Property tax

It's been one of the themes of this blog - though not of any political party - that government is too expensive for this country to afford.

Today The Telegraph brings us news that

More than two million households in England, many of them pensioners, struggle to pay their council tax, according to an independent report published today.

It found that one in 10 households had difficulty paying the tax, which according to a recent poll is the "most hated" tax in the country.

The survey found:

• One in four homes in band A (the lowest band) receives a summons
• One in seven in band B receives a summons, but fewer than one in 10 in bands E-H (H being the highest band) receives one
• 181,450 households in Britain have a low income and live in bands F-H (including 101,1008 pensioners).
• 5,740,833 households in Britain have a low income and live in bands A-C (including 2,898,888 pensioners).

Reportedly Sir Michael Lyons is going to recommend residents should typically be charged at 0.78% of their home's value each year - massively increasing the tax on owners of dearer properties, especially in the South East, and probably depressing property values.

The central problem is that people are being taxed on the value of an asset that they own, even though they may not have the income or liquid assets to enable them to afford the tax.

And where is this tax going? Well, some of it is going to pay for the many people who were involved in the utterly stupid decision to prosecute nursery teacher Olive Rack. They will probably suffer no penalty for the strain and stress inflicted on her, never mind the unnecessary expense caused to the taxpayer.

Where is the party with a coherent low tax narrative? We are told that the Conservative establishment is busy trying to water down a recommendation on these lines from its tax commission. The Lib Dems are not tax cutters. UKIP will evidently launch a flat tax policy during the Conservative conference but has shown no sign of campaigning for government spending to be a lower proportion of national wealth.

So I repeat the question I asked about Mr Miliband's wasteful green policies. Where is the political opposition to come from?