South Cumbria MPs are pushing for reform of the Council Tax system following shocking findings by a county peer.

Former MP Dale Campbell-Savours is spearheading a campaign calling for reform to the Council Tax laws after it emerged that people living in a £52million property in Westminster pay less than people in the average house in Cumbria.

MPs in the area have both agreed that changes need to made.

Furness MP Simon Fell said: “Lord Campbell-Savours is spot on - Council Tax is desperately unfair and regressive and it’s overdue reform.

“This is why I am supporting the Fairer Share campaign to introduce a proportional property tax - this would see 96 per cent of people in Furness benefit with an average saving of £600.”

Tim Farron, who represents Westmorland and Lonsdale said; “It’s now painfully clear that the council tax system is no longer fit for purpose.

Lord Campbell-Savours told the House of Lords: “I would much rather favour a system where how much tax you pay for local services is determined by how much you earn, rather than a totally unfair postcode lottery.”

“How is it possible for a £52 million house in central London to have a lower council tax rate than a former local authority home on Windebrowe Avenue in Keswick and almost the same as a £90,000 former local authority home on Moorclose Road in Workington in my former constituency?

“The truth is the Council Tax system is now discredited.

“It’s unfair, it penalises part of the North and favours London, and it’s now in urgent need of reform.”

He stressed: “I make no criticism of Cumbrian local authorities. They are all victims of a system which, fair at the point of its introduction more than 30 years ago, is now grossly unfair and in need of urgent reform.”

The life peer – who as Dale Campbell-Savours was the Workington MP from 1979 to 2001 – has spent months researching and comparing council tax figures across Cumbria with high-end properties in central London.

He found that Council Tax bands in the London borough of Westminster are a ‘fraction’ of council tax rates in Cumbria, with a £52million home in Mayfair paying the same or slightly more in Council Tax than a £70,000 Cumbrian council property.