Why do we pay more council tax than oligarchs in Knightsbridge palaces?

apartment at One Hyde Park. Photograph: View Pictures/REX


An upbeat letter arrived recently from my local council, which is the London borough of Islington. Despite cuts in central government funding that mean the council has had to find £122m savings between 2011 to 2015, the letter was pleased to say that the council tax would be frozen for the fifth year running, thereby saving the average payer £375 to date. As I'm in band G, the second-highest, the tax due during the next year will again be £2,101.45 to be divided between Islington and the Greater London Authority, minus a discount of £100 given to "older persons".

To hand over £167 a month in exchange for schools, libraries, social services, road mending, street cleaning, refuse collection etc looks a tremendous bargain, though, of course, the expense of these things is mainly met from the business rate and general taxation via central government grants, which have also subsidised the freeze. The controlling instinct of Westminster never lets local government get above itself. And property ownership, being the a sacred fact and leading aspiration of British life, mustn't have too noticeable a cost other than interest on the money borrowed to pay for it.
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