Date published: 2005/09/20
The BBC says:
Plans to revalue English homes for council tax have been postponed until after the next election, the government has announced.
Local Government Minister David Miliband said the delay would mean the issue could be considered as part of an inquiry into local authority funding.
The revaluation of around 22 million properties would probably have meant higher bills for many households.
...
Mr Miliband said the postponement from the previously scheduled 2007 would allow Sir Michael Lyons to look at revaluation as part of his wider inquiry into local government funding.
...
Every home in Wales was revalued last year, with a third moving up at least one valuation band and 8% moving down.But it has been 14 years since the last valuation in England and property prices have risen sharply since, particularly in London and the South East.
If the revaluation was done fairly, the average bill in every local council area ought to remain the same. In particular it does not matter, per se, if more houses move up bands than move down, because it just means that the average band rate (in that area) ought to decrease in compensation. So there ought to be no great pain from the revaluation. Unfortunately the losers from the revaluation will be very bitter against the government, whereas the winners will hardly care one way or the other. For example, say the average bill increase in the year of revaluation is 5%. If you move up a band your relative bill might go up by 10% and if you move down a band your relative bill might go down by 10%. That means in absolute terms that the losers have to face a 15% increase in tax whereas the winners are only 5% better off. The council tax is like all other taxes, nobody wants to pay it (apparently only "rich" people should, whoever they are) but everybody wants (and demands) fantastic (local) services.
_________________________________________________________
All material not included from other sources is copyright cambridge2000.com.
For further information or questions email: info [at] cambridge2000 [dot] com
(replace "[at]" with "@" and "[dot]" with ".").