
In this episode, we dissect council tax and work out how it could be reformed.
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Everybody over the age of 18 who lives in a property in the UK is eligible to pay council tax. It's the fifth largest tax, raising up to £40bn a year in the UK, and it pays for local services such as social care, waste collection and libraries.
However, there is a widespread consensus that the implementation of council tax is flawed. The house prices it is based on haven't changed since 1991 despite 30 years of significant change in the housing market and these changes have made the tax regressive.
Joining us this week to dissect council tax and work out how we can reform it are David Phillips, Associate Director at IFS and local government expert, and John Stevenson, the Conservative MP for Carlisle who has written extensively about reforming council tax.
Host

Director
Paul has been the Director of the IFS since 2011. He is also currently visiting professor in the Department of Economics at University College London.
Participants

Associate Director
David is Head of Devolved and Local Government Finance. He also works on tax in developing countries as part of our TaxDev centre.

Podcast details
- DOI
- 10.1920/pd.ifs.2024.0087
- Publisher
- IFS
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