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.
Council tax should be scrapped and replaced with a charge calculated using more up-to-date home values, a Resolution Foundation report out today has said.
Just over 95% of councils across England will raise council tax next year and bills are set for the biggest increases in 14 year, according to CIPFA’s annual survey released today.
Almost all councils in England are planning to raise council tax and increase charging in 2018-19, according to the Local Government Information Unit’s annual finance survey.
Westminster Council has announced plans for a voluntary ‘mansion tax’ on buildings worth more than £10m in a bid to freeze council tax for other residents.