Despite only living in a two-bedroom semi-detached house, a Surbiton pensioner says he is incensed to be paying more council tax than Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Peter Bell lives in a band D property in Raeburn Avenue, Surbiton, and from April will fork out £1,471 a year in council tax to Kingston Council. Many of his neighbours with bigger homes are paying even greater sums.

Meanwhile Tony and Cherie Blair, who famously own a lavish property in Connaught Square, Westminster, will pay a total of £1,318 council tax to Conservative Westminster Council next year, presuming it is in the highest band H.

Mr Bell has calculated that 12 per cent of his annual income will go on council tax this year and was so incensed on receiving his council tax demand on Monday that he sent a copy of it to Mr Blair along with a stiff note.

He believes that Kingston is being penalised because it is not part of the Blairite heartland.

He said: "You can understand why Islington got a bigger grant than Kingston! I'm disgusted by it really.

"I would think there will be a lot of pensioners who are absolutely livid, and you can't blame our local authority because of the grant it got. It will be a real struggle for us."

Kingston Council set its budget earlier this month, and with the London precept and other charges Kingston has set the highest council tax in London, partly because of a poor grant settlement from central Government.

Kingston Council is currently working on several measures to get a fairer deal for taxpayers.

It is currently preparing a submission to the Lyons Review of Government funding, which will outline the huge hardship faced by taxpayers as a result of Kingston's lost business rates, poor Government grant settlement and other contributions to the central Government pot.

The Liberal Democrat administration has also planned a motion for full council demanding a fairer deal for Kingston, and will put an e-petition with the same theme on the council website.

A Lib Dem spokesman said: "The council's submission will be as a special case and of difficult circumstances, pushing for fairer funding.

Under the new system we are actually returning something like 60 per cent of all the business rates raised in the borough."

q Are you struggling to pay your council tax or fed up with the Mayor of London's precept?

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