A charge in the right direction

摘要

Charging is not the answer to all the ills of local government funding. But, after publication of the Audit Commission report on charging, Robert Hill argues it is a tool which can be used to take pressure off council tax Twenty years ago, the issue of how local councils are funded triggered the nearest thing this country has had to a political revolution for a century. For a time, civil disobedience and poll tax riots convulsed the nation. Attempts to cap council expenditure had led to civic defiance on a grand scale. Rate bills were seen as unfair and too high. Revaluations had been postponed and then deferred. The rating system was bearing an ever-increasing proportion of overall council spending...