Scrap council tax now to fight off Reform, says Blackpool MP

The Lead North called for the abolition of council tax earlier this year - now MPs are starting to agree

Hello and welcome to The Blackpool Lead.

Council tax is regressive and unfairly punishes the poor while rewarding the rich. That is the message from 13 Labour MPs who have written to Rachel Reeves calling for big changes in how property is taxed.

In doing so, they echo a campaign launched by The Blackpool Lead and our sister titles in the North earlier this year where we called for exactly that. Council tax punishes Blackpool - but rewards areas like Kensington and Chelsea.

Council tax rises have become a cycle - where poorer areas and therefore councils battling big adult social care bills see persistent rises, but wealthier areas with smaller bills are able to freeze.

Among those to write to Rachel Reeves is Blackpool South MP Chris Webb - who in fairness has backed the campaign from day one.

Blackpool briefing

🏠 Blackpool Council has been criticised for still making use of controversial ‘no fault evictions’ from its housing stock, sometimes involving vulnerable tenants. Despite the Labour Party’s national commitment to abolish Section 21 ‘no-fault’ evictions, the practice is being implemented by My Blackpool Home (MBH), the company established by Labour-run Blackpool Council to manage its housing stock.

But Cllr Lynn Williams, Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Tourism, said that while specific cases of eviction would be looked at, Section 21 notices were only utilised by My Blackpool Home (Blackpool Housing Company Limited) as a last resort.

🍷 Blackpool will receive an extra £45,000 through the Rough Sleeping Drug and Alcohol Treatment programme – part of a wider £3 million national top-up announced by the Government. The funding will go directly into evidence-based drug and alcohol treatment and support for people who are sleeping rough or at risk of doing so.

The additional £45,000 is a top up of the £2.86 million already secured for Blackpool for 2025/26 – £877,466 of which was for Rough Sleeping Drug and Alcohol Treatment Services alongside a £1.54 million for the Homelessness Prevention Grant and £443,000 for Rough Sleeping Prevention and Recovery.

🏠 Ambitious plans to build a sizable food store at Norcross may have been approved – but planners have stipulated the application was not specific to M&S. The plans were lodged with Wyre planners back in January and agents for the store chain said it was aimed at building a new ‘first class’ M&S store off Norcross Lane, offering ‘6,600 product lines’. If given the go ahead, the project will be developed alongside new proposals to bring more houses to those already on the former DWP site, located on the edge of Thornton and Anchorsholme.

Council tax is regressive and unfairly punishes towns like Blackpool

Chris Webb with son Cillian. Credit: The Blackpool Lead/Michael Holmes

By Luke Beardsworth

Blackpool South MP Chris Webb is one of 13 Labour MPs who have written to Rachel Reeves to call on her to scrap council tax.

In doing so Webb has reiterated his support for a campaign launched by The Lead North titles in March 2025 to reform what we dubbed one of the most regressive tax systems out there.

The average band D council tax for England is £2,280. But for London’s most expensive boroughs, the figure is much lower.

In Westminster, home to the famous Belgravia and Eaton Square (also known as the Red Square, due to its numerous Russian billionaire residents), residents in band D properties will pay just £1,019 annually — less than half of the national average.

In Kensington and Chelsea, residents will pay £1,591.59, around 30% lower than the average.

In Knightsbridge - home to the UK’s most expensive street where it costs on average £20.35 million to live, they pay £1,946.32 to live in the most expensive band. The same bracket in Blackpool is an eyewatering £4,784.42.

In the letter to Rachel Reeves, which has also been signed by Jonathan Hinder, Labour’s MP for Pendle and Clitheroe, the group says that Labour needs to be bold and embrace new ideas to fight back against Reform UK.

Webb’s support for change is longstanding but the increased support for reform of an ‘increasingly indefensible council tax system’ shows that a growing number of MPs understand the need for different ideas with Nigel Farage’s party persistently leading in the polls.

The letter reads: “If we are to succeed in our mission to transform Britain and fight back against Reform, we must be bold and embrace new ideas that put more money back into the pockets of working people.

“One way we can start is by looking at ways we can abolish the outdated, deeply regressive, and increasingly indefensible council tax system.

“Families in modest homes in our constituencies pay far more, relative to the value of their property, than those in mutli-million pound houses in London and the South East.”