platform for a council leader to bang on about the bins.
“But I only use this example to support my plea for this party to recognise that we must use the remaining years of this Parliament to transform from what can appear to be a gigantic pressure group into a party that is really prepared to make the tough policy choices. There just are not enough billionaires out there to fund all spending desires.
“Economic inequality in the UK is at its highest level since World War Two and the biggest driver of this is intergenerational inequality.
“We must prioritise the post-boomer generation’s prospects so that they and their children can live in affordable homes, can receive a quality education whatever the circumstances they were born into and can use this platform to access rewarding secure jobs.
“And if this has to come at the expense of a universal triple-locked pension, or VAT on private school fees, or fair taxation of property wealth then we must make that case based on a real and credible commitment to our core values.
“The Reform Party presents a very real threat and we must stop them forming the next Government.
“However achieving this imperative would have a challenging implication for us. So we must now reflect on the pressures, make the policy choices and maybe this time be prepared for Government.”
His speech made the national media, with Mail Online’s political sketchwriter Quentin Letts quipping: “The Lib Dem leader of St Albans council, Paul De Kort, had a go at ‘large-home owners and their sit-on mowers’. Is the cathedral city of St Albans not an oasis of the lawnmowing classes?
“But Mr De Kort, Hertfordshire’s own Che Guevara, demanded an end to the pensions triple lock. He wanted higher property taxes and supported Labour’s imposition of VAT on private school fees (something Sir Ed has declined to do). He was delighted to have forced those ride-on lawnmower toffs to pay higher bin fees. Revolution starts with the redistribution of grass clippings.”
SADC Conservative group leader Cllr Matt Cowley responded to the speech: “Whilst people in Harpenden, St Albans and across the district are paying the price for Lib Dem mismanagement through their parking charges, the council leader is having a jolly good time joking at their expense at the seaside.
“And it is clear that the parking charges aren’t the end of things. Between attacks on ‘large homeowners’ and jokes about parking charges, the leader said in Bournemouth that his party should make the case for getting rid of triple-locked pensions and implementing property taxes.
“Time and again we see the truth in St Albans district. The Lib Dems want to tax you more, take away your services, and blame it all on the family in the big house down the road; all whilst they waste your money on their own incompetence. We deserve better.”
Green and Independents group leader for SADC, Cllr Simon Grover, added: “The Lib Dems are in a real bind at the moment, and their conference debate showed they don’t know what to do about it.
Voters and party members are abandoning the traditional two big parties in droves, but they’re not going to the Lib Dems. That’s because, as ever, it’s so hard to say what the Lib Dems actually stand for, except ‘not the other guys’.
“Our crazy first-past-the-post system means that the Lib Dems won six times as many seats in last year’s General Election, despite getting fewer votes. As one of Cllr De Kort’s fellow speakers said in their conference debate, ‘We did well last year because the Tories were abject’.
“Whilst Reform UK is doing well in the total absence of any perceivable leadership from Labour or the Tories, the big story right now is the huge rise in Green support. A recent poll [Lord Ashcroft polling] had the Greens ahead of the Lib Dems, and our membership across England, Wales and Scotland has just overtaken theirs. With the election of Zack Polanski as Green Party leader we are demonstrating bold, popular leadership that is rising to the challenge of crises we are all facing.
“In St Albans we have had a big surge in membership too, and we look forward to further gains at St Albans council, where we continue to hold the administration to account and stand up for residents.”
