Miles Brignall's article (Two worlds. One council tax, 10 March) got teasingly close to acknowledging that the failure of successive governments to carry out the revaluation of properties for council tax has meant that tax bills in many parts of the country are higher than they should be. After my careful review of local taxation in 2007, I recommended both early revaluation and an increase in the number of bands to ensure that owners of the most expensive homes paid their fair share of the cost of local services.
Then, like now, the howl of protest from those seeking to protect the wealthier house owners of London and other housing "hot spots" was intense. There was no comparable advocacy for those who were paying too much then and continue to pay too much today – those whose house values have increased more slowly.
Council tax pays towards the services provided locally but most of these are national entitlements controlled and determined by national government. Whilst ever that continues to be the case, contributions through council tax should be adjusted for changes in the relative value of homes and the wealth they represent – as was originally anticipated when it was introduced. The currently detached nature of the London housing market, fuelled as it is in good part by overseas investment, reinforces the case for this unfairness to be tackled sooner than later. The Liberal Democrat proposal for a supplementary tax on houses valued at over £2m would be a step in the right direction but would not fully solve the underlying problem entirely.
Michael Lyons
(The Lyons Inquiry), Birmingham
• Deborah Orr's supposedly socialist view on a proposed "mansion tax" (Comment, 10 March) can be reduced to a simple principle: the poor should not be allowed to live in expensive houses. They should be forced to sell up to someone wealthier (mostly likely a banker these days) or turn their place into a B&B when the house they bought 20 years ago has, by chance, become too valuable to be called home. Apart from the huge advantage this would give society as a whole, it would no doubt be invigorating for septuagenarians such as Joan Bakewell to up sticks and move home for the last few years of their lives or, alternatively, to enjoy a new career as a landlord.
Gavin Weightman
London