Professor John Robertson OBA
In the Guardian today:
More than a dozen Labour MPs have written to Rachel Reeves calling on her to scrap council tax, as the chancellor faces mounting pressure to overhaul Great Britain’s property taxes in next month’s budget.
Thirteen MPs, mainly from seats in northern England, wrote to Reeves last month asking her to abolish the tax and replace it with another system that better accounts for the steep rise in house prices in London and the south-east over the last 35 years.
The chancellor is looking for ways to close what could be a £30bn shortfall in the public finances, with experts warning that doing so could require a shake-up of the entire tax system.
One year in and hopes that UK Labour can do better on council tax seem optimistic given their decades-long failures in Wales:
By stewartb
Insights into differences across Great Britain in 2024-25 for the benchmark average Band D tax can be found at https://propertydata.co.uk/council-tax
Focusing on Wales where the British Labour Party governs:
- of the cohort of 35 local authorities in GB with the lowest tax, 33 are in Scotland – the exceptions are Wandsworth and Westminster in London which have the lowest rates of all
- the highest tax charge reported in Scotland is for Argyll & Bute at £1,627
- the lowest tax charge reported in Wales is for Caerphilly at £1,813
- the highest charge in Wales is for Merthyr Tydfil at £2,329 and in England for Rutland at £2,543. (Recall from above, only two English councils have had lower Band D rates than any council in Scotland.)
The contrast between Council Tax Band D rates in Scotland and Wales is quite remarkable! Is this what the British Labour Party would like to see in Scotland after 2026? ‘Levelling-up’ Scotland Labour style?
England too has higher council tax rates:
Source: https://www.gov.scot/publications/council-tax-rates-comparing-scotland-to-other-uk-nations/
You can support Talking-up Scotland at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details or by direct bank transfer method - Bernadette/John Robertson, Sort code 08-91-04, Account 12266421
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
When Kate Forbes got Wee Dougie Alexander so angry by saying he/Labour wanted to make Scotland more like England perhaps this comparison would help put his gas in a peep !
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Council Tax, as it has operated since the Tories introduced as always been a regressive tax as it was intended to be.
However, it can be made progressive by re-evaluating the property values to reflect the current value of the properties, by introducing a mechanism which can automatically re evaluate properties each year and by increasing the number of tax bands to as many as are required to cover the full range of values in a more equitable way.
Council Tax is a ‘wealth tax’, because to an extent the value of someone’s residence correlates positively with her or his wealth.
It is not the only wealth tax. There are others related to land which can be used, too.
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