Revaluation needed to make council tax fair

EITHER the new Local Government Minister Brandon Lewis doesn’t know what he’s talking about [Radical shift in council tax bands urged, Yorkshire Post, September 11] or, as I suspect, he’s being deliberately misleading about the impact of council tax revaluation.

When council tax was introduced in 1991 by the then Conservative government to replace the discredited poll tax, Ministers confirmed that there would need to be revaluations every five years to ensure continuing fairness.

However, that same government then cancelled the first revaluation. I was critical when the succeeding Labour government decided to cancel subsequent revaluations.

Mr Lewis was disingenuous in drawing parallels with the Welsh revaluation, as the Welsh legislation and revaluation terms of reference were quite different. In England, revaluation is a zero-sum game – the total amount raised from council tax would be unchanged, but revaluation would alter the distribution of liability.

So if, as Mr Lewis alleges, “revaluation would mean soaring bills for millions of families and pensioners”, by definition, equivalent millions of families and pensioners would have significant reductions in their bills.

There is an overwhelming case for regular revaluation – as Conservative Ministers insisted was essential for integrity when the scheme was introduced, 
and that was supported by 
all parties.

There is also a strong case for extending the number of valuation bands.

If necessary, any changes in liability – up or down – could be phased, in exactly the same way has been done for revaluation of commercial properties.