The Geographical Incidence of Local Government Revenues: An Intraurban Case Study

The United Kingdom has experienced different local taxation regimes in each of the last three financial years: Namely the property-based household rates; the personal community charge or ‘poll tax’; and the hybridised personal community charge adjusted for neighbourhood ‘transitional relief’. The geographical impact of these changing policies in the Inner Areas of the City of Cardiff is examined, highlighting the importance of historical rateable values and household sizes. By using a purpose-built street-level database, the implications of the different taxation systems are examined at increasingly detailed geographic scales, and the complexity of their impact is illustrated. This analysis focuses upon the geographical effects of using administrative community boundaries for the allocation of transitional relief in Cardiff, Wales.