Plenty of us do it. We open that brown envelope, groan at the council tax bill, and mutter that it’s robbery. Then, in the next breath, we complain about potholes, missed bin collections and the closing of the local library. We seem to resent paying for local services, yet expect them to work. As Rachel Reeves considers reforming council tax in the Budget, let’s look at Britain’s favourite delusion.
The system is absurd. Council tax bands in England and Scotland are still based on 1991 property values. Then, the average house in England cost £54,000. Today, it’s £268,000, and in London it’s around £548,000. Yet the top rate of council tax is capped at just three times the bottom.
The top Band H begins at £320,000, so a £5m Chelsea townhouse can pay little more than a £400,000 semi in Leeds. Updating valuations could raise billions simply by taxing property wealth where it actually sits.
For 2024–25, the average Band D council tax in England is £2,171, up 5.1 per cent — the biggest rise in a decade. Councils will collect about £41.2bn this year. But back in 1991, council tax and its polltax predecessor accounted for barely a quarter of local authority spending power. Today, it’s over half. In the same period, central government grants have been cut by more than 50 per cent in real terms since 2010. Where Whitehall once paid most of the bills, it now leaves that to local taxpayers.
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And still, it isn’t enough. Several authorities — notably Birmingham, Nottingham and Croydon — have previously issued Section 114 “effective bankruptcy” notices. When a council declares itself broke, libraries shut, care visits are cut, bins aren’t collected. Meanwhile, councils face a special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) timebomb. The number of children with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) has doubled in 10 years to over 638,000. High-needs budgets now top £10.5bn a year, yet local authorities are running a £3bn deficit. The National Audit Office calls the system “financially unsustainable”.
To fix this, Labour has to be brave. How could it raise council tax honestly — and still try to keep the public onside? First, it could revalue the bands. Second, it could add “super-bands” – Band I for homes over £1.5m, Band J for those over £3m. Then it could make rises progressive. Transparency is also crucial. Each council should publish a “local tax contract” explaining what our extra cash pays for. Finally, funds must be ringfenced for SEND. Guarantee the money reaches classrooms and carers, not consultants.
Yes, it’s politically risky. But so is running out of money. Britain’s councils are the scaffolding of daily life. We barely notice them until they collapse. We can’t keep demanding Scandinavian-style services on American-level taxes. We need fairer bands, clear promises and visible results. Otherwise, we’ll go on pretending the state costs nothing — until the lights really do go out. As US Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr is quoted as saying: “Taxes are the price we pay for civilisation.”
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