Councils should be required to reduce the council tax for the properties that are within "private" estates as all the maintenance costs for communal areas are paid by the homeowners, both leaseholders and freeholders.
The local councils reject to accept responsibility for covering costs of maintenance in common areas on new housing estates. This leads Developer to appoint a Management company to do it at costs that cannot be disputed or challenged by the freeholder. So, increasingly the cost of maintaining these communal areas on newer housing estates is pushed onto homeowners. However, these homeowners do not receive any corresponding reduction in their council tax bills.