According to figures compiled by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy Cipfa , non-payment of poll tax in its first year in England and Wales represented And it was a problem to the end.
Reluctance to pay grew even stronger. In the tax's final year, , councils had to send a reminder to an astounding 88 per cent of those billed. As many as 28 per cent were issued summonses, 22 per cent received liability orders and 9 per cent had the bailiffs sent round. Even then, many still did not pay. The most recent Cipfa figures are for the year and are almost certainly understatements. In addition, however, councils had accepted that a huge further amount would never be collected.
When outstanding legal actions have ended, the same is likely to be said for subsequent years. Councils, unable to absorb shortfalls of such magnitude, responded at the time by bumping up the poll tax to cover for non-payment, a move which itself provoked further non- payment. They still had to chase up non-payers, not only to discourage further non-payment but also because any arrears collected could be used to reduce the next year's tax or boost spending.
But the very design of the poll tax made it hard to collect. There were almost twice as many poll-tax payers as there are council-tax payers. Or should people on higher incomes pay more? That idea was floated by the prime minister herself in an unusual signed "personal minute" to Major on 9 April. And she had another idea: putting an extra penny on a gallon of petrol and distributing the proceeds to councils.
She wrote in the suggestion by hand three times on a memo of 10 April listing options. But none of her colleagues seems to have paid any attention and the idea went nowhere. Meanwhile there was a growing split. Patten and the local government minister Michael Portillo wanted to increase central government grants to local authorities. Mrs Thatcher wasn't having it. Then she and Major, without apparently consulting Patten, came up with an idea for allowing local councils to levy a higher poll tax than stipulated by central government, provided they first put it to a local referendum a "poll tax poll".
Patten was opposed, believing the necessary legislation would be "massive in its political significance" and difficult to get through Parliament. One of Mrs Thatcher's private secretaries, Barry Potter, suggested that Patten was feeling "bruised" at being ignored. By the end of June Potter told the prime minister that Patten and Portillo, still arguing for more government funds, were now "isolated".
Today Michael Portillo says he and Chris Patten really wanted to find a way effectively to abolish the poll tax: "We wanted to take the guts out of it, take the bits that were hurting out of it… but we recognised for her sensitivity that it would still have to be called the poll tax. They also believed the problem would take central government money to resolve. As to the lessons to be learnt from the debacle, he draws a parallel between the decision to introduce the poll tax "without thinking it through" and David Cameron's decision to hold a referendum on Europe without thinking through the consequences.
Ultimately, the campaign is considered a success. Some construe the sheer size of the campaign as a message to the world, believing it represents the death of some ideas; some take it literally and believe it was simply a general consensus against poll taxes.
More information along these lines can be found in the multitude of first hand and scholarly sources available on the Internet or in books. In either case, the anti-poll tax campaign shows the possibility and power of mass action. To eliminate the poll tax, a flat tax which is the same for everyone regardless of wealth.
Time period. Location Description. View On Map. PCS Tags. Jump to case narrative Expand all details. Methods in 1st segment. Declarations by organizations and institutions. Methods in 2nd segment. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books.
Assemblies of protest or support. Social disobedience. General administrative noncooperation. Methods in 3rd segment. Methods in 4th segment. Methods in 5th segment. Methods in 6th segment.
Opposition to the community charge has been fierce. The community charge - more commonly known as the poll tax - was a fixed payment for all adults to their local authority.
In it replaced the rates system which was paid by all residential property owners based on the value of their home. The unpopularity of the new charge led to the poll tax riots in London in March and - indirectly - to the downfall of the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the November of the same year.
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