I WAS very surprised to see Labour councillor Ed Turner’s latest letter on the council’s budget (Oxford Mail, February 26).

The fact of the matter is, every year, the Labour Government takes away £10m from Oxford’s council tenants.

Rather than allowing the council to spend that money on improving homes and services, Labour is happy to see Oxford lose a third of its housing budget every year.

The Lib Dems have been campaigning locally and nationally to have this unfair tenant tax scrapped.

Mr Turner seems very keen to talk about budget gaps. I’m surprised at this, as when I took over as housing portfolio holder from him, there was an unallocated gap of almost £15m in the housing account of the money needed to bring Oxford homes up to scratch.

Perhaps the reason that Labour is so anxious to avoid debate is the fact that in the 20-odd years that it ran the council, the independent audit commission ranked Oxford City Council as one of the worst councils in the country at looking after residents’ money.

Patrick Murray, Lib Dem Housing Spokesman, Barton and Sandhills Ward, Oxford City Council