How people in Norwich pay DOUBLE the council tax of some of London’s richest boroughs

Martin Schmierer, Green Party group leader, has called for a council tax reform. Picture: Bil Smith NNUH © 2018

People in Norfolk are paying more than double the amount of council tax as some of the richest parts of London.

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Norwich city councillor Karen Davis. Pic: Norwich City Council. Norwich city councillor Karen Davis. Pic: Norwich City Council.

This is the stark fact being highlighted in a call for a fairer taxation system which proposes to put Norwich forward as a guinea pig for trials.

In a motion to Norwich City Council, Green Party group leader Martin Schmierer has highlighted the staggering gap between what households in band D properties pay in Norwich and what those pay in the borough of Westminster.

In Norwich, band D properties pay £1,879.45 each year in council tax; compared with just £753.85 in Westminster - the very borough the government is based in.

Mr Schmierer also highlighted income inequality within council tax - stating the tax takes up eight percent of the income of the poorest 10pc of the population - compared with between two and three percent for the richest 40pc.

He said: "For quite some time the council tax system has been a flawed, regressive one - so there is an urgent need to find an alternative.

"A big part of the problem is that in cities like Norwich is that demand for services is high and government funding is not sufficient to fill this demand.

"Councils therefore have to either cut services or increase taxation. We can't just keep putting council tax up each year - so there needs to be some kind of reform."

A motion tabled by Mr Schmierer will be debated next week. In this he calls for City Hall to investigate what he describes as "more progressive" forms of taxation, including land value tax.

Karen Davis, cabinet member for social inclusion said: "In the Labour group's manifesto it already states we aim to look at reforming tax, including the possibility of land value tax.

"As a council we also have a variety of measures designed to reduce the impact council tax has on the poorest people - such as our 100pc council tax reduction scheme for households earning under £16,000 per year.

"However, until there is a change in government, all we can do as a council is try and mitigate its impact the best we can."

How Norwich compares

No district's households in Norfolk pays more council tax in total than Norwich; though there is not a huge amount of disparity.

Households in a band D property that do not qualify for any discounts pay £1,879 per year.

Band D properties in the rest of the county are as follows:

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Breckland: £1,789

Broadland: £1,817

Great Yarmouth: £1,792

North Norfolk: £1,823

South Norfolk: £1,844

West Norfolk: £1,803

Nationally, the largest bills fall in Nottingham and Dorset, at £2,038.

With bills of £755 per year, households in the London borough of Westminster have the smallest amount to pay, with another London borough - Wandsworth - paying £770.

Some other notable cities are as follows:

Birmingham: £1,601

Cambridge: £1,803

Coventry: £1,8344

Liverpool: £1,950

Manchester: £1,646

Newcastle-upon-Tyne: £1,861

Oxford: £1,989

Southampton: £1,805

York: £1,668