As households began paying their updated annual council tax bills this month, one London resident subject to the charge took us by surprise. As envelopes across the country contained news of 3% average rises in local taxes for 2009/10, prime minister, Gordon Brown, revealed he took personal responsibility for paying the council tax bill for the flat above 10 Downing Street. Mr Brown recently came under fire for changing the definition of his ‘main home' from his house in Fife, Scotland, to Number 10 – thereby benefiting from Westminster's generous expenses accounts. But, speaking to the BBC, Mr Brown said his Downing Street home was not ‘free' and that he paid the local tax bill out of his own pocket. ‘MPs have a duty to satisfy the public that public money is being well spent. I don't shirk from that responsibility,' he said.