Apart from the odd Tory and Lib Dem - and perhaps a handful of people too wealthy to care one way or the other - an overwhelming majority of people in County Durham think the Council Tax system is unfair and outdated. They tell us they want change.
So in the hope of actually doing something about the iniquity of the Council Tax system I tabled a motion on behalf of the County Durham Labour Group at Wednesday’s full council meeting asking all members of the council to consider an alternative system and support a move towards a Proportional Property Tax (PPT) while at the same time scrapping a council tax system that benefits the Tory heartlands in the home counties at the expense of poorer areas like County Durham.
More details on PPT can be found on the ‘Fairer Share’ website in this link: https://fairershare.org.uk/proportional-property-tax/
I’d tabled an almost identical motion back in December 2021 asking all members of the council to join the 'Fairer Share' campaign to scrap Council Tax and adopt a fairer system based on a property’s actual value and a resident’s ability to pay. As expected the Tory-led Coalition in control of the council amended the motion rendering it virtually meaningless.
Unfortunately, in typical Tory and Lib Dem style, members of both parties came together last Wednesday to hijack Labour’s proposal and amend it again to read that they would look instead at ‘a fairer system’. Fair enough some might say, at least it’s a move in the right direction. Unfortunately it isn’t a move anywhere because since that meeting back in December 2021 the Tories, Lib Dems and ‘Independents’ in Coalition have sat on their hands and have done absolutely nothing at all to move towards scrapping the council tax regime and replacing it with a fairer system.
The reason for this is straight forward. Tories love Council Tax because it benefits their wealthy voters in the Tory-voting heartlands of places like Surrey, Wokingham, Berkshire and the leafy suburbs in the south and south-east of England.
Sadly for us the Tory-led coalition in county hall managed to convince their Lib Dem collaborators and several so-called 'Independent' supporters on Durham County Council to stand four-square behind them again in defence of their Tory heartlands.
That’s why I re-introduced the idea again to full council last Wednesday - to give the Coalition another chance to come clean about their past failures - and then actually do what they’d promised to do over a year ago.
This is the motion I tabled:
‘The current Council Tax system is iniquitous and remains unfit for purpose, even more so at a time when many households across County Durham are struggling to make ends meet under the persistent pressures of the ongoing cost of living crisis.
A motion adopted by this council in 2021 to consider options in introducing a fairer system to replace Council Tax has failed to deliver any discernible benefit to the residents of County Durham.
Therefore this council agrees to pursue every available opportunity to consider the benefits and feasibility of introducing a Proportional Property Tax to replace the current Council Tax regime in County Durham.’
I introduced the idea behind this motion by describing the inequities in the current system, and suggesting that as a council we should be looking at the benefits and feasibility of replacing Council Tax with Proportional Property Tax and then by joining the 'Fairer Share' campaign come together with other councils across the country to demand that the government scrap the Council Tax regime and move to a fairer system of raising local revenue - bearing in mind of course that Council Tax really only exists these days to replace the money removed from local communities and councils during 12 years of brutal central government austerity (by pure coincidence, austerity was another scam cooked up by the Tories and Lib Dems in national coalition back in 2010 as a way to syphon cash out of working-class areas into wealthier Tory-run areas elsewhere).
These are the notes I referred to when I spoke on the motion last week:
Tabled an almost identical motion at full council back in December 2021
Amended by the Coalition. Since then nothing changed. More than a year wasted while our residents suffer the consequences
Most of us would agree that CT is outdated and unfair – especially to those in towns and villages like our own in County Durham where the burden of Council Tax falls disproportionately on already hard-pressed households.
More the case today than ever before:
- additional pressures of the current cost of living crisis
- high inflation
- soaring energy prices and punishing Tory government austerity which continues to remove funding from public services and local councils like our own here in County Durham
Governments have had over 30 years to reform the CT system - none have taken that opportunity - suggesting the system is beyond reform
Just two realistic options left: we either plough on regardless - or we seek to find a better way of doing things – a way that puts the needs of families and communities in County Durham before relatively wealthy local authorities in Southern England where Council Tax reaps a significantly higher return than here in Durham.
The first option benefits no one, suggesting that we need to consider the benefits of introducing a Proportional Property Tax:
- a fairer system that relieves the hardest hit of the heaviest burden
- reduces housing market inequalities
- frees-up homes to those who need them most
- a system that actually puts money into people’s pockets and
- kick-starts local economies
Something that is so badly needed: ‘levelling-up’ agenda proved a scam and can be summed-up in the form of half a bypass at Toft Hill
Michael Gove: County Durham will receive not a ha’penny in so-called ‘levelling-up’ cash while London and the South-East rake it in - whole system rigged to benefit Tory areas
Don’t intend to set out the individual benefits of a PPT system in detail at this stage. Instead focus on the core principles of a Proportional Property Tax
- Property tax should be based on actual property wealth: the burden should be shared proportionately
- It should be simple to understand, easy to administer and hard to avoid
- It should be fair, with wealthier regions supporting poorer ones and
- it should relate to a household’s ability to pay
Benefits nationally:
- Households would be better off - 75% paying less tax
- £bns would be saved by council tax payers outside London - a huge boost to our local communities and economies
- Households would be taken out of property tax entirely because the obligation to pay falls to the landlord rather than the tenant
- House buyers would no longer have to pay Stamp Duty
- An increase in GDP and
- 1000's of homes would be released to the market, freeing up homes for younger people and those who need them most
Accept at this stage that the current system is unfair, and that change is necessary
Agree that the benefits of a fairer PPT system far outweigh the current burden of the Council Tax regime
Work together with government and any external agency necessary to make change happen for the benefit of our local services and communities – and more importantly for the benefit of the residents of County Durham
Next month council tax demand for the coming year is probably around a 5% increase (up from 3% last year).
It doesn’t have to be like this. We actually can do something about it. We know the council can’t impose a PPT policy by itself. What we are asking for is that the council supports the national campaign to fight for a better, fairer system.
Let’s see how many of us here want to see real change - and how many are quite content to go along with an unfair and iniquitous council tax system that serves relatively wealthy, Tory-run councils in the south of England far better than it does our own hard pressed households here in County Durham.
There are no surprises for guessing what came next; the Tories, Lib Dems and so-called ‘Independents’ got together once more to render the motion almost meaningless by suggesting we shouldn’t be looking at a PPT - we should be researching the benefits offered by all potential alternatives (not one specific example was offered). This is precisely the same approach adopted by the Coalition back in December 2021 when they first kicked our proposal into the long grass, hoping that the problem would just go away.
Since then nothing has happened. Nothing has changed. And they want it to stay that way.
So if there's one single message to take away from Wednesday’s full council meeting it's this: if you think the Council Tax regime benefits richer areas over poorer ones, if you think it's unfair and outdated and should be replaced by a system better suited to the needs of working-class people and their communities - then don’t bother asking the Tories and Lib Dems on Durham County Council to do anything about it. They’re quite happy with the current system that keeps their wealthy voters in the south happy at our expense here in County Durham.
They’re not at all interested in ‘doing’. They much prefer ‘dodging’.
We gave them another chance last week to show that they actually care about the ongoing cost of living crisis created by their own government in Downing Street and the impact it’s having on our residents and their communities. But they blew it again.
Once more they buried their heads in the sand, hoping the problem would simply disappear. In doing so they've proved themselves incapable of grasping the impact the financial crisis currently engulfing our hard-pressed residents is having on our people and communities in County Durham - and worse still, even when we've offered a way out, they've dodged the opportunity to do something about it.
County Durham deserves better.
