People looking to live in Brighton and Hove face a double whammy with some of the highest house prices in England and high council tax bills.
An analysis by Brighton and Hove News found that the median house price in the city was £365,000, according to March figures published by the Office for National Statistics.
Out of the 315 council areas in England, Brighton and Hove is ranked as the 68th most expensive.
If London is excluded, Brighton and Hove is the 37th most expensive area for house buyers.
But areas with high house prices tend to have lower levels of council tax, with London being a case in point.
Every council in London set a lower level of council tax than Brighton and Hove which is charging a couple in a band D property £1,742 for the 2021-22 financial year.
Out of 315 “lower-tier local authorities” in England, just 45 councils charged more than Brighton and Hove in council tax.
The analysis includes the combined bills for counties and districts in two-tier areas such as East Sussex and West Sussex.
Most of the councils charging more for services were in areas where median house prices were cheaper. The only exceptions were Oxford and Watford.
Council tax bands range from A to H, broadly according to property value, with band A paying the lowest bills, and the most expensive homes, in band H, paying the most.
As two county towns in East Sussex, each could give up council underspends to other East Sussex authorities or call on the underspends from other authorities.
The creation of Brighton & Hove – the merger engineered by the Labour Laeders of each council Steve Bassam & Ivor Caplin – as a Unitary Authority meant total reliance on tax from Brighton & Hove.
And its a low income, student exempt area. The takings cannot match need.