The latest report on Council Tax doesn't make for good reading but then, living in West Sussex (The Argus, February 19), when did it ever?

The Government should tell local authorities there is to be no increase above inflation, otherwise it will withhold the difference.

Last year, I joined the pensioners club and am still trying to understand how I was allowed to be conned over the years by my pension annuity. The premiums were tax excluded, thereby ending any benefits.

The sum I managed to acquire, invested with the best-paying option at that time, guaranteed me the pension for only five years but wasn't inflation-proof. I will need to live for nearly 15 years simply to get my money back.

If inflation increased at three per cent a year, the compound rate would see my existing pension eroded by more than 50 per cent by the time I'm 80, when I'll probably still be paying over-inflation taxes.

I always believed the previous system was much fairer because everyone paid something. All it took for the Government to climb down were the violent actions taken by a few in central London. Maybe the over-60s should learn from them.

The plain fact is, the current system is wrong. The Government just has to face the fact we can't go on paying more.

We should scrap Council Tax, with all its overheads, and increase VAT to 20 per cent. It would be simple if everyone across the country paid the same. The systems are already in place to collect it.

-D Royston, Littlehampton