An annual survey revealed 57% of English local authorities are making the maximum allowable increase to council tax in an attempt to finance service demand. CIPFA chief executive Rob Whiteman...
Blanket deferrals or non-payment of council tax could have a “serious effect” on council funding in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the County Councils Network.
The government has confirmed the £500m hardship fund announced during the Budget will be used to fund council tax relief for vulnerable households affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
A reform of the council tax system could see a 50% decrease in payments for people in the most deprived regions of the country, says the Institute of Fiscal Studies.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak must either raise taxes or abandon the government’s fiscal rules if he wants to avoid continuing austerity, a leading think-tank has warned.
Local authorities’ biggest source of income also represents the largest area of identified fraud but recent initiatives are changing this, writes CIPFA’s Marc McAuley.
MPs are calling on the government to tackle the £5bn funding gap faced by local authorities, warning that services will continue to decline until it does so.
A local income tax would be better than a tourist tax in raising revenue locally for councils, the Institute for Fiscal Studies associate director David Phillips said this morning.
Last month’s local elections in England showed a rise in popularity of independents addressing local issues - but what we need is top-down change, writes communities and regeneration writer...
Benjamin Franklin might have had it right about the only certainties in life but that doesn’t mean the tax system can’t be improved, says CIPFA’s Rob Whiteman.
The largest growing area of fraud being detected or prevented by councils is business rates fraud, yet this represents only a fraction of the total, says CIPFA’s Marc McAuley.
Local government services most likely to suffer from reductions in central government funding are mainly used by women, the director of the Women’s Budget Group Mary-Ann Stephenson says.
