Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will set out the transitional arrangements prior to equalisation of differences in Council Tax rates across merging local authorities.

Council tax is managed by local authorities, who decide what level of council tax they wish to set. The Government sets referendum principles each year and any authority which sets a council tax increase above the principles must have it approved by voters. There is an established system for the harmonisation of council tax levels across the area of a restructured local authority area, whereby the difference between the Band D level of the highest and lowest charging predecessor areas must narrow each year, until a single uniform Band D is reached across the new authority. There is no minimum or maximum requirement on the extent to which the gap must close each year, provided harmonisation is completed by the start of year 8 at the latest. This is set out in The Local Government (Structural Changes) (Finance) Regulations 2008 (SI 2008/3022).