Londoners get £3bn a yr subsidy as a result of construction of council tax biased in opposition to north, says thinktank – UK politics stay | Politics
Londoners in impact get £3bn a yr subsidy as a result of construction of council tax biased in opposition to north, says thinktank
Londoners get a property tax low cost equal to greater than £3bn a yr as a result of council tax was structured in a manner that ensures folks dwelling outdoors the capital should pay disproportionately extra, a thinktank has mentioned.
The Resolution Foundation has give you the determine in a report that claims, outdoors London, many households are paying tons of of kilos a yr extra in council tax than they’d be below a good system.
The report requires council tax to get replaced with “a proportional tax charged at 0.7% of property worth”. It additionally says stamp responsibility must be abolished, however with each adjustments introduced in steadily to make the transition manageable for these dropping out.
Andy Burnham has prior to now expressed curiosity in a reform alongside these traces, althought this isn’t an concept he has publicly advocated since turning into PM.
Explaning the issue with council tax, the Resolution Foundation report says:
When council tax was established, a deliberate resolution was taken to undertake a compressed charge schedule. The worth of the property in 1991 determines the council tax band a property sits in and each invoice, for each native authority, is a set fraction (or a number of) of the band D invoice in that space. These so-called ‘multipliers’ set the ratio of payments throughout the totally different bands and meant that, when council tax was established, a property within the high band was price at the very least eight instances as a lot as one within the backside band, whereas their invoice was at most solely 3 times bigger.
This unique design flaw has since been compounded by the failure to replace the worth of properties from their 1991 ranges. In the 35 years since, there have been massive will increase in home costs and – importantly – important regional divergence …
Now, a property on the backside of the highest band in Richmond-upon-Thames has a worth 15 instances bigger than one on the high of the underside band in Hull, whereas their council tax invoice is just simply over double. Alternatively: the resident of Hull is paying over £1,800 extra every year than in the event that they confronted the identical efficient tax charge because the resident of Richmond-upon-Thames.
The report says this has resulted within the equal of a £3bn giveaway for Londoners.
Compared to a system the place the connection between tax revenues and the worth of housing was the identical throughout the nation, London paid £3.1bn too little in residential property tax in 2024-25, with each different area in addition to the south-east and east of England overpaying. If the remainder of England had paid taxes as a proportion of the worth of their properties at a charge as little as that in London, areas outdoors of London would have paid £12.3bn much less in tax.
As a outcome, most households in England are paying tons of of kilos a yr greater than they’d be below the proportional property tax system proposed by the thinktank, it says.
By 2030-31, and in comparison with an alternate of property being taxed at a uniform charge all over the place, 61% of households can be overpaying tax by a mean of £430 a yr, and 36% of households can be underpaying by a mean of £680 a yr.
Hannah Aldridge, a senior analysis and coverage analyst at thinktank, mentioned:
The UK raises extra tax earnings from the properties we stay in than most different superior economies. Unfortunately, our two important housing taxes – council tax and stamp responsibility – are terribly designed, grossly unfair and economically dangerous.
The financial and equity case for overhauling our housing taxes are clear. But the politics of reform has bought hung up on those that lose out – equivalent to these dwelling in gentrified areas of London – though most households in England would pay much less tax.
Housing taxes can’t be fastened in a single day. But the chancellor ought to set out a smart roadmap to reform within the funds subsequent month.
This chart exhibits how the mixed property tax burden – council tax and stamp responsibility, as a proportion of what homes are price – is highest within the north of England and lowest in London.
Key occasions
Plaid Cymru and SNP welcome YouGov MRP ballot suggesting they’re on the right track to quadruple seat numbers at subsequent election
At the final common election, Plaid Cymru received 4 seats. The MRP ballot from YouGov out at the moment suggests they’d win 15 seats now. (See 8.59am.)
Commenting on the figures, the Plaid MP Ann Davies mentioned:
These figures are encouraging and recommend that the momentum we noticed in Wales earlier this yr is constant. To be projected to nearly quadruple our illustration at Westminster and return 15 Plaid Cymru MPs exhibits that folks throughout Wales are more and more inserting their belief in us as a brand new celebration of presidency.
