Council Tax Bills to Rocket After Election, warn Liberal Democrats (Surrey Heath Liberal Democrats

Surrey Heath Liberal Democrats - working for you, for a better future <info@surreyheathlibdems.org.uk>

Council Tax Bills to Rocket After Election, warn Liberal Democrats

April 7, 2005 11:51 PM

Rosalyn Harper, Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Surrey Heath warned today that Council Tax payers in Surrey Heath face a post-election tax bombshell. Council Tax bills will rise by £200 or more because house prices have risen so fast in the area.

Council tax is currently based on property values in April 1991 but the government is updating its valuation figures to take account of changes in property prices since then.

Property prices TODAY will be the basis for Council Tax bills for the next 10 years.

Anyone whose home has gone up more than the national average since 1991 will be moved into a higher tax band. That means bills will rise by up to 22%.

Ros Harper with Ed Davey MP, Sue Doughty MP, Simon Cordon, Anne Lee and Julia Goldsworthy at No 10 handing in Axe the Tax Petitions

Ros Harper delivers Axe the Tax Petition to Downing Street with Ed Davey MP

Surrey Heath will be hard hit because house prices have gone up 190%, according to the latest research from the Halifax House Price Index. Homes could move up two, three or even more bands.

In Wales, where revaluation has already happened, some families will see their council tax bill TREBLE. That could be repeated in Surrey Heath.

Rosalyn Harper said: "Council Tax is unfair, and revaluation is going to make it worse. Just because house prices have risen in Surrey Heath, local people will have to struggle to find hundreds of pounds extra in Council Tax. Both the other parties try and deny it, but they simply have no solutions to the ticking time-bomb of spiralling Council Tax bills. The biggest post-election tax rises will come from the Labour and Tory-backed plans for rebanding. The whole Council Tax system is bust, and it is time to scrap it. Liberal Democrat plans to replace it with a fair system based on ability to pay would cut the typical family's bill by around £450 a year."