Thread by @ChristianSpence

The 2% cap on Council Tax rises (temp 3%), from the Localism Act 2011, may be increased to 5% today.

Council Tax needs substantial reform. It is regressive, unrelated to ability to pay, and out-of-date with property values.

But #localgov should be championing the cap rise.🧵

That local govt revenues have been battered through austerity is a given. That hole can never be wholly filled by increased Council Tax without an unbearable burden on poorer households.

But Council Tax is an important democratic tool.

It goes to the heart of local government's constitutional role to have the power to raise taxes on its constituents as a legitimate, elected public governing institution, to provide services for them on their behalf.

Govt may be doing this to keep national taxes down, and to backfill central budgets to local govt that will continue to be cut. These things are bad.

But we cannot have any realistic discussion about the desire for increased devolution without returning fiscal powers to LAs.

In the current climate, it may feel like this is being done as an injustice to local govt by central govt. But local govt must have its eye on the longer game.

Fiscal autonomy, even partial, is an important democratic tool. For their own legitimacy, local govt should seize it.

In fact, it should be campaigning for the cap's outright abolition. It's a needless imposition on the constraints of a legitimate democratic institution. It local government wants more power, it needs to take more responsibility, even when times are difficult.