Survey of public attitudes to council tax (summary)

The Welsh Government is undertaking a programme of research to inform the Programme for Government commitment to reform council tax to ensure a fairer and more progressive system.

Previous research (Reforming local government finance in Wales: summary of findings) has identified that levels of awareness of and attitudes to local taxes are not clear and seldom measured. For this reason, this research has involved examining general public understanding and acceptance of the council tax system in Wales. The Welsh Government commissioned additional questions about attitudes to council tax in the March 2022 wave of the Wales Omnibus Survey (conducted by Beaufort Research Ltd), with analysis conducted in-house by Knowledge and Analytical Services.

The purpose of this research was to examine public perceptions of the fairness of council tax. This included the design and administration of the tax as well as the way it is used and invested in communities. It also sought to explore the relationship between the level of knowledge and understanding of council tax and perceptions of its fairness and draw out views on future reform of the tax.

The Wales Omnibus Survey involves interviews with a quota sample of a minimum of 1,000 adults aged 16 years and over who are resident in Wales. Genuine statistical significance cannot, strictly speaking, be established using quota sampling; ‘significant’ differences refer to a pseudo-statistically significant different at the 95 per cent confidence level.

Fieldwork for the March 2022 wave of the Wales Omnibus Survey took place between 28 February and 20 March 2022. A total of 1,000 interviews were completed.

Respondents to the survey were evenly split between those who reported that they knew a fair amount about council tax and those that reported that they knew very little about it.

• Around half of respondents (44%) reported knowing a fair amount about council tax, with 43% reporting that they knew very little. There were significant differences by gender, age, income band and housing tenure. Respondents who were more likely to report that they knew a great deal or a fair amount about council tax were male, earning £75,000+ per annum, aged 55+ years or property owners. Respondents who were more likely to report that they knew very little or nothing at all about council tax were female, aged 16-34 years, unemployed, earning less than £19,999 per annum, social renters or disabled.
• When respondents were asked to name services funded by council tax, the most commonly named services were recycling or waste collection (64%), emergency services (55%) and highways (45%).

The survey showed that the majority of respondents found paying council tax a simple process, would know who to contact if they had a problem with council tax and did not find their council tax bill difficult to understand.

• Around eight out of ten respondents (82%) agreed that paying council tax is a simple process. There were significant differences by age and disability status. Respondents who were more likely to agree that paying council tax is a simple process were aged 55+ years or not disabled.
• Almost three quarters of respondents (72%) disagreed with the statement that they do not know who to contact if they had a problem with council tax. There were significant differences by age, disability status and working status. Respondents who were more likely to agree that they did not know who to contact if they had a problem with council tax were aged 16-34 years, disabled or full-time students.
• Around two thirds of respondents (65%) disagreed with the statement that their council tax bills are difficult to understand. There were significant differences by property tenure, age, and council tax payment status. Respondents who were property owners were more likely to disagree that their council tax bills are difficult to understand. Respondents who were aged 16-34 or in receipt of discounts or reductions to their council tax were more likely to agree that their council tax bill was difficult to understand.

Respondents had mixed attitudes in terms of awareness of the council tax support that may be available, and whether their council tax bill reflects the current value of their home.

• Just over half of respondents (54%) agreed that they were aware of the council tax support that may be available. There were significant differences by age, household structure and council tax payment status. Respondents who were more likely to agree that they were aware of the council tax support that may be available were aged 55 years or over, from single adult households or in receipt of discounts or reductions to their council tax.
• Nearly half of respondents (47%) agreed that their council tax bill reflects the current value of their home. There were significant differences by age, property tenure, household structure and council tax payment status. Respondents who were more likely to agree that their council tax bills reflect the current value of their home were aged 55 years or over, property owners, from single adult households or in receipt of discounts or reductions to their council tax.

The majority of respondents disagreed that they had seen the benefit of council tax invested in their local community or that the council tax system is fair, and over half reported that it was not clear to them how council tax is spent.

• Around six out of ten respondents (62%) disagreed that they had seen the benefit of council tax invested in their local community. There were significant differences by region, gender, age, working status, property tenure, council tax payment status and council tax band. Respondents who were more likely to agree that they had seen the benefit of council tax invested in their local community were from Cardiff and South-East Wales, male or property owners. Respondents who were more likely to disagree that they had seen the benefit of council tax invested in their local community were aged 35-54 years, full or part-time employees, not in receipt of discounts or reductions to their council tax or in council tax band D.
• Over half of respondents (57%) disagreed with the statement that the council tax system is fair. There were significant differences by gender, age, income band, household structure and council tax payment status. Respondents who were more likely to agree that the council tax system is fair were male, aged 16-34 years, earning £75,000+ per annum or in receipt of discounts or reductions to their council tax. Respondents who were more likely to disagree that the council tax system is fair were from a household where a couple lived with dependents.
• Around half of all respondents (56%) agreed that it was not clear to them how council tax is spent. There were significant differences by age, working status, property tenure and household structure. Those respondents who were more likely to disagree that it was not clear to them how council tax is spent were aged 55+ years, retired or permanently not working, or property owners. Those respondents who were more likely to agree that it was not clear to them how council tax is spent were from households occupied by couples with dependents.

