Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on (1) local government finances in England, and (2) the equality of taxation of council tax bands in England being based on property valuations from April 1991.

The Government has no plans to reform the council tax system in this Parliament. A council tax revaluation would be expensive to undertake and could result in increases in bills for many households as well as disrupting the operation of the local government funding system. Council Tax levels are set by local authorities who are required to put in place council tax reduction schemes to help those in financial hardship. When setting out the resources available to local authorities, the annual Local Government Finance Settlement takes account of their differing abilities to generate income through council tax.