Council Tax Reform

Debate between Jonathan Brash and Sarah Dyke

Wednesday 19th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Brash]

Certainly, the last 14 years—I note that none of the Conservatives are here—shifted the settlement away from areas of deprivation to more affluent areas. That has had an incredibly punitive effect.

Council tax in Hartlepool represents 9% of median gross pay. Here in Westminster, it is just 2%. Someone can live in a multimillion-pound property in London and still pay less council tax than someone in a terraced house in Hartlepool. It is not right. It is not fair. It must change. An outdated system based on 34-year-old property values can never deliver fairness and has widened regional inequalities.

[Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)]

Sixty-six per cent of Somerset council’s budget goes to fund social care. That budget is funded through the taxes raised on property based on prices from 1991, as the hon. Member has set out. Does he agree that that is archaic and unfair, and that we should enact real reform to the way we fund local authorities?

[Mr Brash]

I absolutely agree and I will come to social care later in my speech, so I will pick up that point then.