They additionally spotlight that Welsh politics not merely follows England. While Labour continues to carry on to help in components of England, this ballot suggests they’d be nearly worn out in Wales. That underlines the dimensions of political change happening right here, but it surely additionally exhibits that Reform continues to pose an actual problem in communities throughout the nation.
Full particulars of the YouGov MRP are actually on its web site.
The identical ballot suggests the SNP can be on the right track to quadruple its Westminster seat whole. It received 9 seats in 2025, however is now on the right track to win 40, the ballot suggests. (See 11.29am.)
The Survation MRP ballot also out today additionally has the SNP on the right track to win 40 seats. But its figures recommend Plaid would simply win eight.
Richard Branson says Brexit has been ‘unmitigated catastrophe’
Lisa O’Carroll
Lisa O’Carroll is a senior Guardian correspondent overlaying post-Brexit affairs.
Richard Branson has referred to as Brexit an “unmitigated catastrophe” and a “gap the UK can’t dig itself out of” by itself.
The Virgin Airlines and music label founder mentioned final week’s optimistic reception by Canada to the provide of affiliate membership to the EU confirmed the “enduring enchantment” of “the international stage’s largest buying and selling bloc”.
“Despite being assaulted, criticised, and vilified from afar and from inside, the EU is alive and kicking,” he wrote in a lengthy post on LinkedIn. “The UK ought to take observe”.
Branson, who campaigned to stay within the EU mentioned:
Brexit has been an unmitigated catastrophe, costing the UK as much as 8% of its GDP, with important losses in commerce, productiveness, and employment. It’s a gap the UK can’t dig itself out of. Certainly not by itself.
He described the departure from the EU as just like the “downgrading from F1 automotive to a hatchback” and mentioned for these below 30, who can not have visa-free work within the EU, “it should really feel like a case of transgenerational betrayal”.
He mentioned it’s a reduction that Andy Burnham is just not closing the door on rejoining the EU sooner or later and mentioned it was time the general public acknowledged the international stage is a special place to 2016 with voters “given a second probability” on being within the EU or not.
Swinney reaffirms SNP’s help for drug decriminalisation after surge in deaths – though coverage set by Westminster
John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, has reaffirmed his help for decriminalising medicine for private use. As the Press Association studies, Swinney mentioned this could possibly be “a part of the vary of measures” to cut back their hurt, as he branded a surge in drug fatalities final yr as “unacceptable and insupportable”.
PA says:
The first minister was challenged on his authorities’s file on medicine after statistics for 2025 confirmed an 11% enhance in deaths, with 1,133 folks dropping their lives because of this.
While the Scottish authorities has already declared the medicine dying charge – which is the best in Europe – to be a well being emergency, Swinney confirmed he too regarded the scenario with such seriousness.
Speaking in Holyrood at the moment, Swinney mentioned he did “agree that we face a public well being emergency on medicine deaths”.
But he informed journalists afterwards the Scottish authorities was “exhausting each aspect of the powers and duties that we have now to handle the scenario”.
Asked about decriminalisation – the place folks would not face penalties in the event that they have been caught with medicine for private use – he mentioned that “the federal government does help that place that there’s an argument for decriminalisation of medicine for private use”.
This, nonetheless, would have to be carried out by Westminster, which has management over medicine legal guidelines.
Swinney mentioned it could possibly be “a part of the vary of measures that we may take to cut back the hurt of medicine and to supply us with a scenario the place there may be extra management and a capability to supply higher help to people who’re affected by drug use”.
As the BBC reports, the SNP backed decriminalisation in its 2024 manifesto.
There are comments on BlueSky from Rob Ford, a politics professor and elections professional, on the YouGov MRP ballot printed earlier.
He begins by highlighting its discovering that “37% of constituencies are determined by margins of 5 factors or much less in our central estimate, with this rising to 67% of seats projected to be received by Reform UK.”
This discovering underlines why we should always not take exact MRP numbers v severely at this stage – big numbers of seats are projected to be v shut – a small shift in nationwide sentiment or a modest and believable degree of tactical switching may dramatically change seat numbers
For instance, @yougov.co.uk themselves simply printed a wonderful examine of tactical voting motivations yesterday, exhibiting 60% of 2024 LD and Grn voters are actually keen to again Labour with the intention to cease a Reform win yougov.com/en-gb/articl…
Given this evident willingness to tactically co-ordinate, which we additionally see v strongly in current Westminster by-elections and in native/devolved elections, I simply don’t assume a outcome like this projection in Hemel Hemstead is believable come election time
Those 12% saying Green and 11% saying Lib Dem should not presently fascinated with a attainable Reform win (or certainly a attainable Tory win) of their seat when answering YouGov’s query. Once resolution time approaches, they’ll, after which these numbers will change. Many such instances!
