Power without Capacity? Despotic Centralism, Local Government, and the Contradictions of the English Council Tax Regime

The financing of English local government has become a critical aspect of centre-local relations during a period in which austerity has produced greater pressures on the former. The main means of funding local government is through Council Tax, a system of taxation based on residential banded property valuations. This paper examines the extent to which the English Council Tax system is structurally controlled by the central state, or whether urban local authorities have degrees of agency in which to adapt national policies. In contrast to many accounts that place an onus on the agency and homogeneity of the central state, this paper critically engages recent studies on ‘power without capacity’, recognising that neoliberalism and austerity has impacted central state’s control of urban local governments. The paper undertakes interviews with national sectorial organisations and urban local governments in all English regions. A more in-depth analysis is undertaken of one local authority in each region, with these ‘illustrative examples’ exploring tendencies in greater detail. In conclusion, the paper finds that the central state remains able to control local authorities, but that in certain areas it lacks the infrastructural capacity to fully coordinate tax collection and debt recovery, or prevent coercive actions toward vulnerable households by local government. Urban local governments do not seek to resist or critique the Council Tax system, focusing instead on being efficient Council Tax collectors and debt recovery agents.