Council tax plans should give North East a big boost

PLANS to make the council tax system fairer and target more funding to disadvantaged areas in regions like the North East have been announced.

- GRAEME WHITFIELD Local Democracy Reporter

Ministers have launched a consultation which seeks to make council tax collection in England fairer, including stamping out “unacceptable, aggressive” practices.

It is proposing to change council tax billing from 10 monthly payments to 12 and to change enforcement processes to include “a more appropriate and proportionate time frame” before councils can demand a full bill from households.

Jim McMahon, a minister in Angela Rayner’s Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government, said the overhaul of England’s outdated and complex system would mean “no one will suffer from deteriorating services just because they live in an area with low house prices or high demand for social care, or in a rural part of the country”.

Northern leaders have for years been urging ministers to reform the council tax system, which has led to taxpayers in the region often paying more than their London counterparts and getting poorer public services in return.