There appears to be a presumption in Government circles that an increase in next year's council tax of about five per cent is acceptable.

These people need to think again and understand any increase above the rate of inflation, let alone one twice as high, is not acceptable.

Nor was there confirmation by the Chancellor in his pre-budget statement that the £200 payment to pensioners to help with council tax bills would continue to be paid next year.

Having endured an inflation-busting increase in this iniquitous tax every year since Labour came to power, we are now expected to rejoice that next year's starting-point increase will only be five per cent.

Average council tax per dwelling in 1997 was £564. If council tax had risen at the rate of inflation since 1997, the average council tax bill in England would now be £708. But it's £1,009 - a massive hike of 79 per cent since 1997.

The present system, based on property values, results in a disproportionately high tax on those least able to afford it.

It should be replaced by a tax based on everyone's ability to pay from their disposable income, not the monopoly value of their home, which people find increasingly hard to keep warm as a direct result of gas and electric companies being filleted to the bone by the Chancellor.

The maximum acceptable increase in anyone's council tax bill from next year onwards should be the rate of inflation and not a penny more.

-Dave Bonwick, Portslade