On the concept of income taxes paying for better council services, that's what the Council Tax is supposed to be for. This tax is incredibly high in some council areas, not because their services are great, but because employed people are having to subsidise unemployed people. However, the biggest reason why council taxes are higher in places like Blaenau Gwent in comparison to Cardiff is because some councils are terribly run and were verging on bankruptcy even before this crisis hit.

Remember those councils who lost money because they had been keeping it in Icelandic banks?

I can guarantee that badly run councils will be penalising their inhabitants by cutting public services (Labour councils will blame the Tory Government, just as Tory Councils used to blame Labour) and raising council taxes to the very maximum they can get away with.