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.

Yeah unfortunately the guy in the sports car then knocks the man over and he can't afford the ambulance so he dies. But never gets to tell that story because he's dead.

They should scrap SDLT - that would free up the housing market considerably.

I don’t think it would.

I think especially in the short term it would just push house prices up because greedy dishonest agents would tell their greedy boomer sellers that the avocado eating buyers can spend more as they don’t have to pay stamp.

They’ll all be sat rubbing their hands in glee … see you could pay 980,000 for this run down 1970s box house rather than 900,000 + 100,000 stamp! Look what a bargain you’re actually getting!

Of course it would have an effect - the person I responded to just said the cost of downsizing was too significant so she stayed put.

It is non-sensical to tax people because they want to move. It's bad for utilisation on the housing stock, it's bad for social mobility and it's bad for growth because it puts barriers in the way f people who might otherwise move for work. Terrible tax; worst one I can think of.

I totally agree it’s a terrible tax but I don’t think it will make moving much cheaper because it will just push house prices up. Optically people might not see that though… but effectively they’ll just paying some or most of the difference to the seller in which case it’s even less productive… at least as a tax it’s distributed (somehow…!)

I am not talking about house prices (they would adjust, as you say) but the cost of moving (if you are downsizing) would become a few thousand pounds for a solicitor vs 10's of thousands of pounds in SDLT (if you are in the SE where even a smaller house will likely attract a decent SDLT bill).

At the very least, along with Tories and Lib Dems, Reform have said they will remove VAT on school fees. £6k saving for us!

Also I have no time for people who say they don’t want to downsize because woefully they have to pay SDLT on their smaller, cheaper property from the massive amounts of untaxed and unearned gains they’ve made on their big house through the biggest housing boom in history.

Let them stay in it until we bring in CGT on primary residence I say!

It’s the same money.

@Perfect28 I may get slated, but I'd rather have £6k a year in my pocket when they remove VAT on fees.

Whether you have time for them or not, it stops them moving, the person I responded to said exactly that.

Whilst waiting you could get a decent job and buy your own property. Win win for you?

Hahaha 😂😂

This is very odd?

I have a great job and we have a lovely home thanks. We are talking the behavioural and economic impact of SDLT and mental accounting here, I’m not quite sure what your point is.

No its not.

Situation 1 -
I buy a 1m property and pay 43,750 in SDLT. In the second before I buy the property I have £1,043,750.
In the second after I buy the property, I have a property which is worth £1m. I am £43,750 worse off.

Situation 2 (no SDLT and let's assume for arguments sake, prices sdjust upward to entirely compensate for the lack of SDLT) -
I buy a property which was worth £1m but is now going to cost me £1,043,750. In the second before I buy the property I have £1,043,750.
In the second after I buy the property, I have a property which is worth £1,043,750. I am no worse off.

@Lionfisher - who is going to buy the “greedy boomers’” band G and H houses? Where I live houses normally get snapped up. There are four nice houses for sale occupied by “greedy boomers/boomer widows/dead boomers” in my road and not a sniff of a buyer. And they’ve reduced the prices.

Also I’m not a boomer, paid top whack for our modest house (not as big or nice as others in road) and we cannot find an additional £4k council tax without some serious belt-tightening. Should we downsize too?

Fine, if you insist. I think you need to make 'social mobility' possible by investing in education, infrastructure, childcare, SN support etc before you take away elements of the safety net. Otherwise you are heading for the poorhouse model.

Wow. I think most people would rather that all kids got access to a decent education, not just the ones who can afford it.

Yes, Labour had no choice, absolutely not. Hands completely tied. Sounds similar to the Chagos islands.

Doesn't @Perfect28 know that all the problems state schools face is going to be solved by VAT on school fees and removal of the non-dom status. Wasn't that the promise just last year? Oh hang on....

Think you are right

Oh dear Lord, can we please not relitigate the merits of VAT on school fees, again?!

It was a stupid idea, it's not going to improve state schools in the way Labour said it would (Starmer recently said it would be spent on housing, whether that's true or not I don't know) and it's disrupted the education of thousands of kids.

The real issue is inequality in the state sector - that won't be solved by VAT on private school fees, it will be solved by preventing rich people buying houses in the catchment of good schools.

I would like to see councils cracking down on those with people living in sheds in people’s gardens and being exploited The house owners should be paying more council tax imo in this scenario

i think a poll tax would be fairer in

i think a poll tax would be fairer in

it caused riots and brought down a PM last time it was introduced

the idea was that everyone paid £500/x amount - so a household with 2 adults paid a £1000 and a household with 6 adults would be paying in £3000

But in some areas of Cornwall and other second home places - the local authorities wouldn't raise enough money to keep public services going - if 50% of the households are empty, no money coming in

This is utterly ridiculous. You know we can't afford current levels of spending largely due to our immense welfare bill and the servicing of the debt we accrued trying to keep the show on the road? Your solution is to 'invest' in hugely expensive before you cut welfare. With what money? What planet are you on?

Honestly, people need to wake up and quickly to the reality of our national financial situation. If we want any kind of long term investment in the future we need to get a grip of welfare spending now. In fact even if we don't, we still need to get a grip of welfare spending just to avoid bankruptcy as a country.

The left are completely and utterly deluded. They can't get their heads around the fact that we are in debt up to our eyeballs and risk a bailout that will deliver the most cruel and terrifying cuts to public services. We need to avoid this at all costs. There is a huge gap between our current welfare state and the poor house. Get a grip!