Quote:
Originally Posted by Gayle
I've been puzzling over this for a while now but Cyfr, how do you actually know that they're not the most expensive - are you taking the word of someone else or taking information from any other poll? Or have you assessed every single council in the country and calculated the facts for yourself.
If all the councils were assessed on the same criteria then that is accurate information surely?
I understand your workings out from your blog and the use of Band D - but surely that is the means for an average assessment?
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No its not accurate just because they assessed them the same. Quite simply because every constituency has different numbers of band D housing. If a constituency has majority band D housing, you can assume the average wage will be that of somebody living in band D housing and therefore the telegraph figure will be much more representative. For those with majorities not in band D then it is simply not representative. It will make those with majority in housing below D seem expensive, and the reverse, make constituencies with the majority of housing above band D appear very cheap.
No I haven't looked at every council in Britain. Although if you look at how expensive councils are on the basis of how much the resident has to pay not in relation to income, and hence not skewed by averages, Hyndburn certainly doesn't appear in the top 10 according to the LATEST telegraph article (that's this year not January 2007). On the matter, since council tax has risen by only 45% less than half the rate the average council tax has increased, then the tax burden under the previous labour administration would have to have been HUGE.