Recent analysis by The Times newspaper[found that Council tax is 20% more expensive in the north of England than in London even though homes are three times more expensive in the capital averaging at £553,000 against £192,000 in the North.
The Times said this ‘fuels concerns about whether the North of England is getting a fair deal from the Conservative Government.’
A quick comparison of Band D homes shows that a Band D charge is only £886 a year in Westminster but in Oldham it is £2,122.93. The Times says this arises from the way Council Tax is structured with Councils in the North having many more Band A and B homes and relying more on Council Tax to pay for services. Westminster, for example, raises tens of millions from business rates and sky-high central London parking charges.
The failure of government to revalue Council Tax since 1991 also means that the valuation bands don’t relate to actual house prices. On top of this, Government funding which is supposed to even out local authority resources has been cut – Oldham alone has lost over £200m since 2010.
Councillor Amanda Chadderton said:
‘The Times has highlighted the fundamental unfairness of the Council Tax system. It beggars belief that someone living in a luxury central London home pays so much less than someone in Oldham. Council Tax needs urgent reform to fund Councils fairly and make sure that Councils like Oldham who have high levels of demand for public services get the funding they need. This is needed more urgently every year. The Tory Government still claims to be ‘levelling up’ even though bizarrely Rishi Sunak thinks Tunbridge Wells needs special help and Richmond in his own constituency received preferred access to the ‘levelling up’ fund – despite being one of the least deprived places in England.’
Cllr Chadderton’s latter reference is to the footage from Rishi Sunak’s leadership campaign, showing him bragging about how he diverted funding from more deprived areas to richer areas, that was leaked last year. He appears set on continuing with that project, as levelling up funding announced this week has been disproportionately awarded to London and the South-East, and his own constituency will receive over £19 million despite being one of the more affluent parts of Yorkshire.
Councillor Abdul Jabbar, Cabinet Member for Finance and Low Carbon added ‘It has been harder than ever to produce a balanced budget this year. The Government has assumed that every Council will raise Council Tax by 5% as part of the Local Government settlement. Labour feels strongly that this is the wrong way to fund the services we all need and has decided to keep the increase lower at 3.99%, £1.76 a week on a Band D home. It is quite clear that the government has no interest in sorting out local government finances. It is far too easy for them to keep underfunding Councils and let us take the flak for increasing a tax everyone knows is unfair. On top of that, the government has postponed the Fair Funding Review and hasn’t got a plan to make sure people get the social care services they need. It feels like they just don’t care about places like Oldham and the people making the decisions have no idea what life is like for people living here.’
