The Council Tax Valuation Bands Bill [HL] is a private member’s bill introduced by Lord Marlesford (Conservative). The Bill received its first reading in the House of Lords on 1 June 2015 and is scheduled to receive its second reading on 11 September 2015. Lord Marlesford has prepared Explanatory Notes to the Bill.
The Bill seeks to make provision for the introduction of a new set of council tax valuation bands which would be applicable to all dwellings bought or sold after 1 April 2000. The Bill, if enacted, would:
• Compel the Secretary of State responsible to introduce regulations to establish a new set of council tax valuation bands.
• Require that all dwellings bought or sold since 1 April 2000 be placed in the updated bands.
• Ensure that any dwelling that has not been bought or sold since 1 April 2000 would continue to attract council tax according to the valuation bands set out in the Local Government Finance Act 1992.
• Alter the proportions between each valuation band. The Bill stipulates that the proportions would be: 6: 8: 16: 24: 36: 48: 100: 250.
The Bill states that the new range of values for each council tax valuation band would be as follows:
• below £250,000
• between £250,001 and £500,000
• between £500,001 and £1,000,000
• between £1,000,001 and £2,000,000
• between £2,000,001 and £5,000,000
• between £5,000,001 and £10,000,000
• between £10,000,001 and £20,000,000
• over £20,000,000
Lord Marlesford has stated that “the extremely good system of council tax needs updating”, and has argued that it is not “acceptable in today’s world that the most expensive property pay only three times the amount of the humblest and cheapest property”. Furthermore, he has suggested that his proposals are a “neat system, because it would require no valuations at all”.
