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Council Tax (New Valuation Lists for England) Bill

The hon. Gentleman’s proposal is a halfway house. It is technically possible—in fact, it would be part of a reform that would introduce a different sort of taxation; it would be part of the equalisation necessary for the introduction of a local income tax. However, it does not go far enough. Collectability was discussed in Committee, but a point that is often missed, although the hon. Member for Manchester, Blackley (Graham Stringer) made it, is that often the published statistics on collection assume that the tax is properly due as recorded, but if a lot of people claim falsely to be living as single people there is a lot of evasion going on that the statistics do not pick up.