Successive governments have been criticised in the past for not updating the 1991-based domestic property criteria for council tax in England.

After the headlines of the last few weeks over sharp rises from the revaluation of business rate – last updated five years ago – one can understand why politicians shy away from handling the equivalent of political gelignite. Politicians tinker with local government finance at their peril.

The community charge proved to be Margaret Thatcher’s nemesis. Since then no government, neither under Labour, whose vote depended on the south east marginals, nor under the Conservatives, has dared update the 1991 valuation for fear of creating uproar among the losers - most of them precisely in those south east marginals and London.