Council tax is a c**t

Council tax seems to be a ticking time bomb.

The number of school pupils with EHCPs has risen by 71% between 2018 and 2024.

School transport for SEND is nearly £2 billion per annum.

My local council's High Needs bill for children is nearly £100m per year.

The county councils network is predicting a "total collapse" unless there are reforms.

But if you are a single person, then you don’t need a house the same size as a couple or family. It is up to you. If you don’t want to pay the council tax, you could move into a smaller house.

As an interesting comparison, we have two houses in Italy with a combined space of about 200 SQ meters, with three acres of land, and we pay €200 a year in property tax. Other taxes are higher though.

Of course it’s a cunt, it’s meant to be because we get local services…
98.9% of our council tax money is spent on areas that would be band A, if anyone paid the tax. So that’s free gyms, kids clubs-bfast, after schools, holiday clubs, the only libraries, community centres, parks- both play park and floral…
anywhere else in our local authority has libraries closed, kids activities stopped, but all meant to be grateful and thankful council has kept areas going. Tried to take my child to a bookbug group locally, wasn’t allowed as wasn’t band A tax.. didn’t matter group shut down as no one attended.

I barely put anything in my bin or recycling. They only need emptying every 6 weeks but they come every week even though there's nothing in them half the time.

I think we should pay per collection. If you create a load of waste - pay for it.

I hate that

why shouldn’t your dc attend when you are paying council tax to that LA

My mum built a granny annexe after we did our loft conversion, little did I know that would give the council the opportunity to revalue and boom!, band G and £100 more a month in council tax 😫

But millionaires aren't paying their share now and haven't done for decades! Why am I paying more tax for a tiny two bed flat that I don't even own than a CEO with a house in Westminster?

And my flat is as band C, as all two bedroom flats built after 1998 are round here, automatically, because they of this "assigning value" nonsense. So I'm even paying more than someone else in the area who lives in a bloody house! That they own!

Of course it’s a cunt, it’s meant to be because we get local services…
98.9% of our council tax money is spent on areas that would be band A, if anyone paid the tax. So that’s free gyms, kids clubs-bfast, after schools, holiday clubs, the only libraries, community centres, parks- both play park and floral…
anywhere else in our local authority has libraries closed, kids activities stopped, but all meant to be grateful and thankful council has kept areas going. Tried to take my child to a bookbug group locally, wasn’t allowed as wasn’t band A tax.. didn’t matter group shut down as no one attended.

I feel its unfair how much is varies across the country. We paid about 1 5k for our 3 bed house in London, we bow pay over 3k a year for a similar size property, with a simular value, outside London. We use same amount of services, earn the same. It's crazy!

Lib Dems had been advocating for a local income tax.

The social contract (17th Century) means that we should each contribute what we can for the overall good. The original idea (Locke, no not that guy from Lost) was that wealth comes from mixing our labour (work) with resources to actually produce something. At no point was an increase in property values (passive earning) meant to give a person more wealth power. We understand this in simple terms as 'the work ethic'.

Obviously, the latter part of the 20th Century moved us away from this, and now we have the idea that investment = wealth power.

Concretely, in terms of Council Tax, and pretty much any other tax, this means we've reverted to the feudal system. The 'peasants' are subsidising everyone else. Given the state of our society, it would not appear to be for the overall good.

The simple solution would be to tax passive earnings. Carry out a survey every 5 years and tax increases in property value. We used to call this 'the rates'. Worked for 300 years since Tudor times.

I barely put anything in my bin or recycling. They only need emptying every 6 weeks but they come every week even though there's nothing in them half the time.

I think we should pay per collection. If you create a load of waste - pay for it.

So, what does everyone propose we do instead of council tax then?
It’s easy to complain about it but how else should local councils be funded?

So, what does everyone propose we do instead of council tax then?
It’s easy to complain about it but how else should local councils be funded?

Well, no. I do dispose of most of my own waste because the fucking fortnightly bin collections are nowhere near adequate. My dc are in private school. I don’t go to public parks or leisure centres. I don’t tend to use NHS services. All very much to my detriment as the system is set up to mean if you go private for something, you can get fucked with anything else.

the roads are full of pot holes. Pavements full of weeds. Local services generally shambolic. Yet we’re taxed on absolutely everything, then what we have left we’re taxed over and over again on what we spend it on. I honestly despise this country. And if it wasn’t for DCs dad being in the picture you wouldn’t see me for dust. I genuinely have a hatred for Britain at this point.

But millionaires aren't paying their share now and haven't done for decades! Why am I paying more tax for a tiny two bed flat that I don't even own than a CEO with a house in Westminster?

And my flat is as band C, as all two bedroom flats built after 1998 are round here, automatically, because they of this "assigning value" nonsense. So I'm even paying more than someone else in the area who lives in a bloody house! That they own!