Letter: Bell's clangers

I refer to David Bell's article on council tax reform (Perspective, 7 June). I admit the system is out of touch with current property values and is flawed in many ways.

However, checking the legislation before writing the article would have been advisable - as a graduate of economics myself, I wouldn't want him to impart inaccurate information to his students.

He mentions that the system "deters individuals from improving their property, because improvements lead to higher taxes".

Firstly, it depends what kind of improvements he means.

If it is only works which bring the building into a reasonable state of repair, there will be no impact on the property band because the valuation, as at 1991, is subject to various assumptions set out in Regulation 2 of The Council Tax (Valuation of Dwellings) (Scotland) Regulations 1992, which include that the building was in a state of reasonable repair.

In terms of statute it is, therefore, necessary that the current state of the fabric of the building is disregarded.

Secondly, if the improvement work was to go further than this, such as an extension being added, the legislation sets out that the assessor will not reassess the band until the dwelling has been subsequently sold.

He also mentions that "middle-income households who do not receive council tax benefit" are the heaviest hit. There are a number of benefits available that are not dependent on income.

These include the single person's discount of 25 per cent for those households with only one adult (excluding those in full-time education, who are exempt anyway) and, in some cases, reductions for those who are disabled.

Lindsey Howie

Main Street

Denholm, Borders