Charity urges 'radical council tax reform'
Monday 10 September 2012
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EmailCouncil tax bands should be adjusted so that those in higher-value homes pay a proportionally greater amount, a leading charity said today.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation said adjusting the bands would also ease house price inflation with research revealing those living in a £320,000 house will typically pay only twice as much as those living in a £68,000 property, despite it being four times as valuable.
Changing the bands would also make it easier to introduce a national property tax, the foundation's Tackling Housing Market Volatility report claimed.
The government needed to increase the availability of social rented homes and look at introducing tougher rules to give greater security to those renting in the private sector, according to the charity.
The foundation's Kathleen Kelly said: "We need radical tax reform that would reduce volatility and offer a better deal to millions of households, while developing alternatives to ownership so people have access to stable tenancies in both the social and private rented sector."
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