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.

police are there for everyone, the rich are victims of crime just as much as the less affluent, roads are used by rich and possibly more so as they drive more. Bins are collected from every house.

adult social care, who know who will end up ⬆️ n care homes, that’s still a lottery

You seem confused. Where did I say that I didn’t use any services? People in higher bands are already paying more for the same
services as others, why should that double again? There is no justification.

Being in a higher band doesn’t automatically make you rich. And that’s the problem with taxes of this nature, the assumption that because you own something you have a large income.

With what? buttons?

The justification is that a house worth 300k in a band D is paying say £2500 but a house worth 3m in band G is paying £4100....

Actual Cornwall CC rates.

If the band G is about right, then the band D property is paying far too much....

So how is the shortfall in council funding made good?

But the band G house is not using 60% more services so they are already paying their fair share. Also houses in band G are not all going to be worth £3 million (I would have thought a house of that value would be in H anyway). My £900k house is in band G. And £900k most definitely doesn’t buy you a mansion where I live.

As for the shortfall, everyone needs to pay more. You can’t arbitrarily decide that a small percentage should suddenly pay double because you consider they are rich when you have no idea of their income.

I’m very disappointed with some of Labour’s decisions it was always a mistake to promise no tax rises. And to say we didn’t know how bad things were is just utterly ridiculous cause everyone knew

why not close of the tax loopholes that many wealthy people take advantage of

stop allowing foreign investors buy properties and then sell them for huge profits paying very little tax

I’m worried as a small tax rise increases means everything goes up so it’s not just from our wages we shall see it it will be with our outgoing costs

I don’t think the Tories would do a better job but I think Labour certainly can

This comment totally misunderstands how inflation works. Of course governments can control it. The Ni increase on employers coupled with the increase in NMW (both from the last budget) have contributed directly to inflation, especially food prices. Tedious to read stuff like this on MN. Do your homework.

My band G house is not with 3 million. That sort of property is more likely to be band H.
My house is worth well under a million (closer to £500k) and we already pay over £400 a month council tax. We would really struggle if that doubled.

I'm really surprised some posters don't understand that.

Or maybe they do, but bleating that someone else, other than them, has to pay is just more convenient.

On my council’s publicly available audit report there is a row in a table that is called “PAY INFLATION”. The council is now over budget on pay and pensions.

Good points but on average someone in Band G house will be better off than someone in a band D or C.

"Everyone needs to pay more" How? people on or around avg earnings don't have spare cash to pay more.

Atm CT is going up 5% a year, it cannot keep doing this for ever more, the amounts paid by avg earners will soon be totally unaffordable, we need a different system.

Local income tax? tax the gains on property sales? a revaluation of properties? a new version of the 'poll tax?

None of which will be popular but the system is now totally out dated and is not providing the monies councils need.

But the council tax bands were set in 1991 and house prices haven’t risen evenly across the country. There will be people in London in band C whose house is worth exponentially more than a band G house in the north of England where houses prices haven’t risen in the same way.
I bought my Band G house 18 months ago for less than £500k and already pay over £400 a month council tax. We’re not super high earners, we couldn’t afford a similar type or size property in London or the SE.
There’s a band H house up for sale near me for £850k.

This policy wouldn’t actually target the highest value properties and would disproportionately impact people living in the north of England in areas such as the NE and parts of the NW.

Social housing/ housing benefit is the issue. Why do regular people pay ever increasing taxes to house those who are not prepared to house themselves.

Obviously they can't be homeless but what is wrong with housing them in mass military style buildings. Providing them with emergency accommodation but making it clear it is not a lifestyle choice might spur them on to make a success of their life and actually fund themselves, like everyone else.

I don’t think it’s possible to say that on average someone in a Band G house will be better off. I think age group is relevant. There may be younger families with children in Band G houses who are very highly geared and have very little disposable income Certainly not enough available to pay double the council tax in one go.

going back in time this is what happened with the poll tax. A sudden change that impacted one large group who couldn’t afford to pay it. Previously rates were included in rent. Overnight this was changed and people quite literally didn’t have the money to pay it. Of course landlords didn’t reduce rent by the amount of the rates they no longer had to pay. So society was divided into the “haves” - people who owned property were the same or better off and the “have-nots” - people who rented were all worse off bar none. These were the days before a buy to let market. If you were in rented it was because you didn’t have enough money to buy so were already poorer than average.

Like the 1800's Poor House?

I think thats a brilliant idea, a real vote winner.

Any plan to increase CT by double for any group, wont run, its just another scare story by the 'press.

But Councils need far more funding and that means more collected in tax, one way or another.... or do we do as the PP suggested and go back to a pre welfare state and "military style buildings" aka the Poor House.

But you’re assuming that everyone in a band G and H has enough disposable income to fund their council tax doubling without any problem. That’s ridiculous, particulary as the spread of the value of houses in those bands is very wide, much wider than other bands. I used to have a band F house, my salary didn’t double when I moved to a band G. My PIL are in a band E and they have just as much equity and more disposable income as we do in a band G. My best friend is in a band C (cheap part of the country so is a three bed house - would be a band E where I live), has a very slightly above average income and she goes on holiday six times a year. She has plenty of disposable income.

there are 180,000 homes between F and H band for council tax

where as A - D bands for council tax there are 21 million homes

in no world is G the average - its not even 1%

Not necessarily. I’m Band G, our house is worth about 750k. It’s not enormous (4 beds) but it’s in a very nice part of the city. We already pay £4400 a year in CT. My income is nil, and DH is a pensioner. I had to give up work a couple of years ago due to ill health and DH is my carer. We can’t claim benefits as we have some savings that we’re trying to eke out until I can start drawing my pension.

We actually downsized from a house twice the size in another area, yet our council tax there was Band D. We are certainly much worse off now than when we were both working and living in our Band D home.

Just because there are fewer homes in those bands does it automatically follow that everyone living in them is better off in terms of income?

It sure is a vote winner for those who who aspire to making a success of their lives and are fed up of compulsory funding others. Those same people can be very generous but they prefer to choose which charities they donate to .

I guess it will be a vote winner for the feckless.

And the salary increases handed out to public sector workers at the start of the Labour government (with no productivity increases required) have also contributed to inflation.

I feel utter despair and rage in equal measure at the incompetence of this government. Yes, they inherited a shit show but things were starting to turn around before they took office. They’ve just trashed everything with their idiotic student politics.

People are getting hung up on the doubling of CT for higher band houses... it wont happen, there may be some tinkering but its simply not going to raise the monies needed

The real discussion needs to be about how to fund council services? or not fund them as pp suggests

Ideas?

My suggestion is a new style poll tax. Everyone contributes.

The words of someone steeped in privilege and no imagination to consider the alternative. Hopefully you never have to personally find out what powerful forces misfortune, discrimination, or the poverty spiral, can be. After a certain point no amount of hard work can pull you out of it. That's why somebody with a better imagination than you invented the structures of social care so that people didn't have to rely on the "generosity" (read: ego) of specific strangers.