SIGOMA analysis finds council tax increases hit poorest areas hardest
Posted on April 01, 2021
Analysis by IMD deciles found that councils in the most deprived decile had seen an average increase of 4.32%, while the least deprived decile had only seen average increases of 3.44%. The table shows the clear relationship between deprivation and council tax increases.
| Deprivation Decile (1 = most, 10 = least). | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Average | 4.32 | 4.12 | 4.30 | 3.98 | 4.13 | 3.76 | 3.66 | 4.09 | 3.63 | 3.44 |
Our principal research officer Geoff Winterbottom said: “Our analysis has found that the poorest authorities have been seen the biggest increases in council tax.”
He said this was contrary to the government’s ‘levelling up’ policy and showed that the council tax system was regressive.
Mr Winterbottom said: “Poorer areas have a very different tax base – almost 50% of properties in Sigoma authorities are Band A [while] the average for England is close to 25%, and we have seen the biggest cuts over the last 10 years; an extra 25% cut compared to the national average.
“With council tax now increasingly funding social care and local government more generally, the pressure for reform is increasing.”
Our analysis shows that that over the last 10 years its member councils had seen cuts to core spending power of 28.5% while in the rest of England this was only 22.7%.
Read the full article in the Local Government Chronicle.