Poorest hit hardest by Council Tax

3.41.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 6th May 2004

Scrap the Tax now says Roger McMurray

Tax figures out on Thursday 6 May have shown that the poorest 20% of households pay 4.6% of their incomes in council tax compared to 1.6% for the richest 20%. Overall people in the poorest households are paying 37.9% of their income in tax compared to 35.1% for the richest 20%.

Crawley Lib Dems Chairman and Furnace Green campaigner David Barry said "It's simply not fair that the poorest people in Britain pay a higher proportion of their incomes in tax than the richest. A major reason that the system is so unfair is Council Tax - which is not related to ability to pay."

Fellow Furnace Green campaigner, Roger McMurray, added "The best way to make the system fairer is to scrap the unfair Council Tax and replace it with a fair local income tax based on the ability to pay."