Earlier this month, I spoke in Parliament to make exactly this point. Council tax, in its current form, punishes the poorest and protects the wealthiest. It hits places like Pendle and Clitheroe hard, while some of the richest areas of London get away with paying far less.
Consider this. In Kensington, West London - one of the wealthiest boroughs in the country - the average Band C council tax bill is £1,341. In Nelson, in my constituency, it’s £2,149. Same band, wildly different bill. And Nelson has some of the highest levels of child poverty in the country.
This isn’t just a quirk of the system. It is the system. One still based on 1991 property values. A system that has ignored three decades of house price inflation in London and the South East, while ordinary people pay more and more.
The result? A copper in Colne pays more council tax than a banker in Belgravia.
This matters - not just because it’s wildly unfair, but because it deepens the very inequality we must tackle. Councils in poorer areas often have greater needs, but fewer high-value properties to tax, meaning they have to charge more, for less. And it's the opposite in richer areas, with lots of high-value properties to tax, but low levels of deprivation.
Council tax is supposed to help fund local services, the things people see and rely on: social care, bin collections, leisure centres, and parks. But when residents are paying more and services are being cut, trust in the system collapses. That’s where we are now.
This is why I am part of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Council Tax Reform. Tinkering around the edges won’t fix this. We need to be bold. Replace council tax with a system that reflects today’s property values, and ask the wealthiest to contribute their fair share. The vast majority of households here in the North would pay less - and the government could still raise more overall to fund better public services.
This is about fairness. It’s about rebuilding trust. And yes, it’s about finally delivering for parts of the country that have been ignored for too long, because the North is getting a raw deal, as so often. Overhauling council tax is one of the clearest ways to start putting that right, and that is why I will continue to campaign for this much-needed change.
Upcoming surgeries:
Nelson - Friday 4th April - 3:00-4:30pm (fully booked)
Colne - Saturday 10th May
Clitheroe - Saturday 17th May
Please email me on jonathan.hinder.mp@parliament.uk to book a slot.