The businessman was formally expelled on Wednesday for funding a Liberal Democrat candidate in the last election

The businessman was formally expelled on Wednesday for funding a Liberal Democrat candidate in the last election. At present, council tax is calculated on the basis of eight bands, with owners in a top-rate band H property paying twice as much as people on band D.All 22 million English homes were due to be rebanded, based on their value on 1 April this year, with new designations being revealed next September and the changes taking effect in 2007.Sir Michael Lyons may recommend the addition of new bands to take account of widely varying house prices across the country when he reports in the coming months.Sir Jeremy Beecham, Labour vice-chair of the LGA, last night warned ministers not to kick the issue into the long grass. “It can’t be sensible to base a property tax on house prices in 1991, but we don’t believe people should be penalised because they have seen their homes increase in value during the past decade.”The long-planned revaluation had been due to be completed by 2007.Those whose homes have risen most in value since the last valuation in 1991 would face higher council tax bills. The first stage of the battle has been won – but not until the Lyons review is heard will we know if the war is over.”The Government has shown great weakness to cave in ahead of their review, and are clearly in total disarray over the issue.”Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart, chairman of the Local Government Association (LGA), said the point was not whether the review should be delayed.”The council tax system is flawed,” he said. Senior ministers are expected to discuss the delay at a forthcoming Cabinet meeting.
Tory spokeswoman Caroline Spelman said: “This is a massive Government climbdown in the face of Conservative opposition to council tax revaluation.

Critics had predicted that the revaluation of millions of homes across England would mean major rises in tax bills. But any decision is likely to be postponed until Sir Michael Lyons completes an inquiry into local government funding at the end of the year. September 2005: Radio 4 presenter John Humphrys was rebuked by the BBC for his unguarded remarks at a PR event, including: “All you’ve got to do is say ‘John Prescott’ and people laugh”.. The Government was accused of a “massive climbdown” yesterday after it emerged that a council tax shake-up is to be put on hold. Ms Hodge claimed that a BBC reporter, Angus Stickler, was conducting a ” concerted campaign” to link her with cases of child abuse in homes run by Islington council, of which she was leader from 1982 to 1992.

She said that this amounted to “deplorable” sensationalism, and accused Mr Stickler of basing a report on evidence from an “extremely disturbed individual”. January 2004: The Hutton report cleared Tony Blair and Mr Campbell and blamed the BBC for just about everything. Mr Davies, the director general Greg Dyke and Mr Gilligan all resigned. February 2004: A leaked copy of a BBC legal report said that Lord Hutton’s report was “wrong in law”. August 2004: Mr Gilligan claimed the BBC is “going soft” on the Government, fearing a backlash from No 10 Speaking in Edinburgh. he said that Today “does seem to have lost at least half of its reporters and there seems to be a trend of moving story-breaking journalism off daily news programmes and into less-watched programmes in current affairs”.

No respite for the Beeb January 2005: A year after leaving the BBC, Mr Dyke, writing in The Independent, said: “Knowing what we now know, the saga has an unreal quality because, today, there is no doubt that the BBC story, which led to our departures, was fundamentally right when it said that Downing Street had sexed up the case for going to war in Iraq.” February 2005: Mr Campbell was branded an “out-of-control nutter” after sending an obscene email to Newsnight journalist Andrew McFadyen, which ended “Now f*** off and cover something important you t***s”. Even then, there was no furore until Mr Gilligan suggested in a newspaper article – still quoting his anonymous source – that the person responsible for inserting the 45-minute claim was Alastair Campbell. June 2003: Mr Campbell demanded an apology, as the Government ordered an inquiry into the source of the leaks. Mr Gilligan and Mr Campbell appeared before the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.