North Shropshire by-election: 92 per cent of households would benefit from council tax reform, says group

The Fairer Share campaign claims the average resident in the constituency would be £500 better off if the tax was reformed.

The group made the claim days before the people of North Shropshire go to the polls to elect a new MP.

Figures produced by the Fairer Share campaign show 76 per cent of people across England would see lower bills if council tax and stamp duty were replaced by a proportional property tax system.

However, in the North Shropshire constituency, which will be holding a by-election to replace former MP Owen Paterson on Thursday next week, the group says the figure is as high as 92 per cent.

The group has called on all candidates to commit to scrapping council tax and to backing a proportional property tax.

It proposes a flat-rate tax set at 0.48 per cent of a property’s value, which it says would bring in exactly the same amount of revenue as stamp duty and council tax combined.

Fairer Share chairman Andrew Dixon said: “Households up and down the UK are getting a bad deal from council tax and would benefit from a fairer system. Our figures show this is especially the case in North Shropshire.

“The bombshell that none of the by-election candidates can afford to ignore is that more than nine out of ten households in the constituency would be better off under a proportional property tax, saving an average £500 every year.

“As the cost of living continues to rise and pressure mounts to make levelling up a reality, many MPs are already backing this change.

"Surely, rather than standing by the status quo, by-election candidates should now also get behind a system that would mean lower bills every month for the majority of people in North Shropshire. Doing so could make all of the difference when voters go to the polls on December 16."