Debate about levels of council tax is doomed to go nowhere unless we consider what we’re willing to pay for services and how, says the Local Government Information Unit’s Jonathan Carr-West.
Welsh councils should ensure they take “early intervention” to stop more households falling into debt as they look to increase council tax next year, a think-tank has said.
Not only has the reduced system of council tax support hit low-paid workers but it has proved remarkably ineffective as a way to raise revenue, says the IFS’ Stuart Adam and Thomas Pope.
The final local government finance settlement has handed Northamptonshire County Council a lifeline by allowing the cash-strapped authority greater council tax flexibility.
Council tax arrears in England are soaring after millions of households have been stripped of funding from schemes to help them with their bills over the last five years.
CIPFA and the Institute for Fiscal Studies recently hosted a round tabled debate on the questions and issues thrown up by the government’s fair funding review. Vivienne Russell reports.
Greater fiscal devolution, commercialisation and students paying council tax were all mooted solutions to squeezed local government funding, at a Conservative Party conference fringe session...
Abolishing business rates and taxing land values instead would benefit businesses in 90% of English local authority areas, a Liberal Democrat report has claimed.
Council leaders have urged the Lords to back a bill to double council tax premiums on empty homes in England in order to tackle a “chronic housing shortage”.
Council tax is no longer fit for purpose and should be replaced with a system that is fairer both across and within generations, says Adam Corlett of the Resolution Foundation.
