Labour's Not Listening (No. 1 in a series)

On Tuesday, the government announced how much money it would give to local councils in 2007/2008 to run their services.

Firstly, we'll give the government some credit: Westminster's grant will increase by 4.6% next year. That might at least partially offset the ever-increasing burden which Labour steathily places on local councils in an effort to avoid raising income tax.

Despite the increase, however, Westminster remains desperately short-changed by the Labour government. Over the next few days we'll highlight a number of areas where you - local council tax payers - are having to pay for Blair's incompetent and inefficient nanny state.

Lee