Northern towns and cities are being disproporiately hit by council tax charges compared to councils in London.
Blackpool has the lowest average earnings in the UK at £19,808 but charges £1,998 per year in council tax on average – 10 per cent of the average salary. This is the third highest council tax burden in Britain.
Meanwhile, Islington in north London has the highest earnings at £41,329, but charges £1,640 in council tax, making it the fifth lowest council tax burden. Seven of the top 10 lowest council tax burdens in the country were in London.
The TaxPayers' Alliance (TPA) has today released a council-by-council breakdown showing that some less affluent areas face a higher council tax burden than wealthy metropolitan London boroughs.
People in London on average pay less council tax than people who live in the north.
Anthony Upton
The research shows that council tax costs Brits an average of 7.3 per cent of their income. Nottingham, the most expensive Band D tax bill in the country and with the highest council tax burden, was one of five local authorities charging over ten per cent of the average local salary in tax.
Despite the crushing council tax burden, which has doubled in the last twenty years, seven of the top ten local authorities with the highest council tax burden actually increased their charges by more than the English average of 4.45 per cent.
Though council tax is paid from our incomes, similar differences were seen in comparing council tax bills and local house prices. While households pay on average 0.81 per cent of their house price in council tax, some areas such as Hyndburn saw this rise as high as 2.18 per cent of the average house price.
To pay for essential services while limiting the growth of this tax burden, the TaxPayers’ Alliance is calling on local authorities to stop council tax rises and cut down on wasteful spending by scrapping pet projects and pay rises for town hall executives.
