Government knew for years of council tax overcharging

Commenting on the reports that ministers and officials might have known for years that tens of thousands of householders were paying too much council tax, Liberal Democrat Shadow Communities Secretary, Julia Goldsworthy said:

“Many people are already struggling to pay for their council tax bills, and this comes as a bitter blow to those people whose homes have been placed in the wrong tax bands.

“If the situation were reversed, you could guarantee these people would have had the taxman breathing down their neck demanding the money to be repaid.

“The Lyons Review made it perfectly clear that the current council tax system was not fit for purpose, yet Gordon Brown has done nothing more than kicked the report into the long grass.

“This makes it clearer than ever that we need to replace the unfair council tax with a local income tax based on people’s ability to pay.”