To be scared about how we will cope with more tax rises - council tax

[partytimed]

i really loathe this government. Usually with politics I feel like whoever is in charge I don’t notice much of a direct impact on my day to day life. Yes I’m aware of slow erosions in public services and I was no fan at all of the tories, I voted for this government im ashamed to say, and they lied and lied about their plans. I am so much worse off and if they double council tax bands virtually all of our disposable income is going to be gone. It feels like theft. I don’t trust them to spend the money I make properly it all feels corrupt and it’s just so depressing and upsetting.

If you look at the demographics, this was always going to happen. In the 50s there were 5 workers to every retiree, now there are 2.8 and that number is going lower. Each retiree costs over £20k to today's taxpayers in pension, benefits, health, etc.
Successive governments have kicked the can down the road by increasing borrowing to plug some of gap, but it is running out of road and so has to increase taxes as the bond market won't let it borrow more.
Always been someone else's problem as governments care about next 4-5 years and this is a mult-generational problem.

Its prevalent in Oxford, not just London

Bands haven’t changed in forever so it’s nothing to do with the current value. The issue is ASC. It has to be paid for somehow and the tories made it the responsibility of the councils.

Interesting

usually the same demographic who do this?

It’s the opposite where I am - there is a new build premium but the Victorian properties go for far more than the 2000 builds but the 2000 builds generally have higher council tax.

the two properties in the higher band can put in for a re evaluation of banding, they need to prove that there are other houses (5) with the same bedrooms and detached etc that are in a lower band and send in to valuation office for them to look at.

no idea

but the authorities started using heat cameras - and found many places where people where living int he sheds in peoples gardens - think many were rented properties and the sheds were also rented

The idea originally was bigger house = more people = more amenities used.
When it started it would have been unusual to have a house bigger than your needs.

I earn £53k so only just fall into your definition of a high earner. I’ve hit a salary ceiling though so my wage is dropping in real terms. If the proposed income tax rise materialise my take home pay will drop even further.
I’m a university academic and given the current state of the higher education system there will be no pay rises and a very real risk of redundancy.

My house is not worth anywhere close to a million. It’s not a mansion just a pretty bog standard family home.

indeed

not like successive governments didn't know it was going to happen, the baby boomers and falling birth rate

I feel it's about time the people rose up, we should follow the French and protest when we feel aggrieved instead of just accepting everything being imposed upon us.

It works the other way. The newer properties valued recently, hence correctly . The Victorian property hasn't been revalued and should be on a higher band, but obviously the owner is not going to raise the issue.

You have wilfully misunderstood what I am saying, obviously.

118,940 homes in Band F, 53,970 in Band G, and 12,930 in Band H in England.
The total number of homes in these bands was approximately 185,840 at that

6.1 million homes in Band A, 5.2 million in Band B, 5.6 million in Band C, and 4.1 million in Band D across England.

not sure youre going to make much headway with just 185,840 homes protesting about council tax rises for their bands?

anyone can raise the issue - it doesn't have to be the hoe owner in the lower band. Just because its been done recently doesn't mean its been done correctly

My water bill is increasing significantly, as is my council tax. My electricity supplier has wrote to me on the app and told me they’re nearly doubling my direct debit.

I’m very scared, because I cannot afford it. It’s just pure greed.

Great! Healthcare in Germany, France, the Netherlands is far superior in many respects to the U.K. There are other alternatives to the NHS than the US system.

You must be in the wrong council tax band then, as G is for the higher valued properties

The trouble is ‘the vulnerable’ now appear to make up half the population and rising. As the saying goes, ‘the trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money’.

And what people are fed up of is this government's stupid promise "not to increase taxes on working people" and their subsequent tinkering of definitions. "Oh we didn't mean THOSE working people! We didn't mean THAT tax!"

This means that rather than doing the sensible thing and overhauling income tax and national insurance across the board, they are being increased more in other areas, and people are feeling punished for working hard and being successful. Funnily enough no, if I am working and working and finally taking home enough to feel secure on, I am not delighted at the prospect of handing more and more of it over and having to tighten my belt more...and more....and more....(for clarity, I am most definitely not someone who lives in a Band G home and I am an extremely modest earner by MN standards)

There doesn't seem to be a single brain among them. It all feels like a short term cash grab to plug holes.

Councils seem to just make it up half the time where a property was built or adapted after 1991.

Yes exactly.

I'm with you. They rewrote the definition of a "woman" now a "working person". Does anyone have any idea what is next?

Reality hitting home? We’re in a financial mess with trillions in debt and the I MF probably having to step in.

Only one source of money to fund hospitals NHS security transport education public building libraries culture etc etc and that is tax in one form or another.

Starmer warned it was going to be grim, much as Churchill warned of blood sweat and tears.

It makes no difference who you vote for the basic mess remains the same and today Farage changed his tune that they’re not going to cut taxes and cut back on benefits instead.

Read Orwell’s Animal Farm.

If we get a stock market collapse as we’re warned then it will be even worse.

I think it probably should be band F but it looks like it was borderline F/G when the bands were set.
We do live in an area with higher than average house prices but we’re still in the north of England!