You report the council tax revaluation is about to start (The Argus, April 1) which is strange because, last autumn, the Government appointed Sir Michael Lyons (professor of local goverment at Birmingham University) to head a committee to examine the future of council tax.

His report is due to be published towards the end of the year.

The present system of council tax valuation is fundamentally flawed.

Property tax assessments should be on site values alone, otherwise those who improve their properties are penalised while owners of vacant residential land and undeveloped properties are encouraged to leave them in their present state, thereby aggravating the housing shortage and forcing most householders to pay more.

This is the root of the unfairness of the council tax, as was pointed out to the Lyons Inquiry.

One wonders why the government decided to go ahead with the valuation before waiting for the Inquiry to finish its work.

Is it a case of the left hand not knowing what the right is doing?

I seem to recall reading that New Labour was about joined-up thinking. What is going on?

-Henry Law, Brighton