A councillor has called for Bath’s most expensive buildings to go in a new higher council tax band.
Councillor Andrew Furse asked if Bath and North East Somerset Council could investigate adding new council tax bands at a meeting of its corporate scrutiny panel on Monday 23rd January.
But Richard Samuel, the council’s cabinet member for resources, said that the whole “inherently unfair” council tax system needs reforming.
Households pay different amounts of council tax based on the value of their home, with all homes split across eight different levels called “bands.”
Households in the top band, band H, pay three times more council tax than those in band A.
Whatever your council tax band, all households in Bath and North East Somerset face a proposed 4.99% council tax rise this year.
Councillor Furse, whose central Bath ward of Kingsmead includes the Royal Crescent and Circus, said: “We have some very high value properties in Bath and North East Somerset.”
He asked if the council could go to the government to ask about “adding bands” to get more money from the most expensive properties in the area.
He said: “As I see it, as the squeeze comes and council tax is not going up proportionally, […] the households at the lower end of the scale are taking a larger and larger burden of responsibility of the council tax rather than the high earners.”
But Councillor Samuel said that the tax was regressive and that this move could still hurt people on lower incomes.
He said: “It is regressive because it bears no relation to the income of the occupier and as council tax levels have gone up over the years each year, this is a bigger and bigger burden for residents to bear.”
He added: “It’s quite possible that you have somebody who’s on a very low income but in very high or expensive council tax rated property or visa versa.”
A bizarre twist of the council tax system is that, because of the potential unpopularity of reevaluating homes for council tax, households still pay council tax based on what their house would have been worth in 1991.
Councillor Samuel said: “It is undoubtedly the case that if you look at property levels in Bath and North East Somerset in 1991 and compare them to now, there would be a very big difference indeed.
“But the problem with council tax is that you can apply that argument anywhere in the country, that areas have seen big increases in property values and the council tax does not reflect that.
“The issue at the heart of that is that the council tax system is now inherently unfair.”
No action to speak to the government about council tax banding was taken at the meeting.
John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter
