PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
FREEZE ON COUNCIL TAX REBANDING IN WALES (18 October 2005)

That this House regrets the fact that Welsh residents are bearing the unfair burden of the revaluation process in Wales, which has resulted in one in three houses going up by one or more bands and only one in 12 houses moving down one or more bands; calls on the Secretary of State for Wales to press the Welsh Assembly Government to freeze council tax rebanding in Wales at its current rate so that no further increases take place in Wales until the Lyons Inquiry reports at the end of 2006; condemns this Government's cowardly political opportunism for postponing the English rebanding following the electorally damaging impact of revaluation in Wales; and believes that the entire council tax system, which causes the poorest 20 per cent. of society to pay more as a share of their income than the richest 20 per cent. of society, should be scrapped and replaced with a fairer local income tax, based on people's ability to pay, not on the value of their homes.

Sponsored by:
Jenny Willott (Liberal Democrat)