Council Tax

The Never Ending Story

AN INDEPENDENT ENQUIRY to advise on council tax reform under Sir Michael Lyons to report by the end of 2005 was announced by Nick Raynsford the Local Government Minister on 20 July 2004. This follows on from the 'Balance of funding review' i.e. the division of local authority funding between local and central government taxation. Full details are on the website of the office of Deputy Prime Minister (www.odpm.gov.uk).

This issue is a constitutional one. The review that has been announced recognises this and indeed one of the items to be considered is funding for regional assemblies. In the United Kingdom we have neither a federal nor a centralised system of government with the result that spending is to a large extent locally controlled while taxation is centrally controlled. The review will also consider the...