I don’t need to throw the child out with the bathwater tho – MRPs like this are a really helpful train for getting finer grained sense of present geography of help. Just don’t get hung up on actual numbers. “Everything to play for” & “many shut seats” are the massive classes right here
Also, credit score the place it’s due – YouGov do their finest to convey the uncertainty of the train in all their maps and charts – I significantly just like the “lean” and “doubtless” classes, tho personally I’d have a (on this case massive) “too near name” class
Londoners in impact get £3bn a yr subsidy as a result of construction of council tax biased in opposition to north, says thinktank
Londoners get a property tax low cost equal to greater than £3bn a yr as a result of council tax was structured in a manner that ensures folks dwelling outdoors the capital should pay disproportionately extra, a thinktank has mentioned.
The Resolution Foundation has give you the determine in a report that claims, outdoors London, many households are paying tons of of kilos a yr extra in council tax than they’d be below a good system.
The report requires council tax to get replaced with “a proportional tax charged at 0.7% of property worth”. It additionally says stamp responsibility must be abolished, however with each adjustments introduced in steadily to make the transition manageable for these dropping out.
Andy Burnham has prior to now expressed curiosity in a reform alongside these traces, althought this isn’t an concept he has publicly advocated since turning into PM.
Explaning the issue with council tax, the Resolution Foundation report says:
When council tax was established, a deliberate resolution was taken to undertake a compressed charge schedule. The worth of the property in 1991 determines the council tax band a property sits in and each invoice, for each native authority, is a set fraction (or a number of) of the band D invoice in that space. These so-called ‘multipliers’ set the ratio of payments throughout the totally different bands and meant that, when council tax was established, a property within the high band was price at the very least eight instances as a lot as one within the backside band, whereas their invoice was at most solely 3 times bigger.
This unique design flaw has since been compounded by the failure to replace the worth of properties from their 1991 ranges. In the 35 years since, there have been massive will increase in home costs and – importantly – important regional divergence …
Now, a property on the backside of the highest band in Richmond-upon-Thames has a worth 15 instances bigger than one on the high of the underside band in Hull, whereas their council tax invoice is just simply over double. Alternatively: the resident of Hull is paying over £1,800 extra every year than in the event that they confronted the identical efficient tax charge because the resident of Richmond-upon-Thames.
The report says this has resulted within the equal of a £3bn giveaway for Londoners.
Compared to a system the place the connection between tax revenues and the worth of housing was the identical throughout the nation, London paid £3.1bn too little in residential property tax in 2024-25, with each different area in addition to the south-east and east of England overpaying. If the remainder of England had paid taxes as a proportion of the worth of their properties at a charge as little as that in London, areas outdoors of London would have paid £12.3bn much less in tax.
As a outcome, most households in England are paying tons of of kilos a yr greater than they’d be below the proportional property tax system proposed by the thinktank, it says.
By 2030-31, and in comparison with an alternate of property being taxed at a uniform charge all over the place, 61% of households can be overpaying tax by a mean of £430 a yr, and 36% of households can be underpaying by a mean of £680 a yr.
Hannah Aldridge, a senior analysis and coverage analyst at thinktank, mentioned:
The UK raises extra tax earnings from the properties we stay in than most different superior economies. Unfortunately, our two important housing taxes – council tax and stamp responsibility – are terribly designed, grossly unfair and economically dangerous.
The financial and equity case for overhauling our housing taxes are clear. But the politics of reform has bought hung up on those that lose out – equivalent to these dwelling in gentrified areas of London – though most households in England would pay much less tax.
Housing taxes can’t be fastened in a single day. But the chancellor ought to set out a smart roadmap to reform within the funds subsequent month.
This chart exhibits how the mixed property tax burden – council tax and stamp responsibility, as a proportion of what homes are price – is highest within the north of England and lowest in London.
