Plenty of us do it. We open that brown envelope, groan at the council tax bill, and mutter that it’s robbery. Then, in the next breath, we complain about potholes, missed bin collections and the closing of the local library. We seem to resent paying for local services, yet expect them to work. As Rachel Reeves considers reforming council tax in the Budget, let’s look at Britain’s favourite delusion.

The system is absurd. Council tax bands in England and Scotland are still based on 1991 property values. Then, the average house in England cost £54,000. Today, it’s £268,000, and in London it’s around £548,000. Yet the top rate of council tax is capped at just three times the bottom.

The top Band H begins at £320,000, so a £5m Chelsea townhouse can pay little more than a £400,000 semi in Leeds. Updating........

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