Bay MP Adrian Sanders has voiced concern that Communities and Local Government Minister John Healey has flatly refused to even look at the implications of replacing or reforming the council tax system.
The current system of a regressive tax has traditionally seen above inflation rises and severely discriminated against many groups in society, particularly pensioners.
Mr Sanders’ recent residents’ survey, taking in the views of thousands of Torbay residents, found that 65% thought the council tax was an unfair way to collect money for local services and 67% would support its replacement by a local income tax.
The Minister refused to show what effects such a change would have for taxpayers and their communities and by refusing to assess different methods of taxation, the Government is denying the public an informed choice.
Over a quarter of Torbay households receive council tax benefit, which tries to iron out unfairness in the system but figures from age concern show that up to three thousand pensioners in the Bay could be missing out on the benefit as they are not aware they are eligible or are put off by the complicated bureaucracy.
Adrian commented: “Council tax has always been a flawed system. The whole way tax revenue is shared between local and central Government creates far too many anomalies and this leads to postcode lotteries.”
“Even more importantly, as councils are forced to raise taxes far above inflation, the rises plunge pensioners and low income families into poverty. The elderly, especially those who have been prudent enough to save shoulder a disproportionately high burden for council tax and we must find a fairer system.”
“A local income tax, a tax on land or some other sort of levy may be a simpler and more effective solution but the stubbornness of this Government means we will never be able to judge these different systems side by side.”
Recent Comments