With the Labour celebration convention beginning on the weekend, the Guardian has printed a superb lengthy learn by Hettie O’Brien about “Manchesterism”, the political philosophy driving Andy Burnham’s politics, and the thinkers in his circle who’re selling it.
Here’s an extract.
It’s attainable to discern three distinct camps searching for to affect Burnham. The first, which is nearer to [energy secretary Miatta] Fahnbulleh and [foreign secretary Ed] Miliband, attracts on the extra radical concepts of thinkers equivalent to Lawrence and contains organisations equivalent to Common Wealth and the NEF. Its central argument is that the privatisation of life’s necessities, together with vitality and social care, has created an affordability disaster that’s driving up inflation, and that many of those property ought to due to this fact be publicly owned.
The second camp is nearer to Burnham’s highly effective ally the primary secretary of state, Louise Haigh, her adviser Nick Williams, and Josh Simons, the previous Makerfield MP. It contains thinktanks such because the newly based Centre for British Progress and the Good Growth Foundation. For this extra centrist camp, the issue with Thatcherism has much less to do with privatisation than the erosion of state capability that resulted from it. “We depend on a military of consultants, legal professionals and third-party suppliers”, as a result of Britain has “forgotten learn how to construct”, wrote David Lawrence, the co-founder of the Centre for British Progress, in a recent essay. The reply to Britain’s financial issues, in accordance with this college of thought, lies in winnowing down the huge equipment of laws, significantly planning insurance policies, that defend massive and established corporations, forestall startups from rising, and are holding again a possible abundance of latest properties and energy vegetation.
Finally, there’s a third, older camp of thinkers who is likely to be referred to as the communitarians; they’ve extra energy than both of the opposite two camps, since they maintain key positions in No 10. Among them is James Purnell, Burnham’s chief of workers and considered one of his most trusted buddies, and Purnell’s close friend Graeme Cooke, a former director of the IPPR, who’s now director of Burnham’s No 10 coverage unit. Newcomers to the Burnham authorities have been studying a 2010 essay that Purnell and Cooke wrote throughout a interval of soul-searching after Gordon Brown misplaced the final election. They argued that New Labour had didn’t develop a philosophy for what a superb society regarded like, one which rejected the paternalism of the state and put folks in control of their lives.
And right here is the complete article.
Housebuilding begins in England up 20% yr on yr, figures present
Matthew Pennycook, the housing minister, says in a post on social media that housebuilding figures out today present “welcome indicators of progress”.
These are robust instances for housebuilding in England, however new housing statistics launched this morning present welcome indicators of progress:
✅Housing begins in Q2 of this yr have been up 6% on the earlier quarter (a 20% enhance on the identical quarter final yr).
✅London noticed the most important enhance with begins up an exceptional 298% on final yr.
✅Units inside define residential purposes are up 41% from a yr earlier.
✅Permission in precept selections on brownfield register websites greater than doubled (a 79% enhance on the identical quarter final yr).
Over the previous 26 months, we’ve undertaken probably the most speedy, holistic and radical overhaul of the housing and planning system in a long time. Despite the robust headwinds, we’re going to keep the course and make sure the nation enjoys excessive and sustainable charges of housebuilding within the years forward.
Home Office says 781 migrants arrived in 10 small boats yesterday – highest every day whole for 2026
More than 700 migrants arrived within the UK on Wednesday – the best quantity for a single day to date this yr, the Press Assocation studies. PA says:
It comes after a cupboard minister mentioned not each migrant boat will be intercepted within the wake of two boats touchdown undetected on British shores inside two days. [See 9.35am.]
The Home Office recorded 781 arrivals in 10 boats on Wednesday, suggesting a mean of 78 folks per boat.
This takes the provisional whole for Channel crossings for the yr to date to 18,565.
This is down 42% on this time final yr (32,188), and 26% beneath the determine at this stage in 2024 (25,165).
Here are the Home Office weekly figures.
As this chart from Migration Watch UK exhibits, small boat arrivals at this level within the yr are at their lowest degree since 2021.
Badenoch says Tories couldn’t kind pact with Reform UK partially as a result of they’re too sleazy, insisting ‘it is about character’
Kemi Badenoch has mentioned that she wouldn’t need to kind some type of electoral pact with Reform UK partially due to the scandals surrounding Nigel Farage’s celebration.
