Tristram Hunt calls for council tax system to be scrapped ahead of inequality speech

Tristram Hunt, former shadow Education Secretary has said that the council tax system should be abandoned in favour of an annual levy calculated in relation to property values.

Appearing on the Andrew Marr Shadow this morning, Hunt outlined the crux of a speech he will be giving tomorrow at the Fabian Society by saying Labour to look at new “tools and policies” to deal with the changing nature of inequality.

“We can’t just deal with income inequality anymore, we can’t just focus on material poverty; we also have to think about family, about community, about culture, about the opportunities which young people have to fulfil their potential above and beyond just material poverty,” he told Marr this morning.

Hunt said that he would want to see the money from this new property tax used for policies that “tackle inequality at root”.

“What I want to see is to make sure we have a tax system which reflects the great concentrations of wealth we’re now seeing in assets – particularly in property. And so I would get rid of the council tax system and have a new property tax based upon the value of the property,” he explained.

The former shadow minister also urged Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to pull out of a Christmas event organised by anti-war organisation Stop the War coalition. 

“I don’t think that he should go there. Stop the War coalition picketed the Labour party headquarters when we were trying to run a phone-bank for the Oldham by-election, so they were preventing the election of a Labour member of parliament.

“We have also seen some pretty ugly comments from them about Hilary Benn and the fact that Hilary Benn should be sacked. And also their comments about Islamic State and about how the French almost had it coming to them. They are a really disreputable organisation. I would hope Jeremy would step back and not go to their fundraiser,” Hunt said.

This comes after shadow foreign minister Steven Doughty said he thought it might be inappropriate for Corbyn to make an appearance at the dinner.