Council tax revaluation not ruled out
13th January 2009
Under pressure from St Albans MP, Anne Main, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Hazel Blears refused to rule out a Council Tax revaluation after the next election.
Under pressure from St Albans MP, Anne Main, at a meeting of the Communities Select Committee yesterday, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Hazel Blears refused to rule out a Council Tax revaluation after the next election.
The current Council Tax bands in England came into effect on 1 April 1993, based on the 1991 value of homes, and last year the Government had to abandon plans for a revaluation, despite recommendations from an independent Inquiry into local government finance led by Sir Michael Lyons. Many fear that a revaluation could be used to raise Council Tax by the back door.
Anne said:
"It was quite obvious that the Minister was trying to dodge answering my question. We know that the Government has an ever-increasing black hole in its budget, the slump in property sales means Stamp Duty is drying up and I am concerned that the Government may be tempted to revisit this controversial recommendation from the Lyons Inquiry
In areas such as ours, a poor funding settlement from Central Government already means that Council Tax payers have to top up the funding with ever-increasing local Council Taxes. Council Taxes have been rising much faster than inflation and are hitting my residents particularly hard. In a time of economic uncertainty we do not need to have the spectre of a Council Tax revaluation looming over us.
The reason the Government ditched this plan is because they accepted, in areas such as ours where house prices have risen sharply, that many householders would face a massive rise in their Council Tax bills. In Wales, where a similar scheme was implemented, bills rose by an average of 9% and some houses moved up one band or more. If a Central St Albans Band D property moved up one band, this would represent an increase from
