News

A group of older people living in a care home have each been handed council tax bills of more than £1,200 because they now have cookers and kitchen sinks in their rooms.

Kathleen Chambers House in Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, was reassessed by Inland Revenue valuation officers following an upgrading of facilities, which included new cookers, kitchen sinks and en-suite bathrooms.

The valuation office agency (VOA) decided the rooms were now individual dwellings within the relevant regulations, and thus attracted council tax of £1,266 per person, backdated to January 2000.

The home, which is run by the Royal National Institute for the Blind, accommodates 37 residents mostly in their 80s and 90s. They were previously exempt from council tax because they lived in a care home.

Sedgemoor council, which collects the tax claimed it was left with no choice but to act on the VOA’s decision. "Our hands are tied," said the council’s head of revenues Ruth Pearson.

But the residents and the RNIB have criticised the decision on the grounds it penalises attempts to comply with national minimum standards for care homes. Issued by the department of health and due to come into force next April, the standards aim to improve residents’ private accommodation and enable independent living.

Jon Barrick, RNIB director of community services, described the decision as "totally unjust and deplorable", adding: "It seems completely absurd that residential care homes are not exempt from this."

Pearson said the council was looking at possible exemptions, discounts, allowances and benefits that might be employed to alleviate the residents’ problems, and hoped to resolve matters with the RNIB.

She added: "We’ve spoken with the Local Government Association on this matter. They are going to have a meeting with the VOA, but we haven’t heard anything yet."

The LGA’s policy lead on local taxation, David Maddison, said the VOA and department of transport, local government and the regions were considering the issues around Kathleen Chambers House, and other similar organisations, but no decision had been reached.