[Post edited 3 Jul 18:13]

Land Tax Vs Council Tax by Dr_Winston 25 Jun 21:34
Much debate at the minute about Andy Burnham's proposed replacement of CT and stamp duty with a land value tax of around 0.48%.

I will admit that despite being "on the right" and predisposed to dislike taxation in principle there's some interesting stuff here. I'll confess that its introduction would more than halve my own annual liability.

The problem I still have with it is the assumption that people in valuable houses are automatically wealthy, which the explosion in property values in the last decade or so makes far from certain. It's entirely likely that some pensioner in a city like Bristol who bought their house 50 years ago will face a tax bill that they simply can't afford.

It's a shame that the Conservatives so badly bodged the introduction of the Poll Tax, as a series of charges based around actual use of local services would be much fairer. A single person in a house valued at £500k would generally be a far smaller drain on council resources than a family of five in a house worth half that.

Even now the fact that I only pay 25% less council tax than the family of four next door is a bit of an insult.

[Post edited 3 Jul 19:14]