The Rates Revisited? A Geographical Reassignment of Property Valuations and Local Tax Burdens under the Council Tax

Abstract

In this paper the detailed patterns of British property valuation and local revenue raising under the council tax are compared with those prevailing under the domestic rates. The results of matching individual council-tax valuations with rateable values for the 47000 domestic properties that make up the Inner Area of Cardiff, Wales, are reported. A geographical information system is used to identify the disaggregate pattern of properties which have been assigned higher or lower relative values after the abolition of the domestic rates. The findings are seen as significant in describing the intraurban geography of property values in Britain: properties constructed by local authorities now attract significantly lower relative valuations; pre-1919 private-sector housing is now more highly valued; and different construction types (for example, purpose-built flats, converted flats, and ends of terraces) attract quite different valuations under the two regimes. Overall, the distribution of rateable values vis-à-vis that of council-tax bands is likely to have had a multifaceted effect upon local revenue raising, and the authors begin to explore its changed geography in some detail.