Council Tax
Council tax levels and reform
Based on 2 parliamentary votes
Related Local Government Issues
How Parties Voted on Council Tax
Government alignment shows how often each party voted with the government's stated position. Issue-aligned direction shows agreement with the AI-identified supportive stance.
Recent Votes
| Vote | Result | Date |
|---|---|---|
MPs voted on the government's proposed principles for determining whether council tax increases in England in 2026-27 require a local referendum. This annual report sets the referendum thresholds — councils that wish to raise council tax above the set limit must hold a local vote to get approval. Yes = Support the government's proposed council tax referendum thresholds for 2026-27, allowing councils to raise tax up to the set limits without a referendum · No = Oppose the proposed thresholds, likely arguing they are too high (permitting excessive council tax rises) or too low (restricting councils' ability to raise revenue) Govt: Aye | 280-92 | 11 Feb 2026 |
Vote on whether to require the government to review the impact of new business rates multipliers on businesses, high streets, and economic growth within 18 months of the law taking effect. The Bill changes business rates to offer lower rates for retail, hospitality and leisure properties while introducing higher rates for other properties including private schools. Yes = Support requiring a formal government review of how the new business rates multipliers affect small businesses, high streets and economic growth, ensuring accountability for the policy's impact · No = Oppose mandating a statutory review, likely believing existing oversight mechanisms are sufficient or that the review requirement is unnecessary bureaucracy Govt: No | 343-173 | 15 Jan 2025 |
How is this calculated?
Government alignment (primary bar) shows how often a party's MPs voted with the government's stated position on this issue. This is the most comparable metric across parties, as it measures the same reference point for everyone.
Issue-aligned direction (secondary bar) shows how often MPs voted in the direction tagged as supportive of this issue by AI analysis. For example, if a vote is tagged “pro-environment”, a Yes vote counts as aligned. This can be misleading when the tagged direction happens to align with opposition amendments rather than government bills.
Why these metrics may differ: Opposition parties often vote against government bills for strategic or procedural reasons, even when they broadly support the policy area. The government alignment metric makes this clearer by showing the actual voting pattern against a consistent reference.
Source: Commons division data from the UK Parliament Votes API. Alignment direction determined by AI analysis of vote stance tags. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.