No Revaluation for Council Tax

[Chil1234]

Phew... is my reaction. More seriously, my home may have increased substantially in value since 1993 however it still takes up the same square-footage and the occupiers still use the roughly the same amount of local services. Surely it's time we accepted that the value banding was just a knee-jerk alternative to the unpopular Community Charge and find a different, fairer way to fund councils?

As everyones house has gone up in value it would not really make much difference revaluing everthing. The local authrity still needs a certain amount of money and dividing that by the total value of property in an area makes no difference if all property has doubled in value.

If we had a wealth tax of 1% per annum, as some countries have, based on the market value of houses then it would make a difference. Problem is that in the US fallng house prices have devastated local authority property tax incomes over the past few years. House prices there have fallen 25 - 50% depending on area.

We need a new system of local authority finance for sure but I suspect we will muddle along with what we have. A local income tax based on income might be fairer but given the mess HMRC computers are in and the political impact of the Poll Tax I dont think a Tory PM will risk it.

Council Tax was always a knee jerk alternative to Community Charge, and is a bastardisation of rates and CC.

Rates, which were replaced by the Community Charge, had a value banding system as well. So a return to a banding system wasn't really a "knee jerk" but just a switch back to an element of how things used to be.

At least with value banding there is some, albeit poor, representation of wealth in the local taxation system.

As BeenBeta says a true solution would be some local income tax scheme, but I'll also echo the comment about would we trust the Government to organise such a thing.

However that would allow people who don't earn to live in an area for "free", is that "right"?

Are You Paying Too Much Council Tax?

Apparently 400,000 properties are in the wrong band. Worth checking..