Northern 'Red Wall' seats hit by council tax rates up to 24 TIMES higher than London

NORTHERN 'Red Wall' seats are being walloped by the highest council tax rates in the country, new research reveals.

Boris Johnson risks seeing his levelling-up agenda flop unless he reforms the “loopy and lopsided” tax, campaigners have warned.

Brits living in battleground seats – including newly Tory Burnley, Blackpool South and Redcar – pay the most as a proportion of their house value.

Meanwhile, people living in London’s swankiest areas – including Kensington and Putney – fork out the least.

A millionaire living in a £1.2million house in Westminster pays less than someone living in an £88,000 home in Easington in North Durham, the study found.

All ten areas with the highest council tax bills are either currently, or have until recently, been run by Labour.

'UNFAIR TAX SYSTEM'

They are all set to hike council tax yet again this year, apart from Burnley, which Labour lost control of in 2019.

Andrew Dixon, chairman of Fairer Share, said levelling-up will remain “a pipe dream” as long as the unfair levy remains.

He said: “These figures are a shocking exposé of the unfairness of our current property tax system.

“The Prime Minister has said he is committed to levelling-up the country, but this agenda is clearly being undermined by loopy and lopsided council tax rates.

The Sun says

IT is scandalous that a millionaire in a London mansion pays less council tax than someone in a two-up, two-down in Durham.

Indeed it is outrageous that the highest council taxes are across the Red Wall seats, formerly Labour’s heartland.

It’s no coincidence. Those seats turned blue in 2019, but the ten worst-hit areas are still run by Labour councils, or were until recently. And Labour’s record on keeping local taxes low is dismal.

Designing a new system is complex. The start is surely to end the absurdity of basing bills on house prices 30 years old.

A national revaluation is inevitable unless we are to use 1991’s values forever.

It’s the first step to fairer local taxes and crucial to the Tories’ levelling-up agenda.

“We currently have the absurd situation in which residents of Easington in County Durham face a council tax burden 14 times higher than that faced by residents of Kensington – and 24 times higher than people living in Westminster.”

The average household in England forks out 0.47 per cent of the value of their home in council tax every year, researchers found.

But across the North and the Midlands, Brits living in a whopping 41 constituencies face a council tax burden of over one per cent.

Constituencies with highest tax burden:

1. Easington – 1.41%
2. Hartlepool – 1.31%
3. Burnley – 1.28%
4. Middlesbrough – 1.27%
5. Liverpool Walton – 1.23%
6. Preston – 1.21%
7. Blackpool South – 1.20%
8. Redcar – 1.20%
9. North Durham – 1.19%
10. Nottingham North – 1.17%

Constituencies with lowest tax burden:

1. Cities of London and Westminster – 0.06%
2. Westminster North – 0.08%
3. Kensington – 0.10%
4. Putney – 0.11%
5. Battersea – 0.11%
6. Chelsea and Fulham – 0.11%
7. Tooting – 0.12%
8. Hammersmith – 0.18%
9. Hampstead and Kilburn – 0.20%
10. Bermondsey and Old Southwark – 0.20%

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