In an interview with GB News, she recommended that Reform UK was riddled with “problematic” ex-Tories, and he or she mentioned one of many issues she was doing as a pacesetter was cleansing up the fame of her personal celebration.
Badenoch has dominated out a pre-election pact with Reform UK earlier than, regardless of many figures on the proper arguing that the 2 events ought to work collectively to defeat Labour. But the Tories have usually been much less keen to accuse Reform UK of “sleaze and scandal” than Labour, who use this assault line in opposition to Farage’s crew recurrently.
Reform UK is being investigated by the police over allegations that the celebration has accepted donations which can be impermissible below electoral legislation. Farage can be being investigated by the parliamentary commissioner for requirements over claims he broke Commons guidelines by not declaring a £5m donation from Christopher Harborne. Farage and his celebration deny wrongdoing.
In an interview with GB News, requested if current polling (see 8.59am and 10.35am) meant it was time to “unite the proper”, Badenoch replied:
What I’ve mentioned is that it’s about uniting the nation, not simply uniting the proper. Uniting the nation behind widespread sense is what Conservatives need to do.
There was really one other ballot about two weeks in the past that confirmed that you probably have a coalition, among the people who find themselves supporting you’ll go elsewhere. So you may’t simply add these two teams collectively and assume that you just’re getting a block vote on the centre proper.
Badenoch mentioned the Conservatives and Reform UK have been divided on coverage. But she insisted that ethics and requirements have been an impediment to any type of cooperation too.
What are we uniting about? It’s not simply coverage; it’s additionally character.
And after I have a look at the issues that Reform are doing, we noticed that exposé. Of course, they deny it. But Nigel Farage is below investigation. That £5m, the cash. Robert Jenrick has donations being investigated.
We simply don’t need this any extra. People noticed the Conservative celebration doing all kinds of issues that they didn’t like, and I mentioned, I’m coming in to scrub this up. Many of the problematic folks have gone to Reform. How can we then be part of with them?
Badenoch additionally insisted that, along with her in cost, the Tory celebration was altering.
I need folks to see that the Conservative celebration is getting its act collectively. We know we bought loads of issues unsuitable. I wasn’t there for the entire 14 years. I used to be there for half of it. I did what I may, however I’m in cost now.
And the individuals who have been very annoyed by the route of the celebration are actually working the celebration. I need your viewers to see that.
MoJ figures present crown and magistrates’ courtroom backlogs at file excessive, with 24,000 critical instances held up greater than yr
Backlogs in magistrates’ courts and crown courts have reached a file excessive, in accordance with Ministry of Justice figures launched at the moment.
At crown courts in England and Wales, the place probably the most critical crimes are prosecuted, there have been 80,829 instances ready to be heard on the finish of June. That is a file because the MoJ began compiling these figures, and represents a 3% enhance on the earlier yr.
These instances are additionally taking longer to course of. Average ready instances, from the case being referred to crown courtroom to it being completed, are additionally at a file excessive, with the median at 203 days, a 21% enhance on the earlier yr. (The imply is way larger as a result of the comparatively few very, very lengthy waits distort the typical when it’s calculated as a imply, not a median.)
And at magistrates’ courts, there have been 380,230 instances ready to be heard on the finish of June, up 9% on the earlier yr.
Sarah Sackman, the courts minister, mentioned the figures confirmed “the dimensions of the problem dealing with our courts, with victims ready far too lengthy for justice – that’s why it’s our precedence to cut back the backlog in order that instances are heard sooner”.
But Nick Timothy, the shadow justice secretary, claimed Labour insurance policies have been making the issue worse.
Labour have spent their time in workplace attacking our historic proper to a jury trial, reasonably than taking efficient motion to sort out the courts disaster.
With each the crown courtroom and magistrates’ courtroom now dealing with file backlogs, Labour’s proposals to easily shift the issue from one a part of the courtroom system to a different are useless within the water.
Mark Evans, president of the Law Society of England and Wales, mentioned the figures additionally confirmed that 23,706 crown courtroom instances have been within the backlog greater than a yr. This is 22% greater than a yr in the past.
He went on:
The authorities should seize the prospect to ship a long-term, whole-system plan for felony justice reform. This ought to embody usable courts, sufficient judges and workers and the utmost variety of sitting days to listen to instances promptly.
