Conservative councils are promising upfront tax cuts, squeezing spending and cutting back on funding for voluntary groups with the approval of David Cameron’s inner circle, The Times can reveal.

Despite the party’s caution about cutting tax and its emphasis on environmental and social credentials at a national level, Conservative administrations are freezing or reducing council tax and reducing services for the elderly and young people.

In Northamptonshire, which the Tories gained from Labour in 2005, there are cuts to community and children’s services. Kensington & Chelsea and South Oxfordshire, both Tory-controlled, froze their council tax this year. In Coventry, which the Conservatives gained from no overall control last year, there was a £250,000 cut to community services.

But Labour’s guns are being deployed on Hammersmith & Fulham, which the Tories seized from Labour last year.

Tony Blair said at Prime Minister’s Questions this week: “What is happening in Hammersmith & Fulham is a metaphor for what would happen with a Conservative government. Having said that they would support the maintenance of services, the Tories have instituted some £34 million of cuts in those services.”

The year-old Tory council followed through on its election pledge and shaved 3 per cent off council tax this year, paid for by privatising services and cutting funds to homeless charities and a local law centre. This, says Labour, is proof that Mr Cameron’s Conservatives are still looking to make savage cuts in public services.

Tony Travers, a local government expert at the London School of Economics, said that the tax-cutting instincts are ingrained in many Tories involved in local government.

“This shows that deep down many Conservatives in local government would be more radical on tax cutting if they got half a chance than the new-look regime.”

Tory modernisers acknowledge that Conservatives in local government are often to the right of Mr Cameron. But far from distancing themselves from such councils, modernisers close to the Conservative leader are embracing the activities of councils such as Hammersmith & Fulham. One said: “They are very much part of the project. It was a bloated Labour administration.”

The Hammersmith & Fulham pattern is mirrored elsewhere across the country, with Tories dominating the 25 authorities that proposed council tax rises of less than 2 per cent this year. Of these, 11 are Tory, 4 Labour, 7 no overall control, 2 Liberal Democrat and 1 independent. However, 3 out of 4 of the councils proposing a 5 per cent increase are Conservative.

But Tories respond that many of their councils are well run, highlighting their work in Kent to reduce deprivation, and regeneration programmes in Barnet. Audit Commission assessments would appear to concur: of councils marked this year as improving strongly, 42 per cent are Tory, 33 per cent Labour, 17 per cent no overall control and none Lib Dem.

So far, the voluntary sector nationally is not too concerned about the impact of cuts by Tory councils. The National Council for Voluntary Organisations said that it had not observed any trends among Conservative councils which it sees as worrying.

Mr Travers agreed that councils have little scope for cuts. “A large number of things that councils spend their money on are pretty inescapable. Education is ring-fenced, you have to spend on caring for the elderly, street lighting has to be provided and so on. So the easiest place to look for reduced spending is either on voluntary organisations or squeezing the town hall bureaucracy by putting more things out to tender and procure services more efficiently.”

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