A REPORT by MPs calls for a radical overhaul of council tax by charging the poorest households less and the richest more.
It says the current system is unfair and proposes new bands at the bottom and top ends of property values.
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A review of the system is “long overdue”, the Commons Housing, Communities and Local Government committee says.
The report claims the tax is currently “disconnected from the true value of properties”.
It adds: “Any changes should be implemented without dramatic increases for individual households and be revenue neutral at a national level, however, they must produce a progressive tax system in the long term.”
The report also says a £5billion funding blackhole has left council services at “breaking point” due to cuts, changes to how they raise money and restrictions on council tax rises.
The committee’s chairman, Labour MP Clive Betts, said: “Democracy and accountability in local government is paying the price for central government spending decisions.”
Building ‘isn’t the answer’
BUILDING more homes every year will not lower house prices, according to a new report.
A study by influential economist Ian Mulheirn found the spike in prices over recent decades has been driven by low interest rates rather than a lack of supply.
Mr Mulheirn, executive director and chief economist at the Tony Blair Institute, said the popular belief that more housing is needed to solve the crisis is a “red herring”.
In the report he said: “Building 300,000 houses per year will do very little to bring down prices and next to nothing to raise home ownership.
“The real culprit for sky-high house prices is low global interest rates.
“A shrinking social rented sector, cuts to housing benefit and slow wage growth among the young are making rented housing less affordable.”
