HOUSEHOLDERS in York and parts of North Yorkshire have been spared a huge hike in council tax, following a Government decision not to revalue council tax bands during the current Parliament.

Senior City of York councillor Steve Galloway said today some residents may have escaped their properties moving up by one or even two bands.

Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles said families in England could save up to £320 a year in local tax hikes through his decision not to go ahead with a revaluation being planned by the previous Government.

Labour denounced his claims as “cynical and misleading” but Coun Galloway, a Liberal Democrat, said today he had been anxious that revaluation would be to the disadvantage of York.

“Essentially, house values in the city have risen faster than the national average over the last few years,” he said.

“The increases in parts of the city have been dramatic. This could have led to properties moving up one or two bands.”

Coun Galloway also revealed that York would not have benefited from any extra money.

He said the grant entitlement of local authorities took into account the amount they were able to collect through council tax, and therefore any higher income from that source would have been offset by lower grants.

“Revaluation would therefore have been an expensive exercise to conduct and could have led to hardship for some York residents, while producing nothing additional in terms of income to fund public services in the city.”

Coun Galloway said he hoped that, during the course of the Parliament, a fairer way of financing local services, different from taxing property values, would be found. Coun Brian Percival, deputy leader of Selby District Council, said he believed other properties, particularly in the north of the district and other parts of North Yorkshire, would have been affected in the same way as York if the plans for the revaluation had gone ahead.