Douglas Mason - The Poll Tax

The Poll Tax

Following a ratings revaluation in Scotland which pushed up bills by 30 per cent, Deputy Prime Minister William Whitelaw returned from Edinburgh urging Margaret Thatcher that "something must be done" in anticipation of the potential unrest in store for the rest of the country.

Rates were a property tax traditionally assessed on property values, but with major exemptions existed in Scotland, so a minority actually paid them. The problem made more acute in Scotland, where valuation changes had landed some people with very large increases in their bills. Due to the exemptions, the majority had every incentive to vote for high-spending local authorities. Mason examined various alternatives, including a local sales tax and a local income tax, but concluded that an equal charge on all residents was the fairest due to approximately equal consumption of local services.

In 1981, Eamonn Butler attended a luncheon hosted by University Of St Andrews Tory Club where the original idea of a Local Authority Poll Tax to replace the rates was passed on to him by its author, Robert L Thompsett, a then student and the Club's Publicity Officer. After mulling over it, he then passed it on to Mason as an idea to consider. Mason did much work on the basic idea.

Mason argued that it was unfair for 13 million householders to finance council services which benefited 40 million. If all voters had to pay for local spending, it would act as a natural cap to council extravagance. This accountability appealed to Thatcher, who adopted Mason's 1985 report Revising the Rating System as her Government's policy.

Whilst Mason's paper anticipated a spending freeze, politicians of the day ignored this recommendation during implementation, with the result that many councils used the transition to the Poll Tax to cover massive spending increases. In addition, where there were two-tier councils at district and county level, there would be additional confusion on who was responsible for increases. In the end, the Thatcher government was blamed, severely weakening Margaret Thatcher.

After 600 years people were still tinkering with the rates,... Nobody in their right mind expected the Community Charge to work perfectly in its first year. like killing a year-old child simply because it can't walk or talk.