Angela Rayner’s proposed reforms are ill-conceived and fail to address the system’s inherent unfairness
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t last a Labour government has found itself a wealth tax – or thinks it has. Its proposed adjustment to council tax in England is crude and possibly cruel, and does nothing to help with Rachel Reeves’s “missing £40bn”. It is designed merely to shift money from rich regions to poor ones, and thus correct an imbalance in Britain’s regional wealth. As such it is overdue and welcome.
British budgetary policy used to be classy. It was top hats and secrets and standing room only in parliament. Now it comprises a scruffy marathon of leaks, squeaks and denials. Lobbies form, rebels threaten and ministers pledge and unpledge.
The local government secretary, Angela Rayner, has sought advice on a scheme to adjust the regional burden of council tax, unreformed since it replaced poll tax in 1993. The change is aimed at correcting its most severe defect: that poor people pay more in tax than in fairness they should, and rich people pay less. Government grants do not compensate councils accordingly.
