Pensioners are planning mass rallies to protest against more increases in council tax.

The protests are being held to coincide with court appearances of the hundreds of pensioners who have so far refused to pay all or part of their bills.

“There will be inevitably be a fair degree of unrest as any increase in April above the cash increase in the state pension is just not going to be acceptable to pensioners,” Help the Aged said.

Meanwhile, in a speech to the charity Friends of the Elderly today, Charles Kennedy will say that society will need to reassess its attitudes to ageing.