ABSTRACT
The expansion of franchise throughout Victorian England notwithstanding, the same people remained powerful within Parliament. A local income tax was considered when the first major restructing of British local government was enacted in 1888 Throughout the prolonged debate over Imperial and local taxation in late Victorian England, the possibility of adding a percentage to the income tax to assist localities recurs, but it was never seriously considered by Parliament. A full evaluation of this chapter in British centre-local relations would involve many factors besides the tax system even though it was a key element in the subordination of localities to national policy and politics. Although the Local Government Act of 1888 is often taken as the point of departure for modern local government in Britain, the issue was intense and well known for several decades before the Act. In effect, the Royal Commission of 1901 refused to consider changes along either dimension of revenues or expenditure.
