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.

The pay rises were ones recommended by independent pay review bodies and approved by the previous Govt, they just didn't fund them.

The pay rise given to train drivers was £135m and as seen in Huntingdon, very well deserved... plus ended a strike that had cost the country several billion.

There was no requirement to have productivity increases attached to the pay rises, that was not what the review body was tasked to do by the previous Govt, who set the parameters and who did not require this in previous years

Does the Govt honour agreed pay rises or not?

What turn around? the BOE stated the drop in inflation was predictable but would be v short lived.

You are way off the mark. I am anything but privileged. Have faced poverty and discrimination. The difference is I realised I was responsible for the outcome of my life, no one else.

Everyone always thinks they are over taxed in this country. Getting around the tax system is practically a national sport. It is not the case that we are overtaxed. We pay less tax than many European countries. They have better public services than we do for a reason. Their governments have more money to fund them.
That’s not to say, there isn’t room for reform of Taxes, council tax for instance. A system that taxes property value to pay for public services is not working. Some might say a better system would be to tax the individuals in the household but the last time somebody suggested this there was absolute mayhem.
Ultimately, we have to accept that if we want nice things, we have to pay for them So we have two Choice
One - We privatise everything. Everyone buys whatever services they can afford. See USA for how well this turns out.
Two - we accept that government is going to tax us more and provide the level of service we want.
Unfortunately, politicians don’t like to say this out loud as it tends to get them voted out and because, as I said before, avoiding tax is practically a national sport in this country.

https://taxpolicy.org.uk/2025/06/27/uk-workers-tax-wedge-infographics/

Uh huh. Ok.

They weren't approved by the previous Conservative government, this is a completely disingenuous statement. The dispute between Aslef and the Tories had been going on for two years because they couldn't agree on pay and the Tories didn't want a 'no-strings attached' deal which is exactly what Labour gave them pretty much on day 1.

Why make shit up? There are news articles talking about the ongoing dispute and the fact that the Tories wanted to include changes to ways of working in the new deal.

And what's Huntingdon got to do with it? We'll pay you more in case a crazy knife wielding maniac gets on one of your trains?

Everyone is blaming Labour or Labour and the Tories for this mess.

But the problem is Starmer.

Get him out and get a WOMAN as PM

or make reductions to bonuses and pensions

Why is Starmer the problem, and why would a female PM be different?

Who are you thinking of?

I understand your points, and I agree. Many people in our society are disadvantaged and I believe in social mobility (SM) but it’s a balance between supporting SM (genuine need) and weeding out those who do and continue to exploit the system. We cannot deny that many individuals and families treat benefits as a lifestyle choice. That vicious cycle needs breaking. It costs us money and it creates divisions within society, understandably.

He's about as much use as a chocolate teapot.

Mahmood would be better

Mahmood or Rayner

Rayner has no chance of a political comeback this soon. She needs to wait it out a couple of years.

Mahmood or Wes Streeting are what the pundits are discussing.

The Tories started the pay review body process for last year, pre election, they approved the parameters for this....

Obviously they reported when Lab in power but the process was a Tory thing, with no requirement for performance related pay.

Nothing made up.

The 'drivers dispute cost £135m to settle, with an average of 3 years of below 5% per year increases, so hardly inflation busting.

Yes the Tories wanted a move to guardless trains, amongst other unreasonable demands......that would have been a disaster at Huntingdon

A bargain and well done to Labour for sorting

Streeting could be good.

Reeves?

…or is she the most hated woman in UK politics right now?! 🤣 most unpopular job

If it’s about how much people use the services …

Statistically the person in the lower band is likely to use FAR more of the council services than the person in band H for example, or even Band G.

The person in band H is much more likely to pay for their own adult social care (takes up a huge part of the LA budget). They are not going to fall into arrears on their rent and end up in temporary housing (another huge strain on local resources). They possibly send their kids to private school rather than local. They rarely use any kind of welfare. They may have less need for social services, police etc.

So from that perspective you could argue that they’re already overpaying v what they will use over time (eg over the ownership of the house or time in the area).

There needs to be clearer outline of what the tax is FOR, and therefore how it should work or how progressive it should be.

Yes, a real bargain when productivity doesn't increase. I'm a commuter and there are endless train cancellations due to 'shortage of train crew'. And it's not as simple as job vacancies, it's often because the trains aren't even in the right place because some idiot has cocked up the planning.

I certainly don't feel like millions of my 'tax dollars' have been well spent. I feel fucking fed up.

I will set myself on fire outside the Houses of Parliament if Rachel Reeves were ever to stand for PM.

Mahmood would be the first Muslim woman to be PM. Dreamland!

I live in England and this is my experience as well. Our area has form for voting in pragmatic people who know how to get things done. It’s not perfect but in general local councillors do a good job.

Why dreamland? She’s also been pretty ineffective from what I can see. Just because she’s not white or Christian or male doesn’t mean she’d be any good at the job….??

I don't think you can accuse her of being ineffective. She did well in justice which is why she was wheeled in to the Home Office.

Whether she's ready for PM is an entirely different matter. KS certainly wasn't.

Well, thats down to the train companies, nothing to do with 'drivers is it? Better pay boosts recruitment.

You had a lot more trains cancelled because of strikes, i'm amazed you re not happy the strike has ended.... odd.

How do you make a train driver more productive? drive the trains faster, have a longer working day, less holidays?

A below 5% pay rise, during a time when inflation was 11% (it was back dated) is not worthy of productivity negotiations.

Like i said, the review bodies pay increases, last year operated within parameter set by the Tories... Labour had little choice but to fund these.

Plus in the public sector, the pay rises were a win win for the Govt, they pushed many workers into higher student loan repayments & they'll pay more tax/NI & more into pensions

There’s the old saying ‘ In Britain a man looks at another guy in a sports car and resentfully thinks ‘why should he have that?’ In America a man looks at another guy in a sports car and admiringly thinks ‘one day I’ll have one of those too’.