Poorer areas tend to offer less council tax support than more affluent areas more than a decade after the policy was localised, fresh analysis shared with The MJ has revealed.
Social policy, software and analytics firm Policy in Practice, which carried out the analysis, found that just over half (53%) of English councils reduced the maximum award in their council tax reduction (CTR) schemes.
The average maximum award now stands at 90% – down from 100% pre-localisation – with some areas offering as low as 40%.
Councils covering the most deprived areas provided an average maximum award of 88% in 2024-25, with two in five of these councils still offering schemes with a maximum award of 100%.
In contrast, for the councils covering the least deprived areas, the average maximum award was 94% and nearly two-thirds of these councils have kept 100% awards.
Head of policy at Policy in Practice, Rebecca McDonald, said: ‘This has likely been driven by poorer areas facing deeper council budget cuts in recent years. CTR scheme redesign has been a valuable route to reduce spending but has raised challenging decisions over which residents to prioritise and how to balance generosity, comprehensibility and administrative simplicity.'
Head of campaigns at the charity Debt Justice, Eva Watkinson, added: ‘It's shocking that, at a time when council tax debt is at a record high, CTR schemes are being cut for the most vulnerable people.'
Policy in Practice warned that, by cutting CTR schemes arrears worsen, leading to further costs for councils through crisis funding or homelessness support.
Council tax arrears have nearly doubled in recent years, rising from £3.5bn before the pandemic to £6bn last year. In response, some councils have reversed cuts, with the share offering 100% maximum support rising from 41% in 2020 to 47% in 2025.
The analysis found that the £4.9bn CTR support provided in 2025 was 20% lower in real terms than the support provided in 2012-13, when council tax support was localised.
It showed that the number of households supported by the policy had fallen by a quarter from five million to 3.7 million.
The cuts have only hit working-age residents as support for those of pension age has been protected and continues to be fixed nationally. Scotland and Wales chose to maintain national schemes.
Opinion: A steady erosion of support: thirteen years on from the localisation of Council Tax Support
