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A leaflet explaining the Community Charge (the so-called "poll tax"), Department of the Environment, April 1989. The Community Charge, commonly known as the poll tax, was a system of local taxation introduced by Margaret Thatcher's government whereby each taxpayer was taxed the same fixed sum (a "poll tax" or "head tax"), with the precise amount being set by each local authority.
The poll tax riots were a series of riots in British towns and cities during protests against the Community Charge (commonly known as the "poll tax"), introduced by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
The Community Charge, popularly dubbed the "poll tax", was a tax to fund local government, instituted in 1989 by the government of Margaret Thatcher. It replaced the rates that were based on the notional rental value of a house.
Thatcher was re-elected for a third term with another landslide in 1987, but her subsequent support for the Community Charge (also known as the "poll tax") was widely unpopular, and her increasingly Eurosceptic views on the European Community were not shared by others in her cabinet.
The Abolition of Domestic Rates Etc. (Scotland) Act 1987 (c. 47) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.. The Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher was committed to the reform of local government finance; the solution decided upon by the mid-1980s was the introduction of the per-capita community charge – informally called the poll tax – and the abolition of the previous ...
Following Thatcher's departure, her former chancellor Nigel Lawson labelled the poll tax as "the one great blunder of the Thatcher years". The succeeding Major government announced the abolition of the tax in spring 1991 and, in 1993, replaced it with Council Tax , a banded property tax similar in many respects to the older system of rates. [ 183 ]
Throughout 1990, the popularity both of Thatcher and her Conservative government waned considerably. The introduction of the deeply unpopular Community Charge (which opponents labelled the "poll tax") had been greeted with widespread non-payment and even a riot in Trafalgar Square in March 1990.
Within a year, as the Community Charge (poll tax) sparked riots, the economy slid towards recession, and the Labour lead in the opinion polls mounted into double digits, Thatcher resigned as party leader and prime minister following a further contest in November 1990. [4]