Respondents had mixed attitudes on the extent to which the council tax system supports people who cannot afford to pay, and whether local councils have enough control over council tax rates.

• Around two out of five respondents (43%) agreed that the council tax system supports people who cannot afford to pay. There were significant differences by region, gender, age, working status, property tenure, household structure and council tax payment status. Respondents who were more likely to agree that the council tax system supports people who cannot afford to pay were male, aged 55+ years, retired or permanently not working, from single adult households or not paying council tax. Respondents who were more likely to disagree that the council tax system supports people who cannot afford to pay were from the South Wales Valleys or living in private rented accommodation.
• Responses were fairly equally divided in terms of whether local councils do not have enough control over council tax rates, with 41% disagreeing with this statement, and 29% answering, ‘don’t know’. There were significant differences by region, gender, age, working status, property tenure and council tax payment status. Respondents who were more likely to agree that local councils do not have enough control over council tax rates were from Mid and West Wales, male or full-time employees. Respondents who were more likely to disagree that local councils do not have enough control over council tax rates were aged 55+ years, property owners or in receipt of discounts or reductions to their council tax.

The majority of respondents reported that the amount of council tax they are expected to pay is too high.

• Around three-fifths of respondents (61%) indicated that their council tax was too high. There were significant differences by region, gender, age, property tenure, income band, disability status and working status. Respondents who were more likely to report that council tax was ‘too high’ were from the South Wales Valleys, female, aged 35-54, property owners, earning between £20,000-29,999 or not disabled. Full-time students were less likely to report that council tax was too high.
• A quarter of respondents indicated that the amount of council tax they are expected to pay was about right. There were significant differences by gender, income band and household structure. Respondents who were more likely to report that council tax was about right were male, earning £75,000+ per annum or from single adult households.
• When provided with information about the services which are funded by council tax, a smaller proportion indicated that the council tax they are asked to pay was too high (49%, compared to 61% before the information was provided). A larger proportion of respondents indicated that the amount they are expected to pay was about right (33%, compared to 25% before the information was provided).

The majority of respondents agreed that council tax should be replaced with a different system of local taxation to make it fairer. When asked about alternatives, a system of local taxation based on your income was perceived as the fairest system.

• Four in ten participants (42%) agreed that council tax should be replaced, with 17% disagreeing. Around two out of five respondents (41%) answered ‘don’t know’ to this question. There were significant differences by region, gender, age, working status and council tax payment status. Respondents who were more likely to agree that council tax should be replaced were from Cardiff and South-East Wales, male, aged 35-54 years, full-time employees or paying a full council tax bill.
• Nearly half of respondents (46%) ranked ‘your income’ as the fairest measure of a new system of local taxation. Less than one in ten respondents (7%) ranked ‘the value of the land your property occupies’ as the fairest measure. Over half of all respondents (57%) ranked a system where everyone pays the same amount as the least fair measure.

In terms of what should be the aims of a new system of local taxation, respondents indicated that the most important aim is that payment systems should be simple.

• When asked to rank a series of statements in terms of their importance on a scale of 1 to 10 (where 1 was not at all important and 10 was absolutely vital) the results showed that the most important aim of local taxation according to residents was that ‘payment systems should be simple’. Respondents gave this statement a mean average importance score of 8.44. The aim that local tax bills should ‘reflect ability to pay’ was given the lowest mean average importance score of 7.93.
• Around four out of ten respondents (42%) ranked the statement ‘payment systems should be simple’ as absolutely vital, whereas around a third of respondents (33%) ranked the statement ‘local tax bills should reflect ability to pay’ as absolutely vital.
• When asked what one thing they would change about the council tax system, the most common answer was that council tax payments should be reduced, made cheaper or more affordable.

Authors: Jennie Mack and Nerys Owens (Knowledge and Analytical Services, Welsh Government)

Views expressed in this report are those of the researchers and not necessarily those of the Welsh Government.

For further information please contact:
Email: research.publicservices@gov.wales

Social research number: 48/2022
Digital ISBN 978-1-80364-374-8

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