Council Tax

Is it unfair? Yes, of course it is - problem is, how do you construct a system which is fair? By its very nature a large percentage of local government expenditure tends to be to provide services to the disadvantaged - so any idea of "pay as you use" is a non-starter. Local income tax - quite apart from the practical problems of collection and distribution - means that those who benefit from the services least end up paying most, which could be seen as equally unfair. The current system - which, with a few tweaks, is really just the old "rates" under a new name, means that the couple living in one house pay the same as the five people living next door. Perhaps the least unfair system would be one which divided the total bill equally between all adult local inhabitants. But this of course was the basis of the so-called "poll tax" and we all remember what happened to that. So, Council Tax unfair - you bet, but what's the alternative?