How Wales can reform council tax to boost growth and reduce inequality

The Welsh council tax proposals are too narrow At the outset, it is important to distinguish between the amount of resource in the local funding system, and the design of that funding system. [...] Fiscal devolution of council tax to councils would be good for growth and fairness The root of the problem with the Welsh council tax proposals is that they are trying to use a local tax to pursue national redistribution. [...] The council sets proportional tax rates for each band individually to raise in total the same amount of funding for Cardiff as the tax structure of the light green bars. [...] To pay for this, the corresponding average council tax increase for those in the most expensive 29 per cent of dwellings amounts to £761, with the households in the 16 per cent of dwellings in Band F seeing an increase of £333 a year. [...] The Welsh Government is to be commended for taking on the challenge of local finance, and much of the accompanying analysis of the IFS is relevant to the wider debate, but they can go further.