Britain's system for taxing property is.... a disaster. Simple conclusion from new deep policy dive report from @adamcorlett& @lauracgardiner out today resolutionfoundation.org/app/uploads/20…
Household wealth has doubled in the last 30 years compared to GDP - while wealth taxation has stayed completely flat. Council tax is the biggest so called wealth tax - the only (huge) problem is it bears almost no relationship to wealth or property values 
Since 1971 our property wealth has risen by 308% relative to GDP - meanwhile our supposed annual property tax (most recently council tax) has.... fallen by -0.3%. We really don't like taxing wealth
Council tax was introduced because of huge opposition to the poll tax - but in many ways it looks a hell of a lot like a poll tax, with very little variation by property value. Big contrast to income tax that does what it says - varies hugely with income...
Because council tax looks a lot like a poll tax it is hugely regressive - someone living in a property worth £100k pays FIVE TIMES the effective tax rate of someone living in a £1m property. Imagine trying to justify that if it was a new tax being introduced...
Middle income households pay a 50% higher effective council tax rate than the top 10% highest income households, as a proportion of property values
The regional picture is indefensible - typical council tax in the North East is over 3 times higher relative to property values than it is in London
There's a strong intergenerational angle to this council tax disaster - those in lowest council tax bands pay highest effective council tax rates - which increasingly is younger families
On reform - there are a lot of options out there. Options to raise tax for most expensive properties include 1) @Ed_Miliband's mansion tax on properties worth over £2m would raise £1bn 2) England could copy the Welsh and add a new top council tax band.
Reform options 2: the current system could be made less regressive. Scotland's reforms make a small move in that direction. @DerbyChrisW's proposals (that saw him leave the Labour frontbench) would raise £6.6bn
The challenge with all these proposed reforms within the current system is that they leave us with a hugely regressive property tax system - with those with least valuable properties paying higher tax rates
If you want a proper property tax system you need to scrap council tax altogether - properly abolish the poll tax. Then introduce a genuine property tax linked to property values - here's a few options, almost all with more winners than losers
Any tax properly linked to property values would get us away from the regressive nature of council tax
Council tax reform is far from easy but isnt impossible because 1) you can have more winners than losers 2) you could cut stamp duty significantly 3) technology has killed the old arguments about being impossible to value properties - if Zoopla can do it the state can
