‘A deeply broken system’: is it time England abandoned council tax?

Tony Belton, a local councillor since 1971, in front of the refurbished Battersea power station. He says the site used to be ‘a desert’. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi/The Guardian

Battersea power station offered no prospect of luxury living when Tony Belton became a local councillor in 1971. The coal-fired behemoth was nearing closure after 40 years of belching soot over London, and would spend almost as long in dereliction and blight as a result of false starts at redevelopment.

By 1991, most people visiting the area were there for the dogs’ home or council rubbish dump. Squatting pigeons were the power station’s only residents, and steel bracing protected its 48-metre-high brick walls from collapse.