Zack Polanski, a Green Party GLA member (Greater London Authority — the London-wide elected assembly), said on BBC Breakfast on 5 July 2026 that he will pay any council tax bill Waltham Forest Council finally determines he owes — though he stressed that no formal decision has been reached yet.

Polanski faces a potential liability of between £3,000 and £4,000. The council, however, is still taking legal advice on what it has described as "complex factors unique to moorings" — meaning the question of whether any sum is formally due remains genuinely uncertain. The crux of Polanski's position is technical: he had assumed that because the marina where his houseboat sits operates mostly on business rates (a tax levied on commercial properties), his residential mooring was covered by that arrangement rather than subject to separate council tax. He said the council had itself indicated he might owe nothing on that basis. Working out the correct tax treatment for boat dwellings, Polanski explained, is "complicated," a position Waltham Forest's own legal caution appears to support.

The story began in May. The Telegraph reported on 12 May 2026 that Polanski had been referred to a standards committee over non-payment, having lived on the houseboat for three years without settling a council tax bill. Waltham Forest then launched a formal investigation, and The Guardian reported on 23 May that the Greater London Authority was considering its own inquiry. The GLA has since cleared him following a complaint.

A second issue emerged in May: the Green Party acknowledged that Polanski had not voted in local elections despite being registered at the east London marina, and scrutiny fell on a message to Hackney mayoral candidate Zoë Garbett in which he said "you have my vote." That strand has not been formally resolved, though it is distinct from the council tax question.

The Green Party's position has been steady throughout: Polanski apologised and has committed to settling whatever amount he is finally found to owe. This is, strictly speaking, a commitment to pay a bill that may yet prove to be nothing. The political difficulty lies elsewhere: a senior Green figure, publicly associated with transparency and civic responsibility, went three years without paying council tax on his home — whether through misunderstanding about how business rates work or for another reason.

The GLA clearance limits institutional damage. But the reputational difficulty is harder to resolve with a promise to pay. Westminster parties are accustomed to managing personal disclosures of this kind; the Green Party, which positions itself partly against the habits of established politics, operates under a higher standard of tidiness in members' personal tax affairs.

The legal complexity Waltham Forest faces is genuine. Houseboat and marina taxation occupies contested ground in local government finance. The overlap between the non-domestic rating list (used for business properties) and the council tax valuation list (used for residential properties) in the case of moorings has produced court disputes before. Should the council conclude that business rates on the marina site do cancel out any separate residential council tax liability for individual berths, Polanski's substantive position would be vindicated. The reputational cost of the period of uncertainty, however, would not be erased by that finding.