Higher Council Tax in Scotland?

[Elllicam]

Sorry bit of a boring one but we recently moved to a new house (Scotland, approx 240k) and our council tax is now £3700 a year. I had googled it and came across a thing about average council tax in England from and we seem to be paying massively more. I can’t see much info online without going into every council website individually so I thought I’d ask mumsnet.

I'm in a village in Scotland, house 240k council tax is 3k/250month

Never lived in England do don't know

That sounds like you’re in a band H property OP, which council area are you in? Did you not check the council tax before you bought - it’s always listed in the home report questionnaire?

Could it be because water etc is included in council tax bill here, and is separate in England?

Meant to say, you don’t pay separately for water charges in Scotland so that might account for the difference with England?

Oh yeah water is incorporated!

Where in Scotland? That seems very high indeed - in Edinburgh for eg only the top two bands are over 3k, and a 240k house wouldn’t be in those (unless it was that value in 1991 when the bands were set). You are also paying for water and sewerage but again, in Edinburgh those are a max of less than 500.

Google suggests that the council tax within the same band is cheaper in Scotland than England. So perhaps the bands are configured differently? i.e.your house might be a Band C or D in England, but is in a higher band in Scotland?

Ah possibly due to water charges being incorporated. We are top band in South Lanarkshire.

@Fingerbobs In a city of course things are reduced rates

That makes sense op, £240k will have bought you something which would be at the higher end of the market in SL. Hopefully the lack of a separate water charge makes it easier to swallow!

Are you definitely the correct banding? We're South Lanarkshire and nothing in the estate is higher than an F (so £2.5k including water) but the homes were up to circa £245k in 2016.

Top band in Edinburgh is 4018 so quite comparable; but a 240k house wouldn’t be in that so maybe it’s to do with relative prices in different areas.

Mine is about the same, includes roughly 400 for water. In 2016 the multiplier for bands E to H was increased and our council tax took a significant jump - was to pay for schools apparently and it was felt that it was fair that the upper bands paid significantly more. Which I’d be ok with but have seen no benefit to our local school just talk about how to cut more.

Appeal it.