Report: Unfair council tax must be reformed
Council tax systems in England and Wales are unfair on local communities and must be urgently reformed, an influential report has concluded.The independent review of local government by Sir Michael Lyons, professor of public policy at Birmingham University, recommends that council tax bands be rebalanced to reflect changes in property prices.Ahead of today's Budget announcement from Gordon Brown, Sir Michael argues that new bands could be created for those in the lowest brackets in order to reduce bills by raising levies for people in higher-valued properties; therefore not increasing average council tax bills.In addition, the overall system should be automated so that £1.8 billion in unclaimed benefits goes directly to the poorest households, the report states, as well as raising the savings limit for pensioners to £50,000."Council tax is not 'broken' but is seen as unfair and has been put under too much pressure," he writes.Sir Michael says that in his vision of a "shared ambition for the future", central government should grant more powers to local authorities, while councils need to engage with their communities more."This package of reforms is designed to set out a developmental approach towards a more devolved and ambitious future for local government, based on improving relationships between central and local government, better local choices, more effective management of pressures, and greater public trust in the system as a whole," the review states.He claims that his report, commissioned by the government in 2004, is more "radical" than many may have expected, including as it does plans for a tourist tax for local government and the suggestion that council tax be ultimately replaced by a local income tax.But the review concludes that such a move would be an extremely long-term measure."I am looking at some changes to be made immediately but I leave open for the future and clearly beyond the life of this government the possibility that a local income tax or assignment taking a fixed proportion of national income tax could be used to take the pressure off council tax," he told the Today programme ahead of the report's publication.A spokesperson for the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) said that a response to the Lyons inquiry report would be issued after Mr Brown's budget announcement later today.
Share this..
Related stories
Barclays Bank set to go it alone
We recently covered the story of Barclays Bank and the fact that the Financial Services Authority had rubberstamped the company's financial position, insisting that no further capital was required in the short to medium term. The bank has also received another piece of good news with the clarification that Barclays does not need to participate in the UK government's toxic assets insurance scheme.<...
Read MoreThe £24 million cost of EU integration
It has been revealed that 50,000 children living outside of the UK are receiving child benefits funded by the UK taxpayer. While there have been no figures released with regards to the overall cost it is estimated the figure is in the region of £24 million based upon the £20 a week payment for the first child and £13.20 for additional children. So where is all the money going?
Fi...
House prices force buyers to commute
First time buyers are being forced to commute because they have been priced out of the market in the areas where they work, according to research from Abbey mortgages.The maximum journey time that new buyers want to take to their workplace is 43 minutes, but they are having to change their expectations - the study found 15 per cent said they would travel up to one hour each way, seven per cent wou...
Read MoreBritish Airways seeks further union concessions
Despite the fact that British Airways talks with unions have adjourned until Wednesday it appears as though a deal is edging closer by the hour. The company is looking to agree up to 3000 redundancies which will see the company secure its short, medium and long term future although there are rumours that the company is also looking to impose a two-year pay freeze on staff.
We have d...
Tax credits attacked
The system of tax credits is 'flawed' and is not aiding the low income families that it was designed to help, according to the parliamentary ombudsman.The report, Tax Credits: Getting it Wrong?, suggests that the scheme is so complicated that even MPs cannot understand it and has meant that many families have ended up in debt as a result and discouraged others from claiming the benefit or finding...
Read More