Every year, at about this time, there are complaints about large Council Tax rises (The Argus, February 14).

These partly come from pensioners. The problem is not so much the Council Tax but the fact pensions aren't keeping up with the real cost of living.

There is also a widespread feeling we are not getting good value for the extra money we have to pay. Where is it all going?

But the basic principle that local services should be paid for from a property tax is sound. People are mobile but property is fixed which is why any form of local income tax would be an expensive administrative nightmare.

The trouble with Council Tax is it is the wrong sort of property tax.

If it were only based on site value, those on the most expensive sites would pay the most, whereas tenants in blocks of flats would share the cost of a site-value tax between them.

The owner of a vacant site with planning consent would pay the tax on the assumption the site had been developed, which would discourage him or her from keeping them derelict and out of use.

No one would be penalised for improving their property, say, by converting their loft into living space. Under this reform, most people would pay less tax and the cost of housing would come down.

Unfortunately, for reasons best known to itself, the Government is dead against the change, even though it would solve a lot of problems at a stroke.

-Henry Law, Brighton