Local Taxes

Abstract

The finance of local government reflects the whole issue of centralisation versus local democracy and accountability. In Britain, where local government is the creature of central government without constitutional protection, the conflict and the problems it brings are particularly intense. Domestic rates which, together with business rates and central grants, provided local finance until the end of the 1980s were a fairly unpopular tax. In 1989 and 1990 they were replaced by a much more unpopular tax, the community charge or poll tax. By 1991 the government had promised its abolition. In recent years local democracy, local accountability and the role of local taxes have constantly been debated.