The average council tax bill rose by 77% in real terms between 1994 and 2020, analysis has found.
A new Resolution Foundation report has warned that the ‘regressive’ tax is costing the poorest households an ‘ever-greater’ share of their income.
According to the think-tank, the poorest fifth of households were spending 4.8% of their household income on council tax at the start of this decade, up from 2.9% in 2002-3.
It means that in 2020, the poorest families were spending more than three times as much of their income on council tax as the richest households.
The poorest families now spend only £300 less on council tax than they do on income tax each year, the Resolution Foundation said.
It warned that ‘rising bills, falling support, and a bizarre, outdated design’ meant council tax was increasingly resembling Margaret Thatcher’s ‘dreaded’ Poll Tax.
The chair of the Local Government Association’s economy and resources board, Pete Marland, said: ‘Councils recognise that having to increase council tax, to bring in desperately needed funding, places yet more financial burden on households.
‘We remain clear to government that it is not the answer to meeting the long-term pressures facing high demand national services and needs to be urgently addressed in the upcoming Spending Review.’
