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.

I know.
And yet since our local Labour MP has got in things around here have improved much faster and much better than the lifetime being under our unless, oh my god so useless, Conservative MP.

Locally our Labour MP has done wonders, so will vote for them again.

Because for us local issues matter, and yes we are voting for them to be part of the Governing party who do make the big financial decisions.

And yes we will have to get creative with our tax/pension/investments/property each budget (all legal we aren't monsters), yes we are net contributors even with two non-contributing teens.

And still we don't cry "what about me".

But as has been pointed out many times there is massive regional inequality in house price growth. Unless revaluations are done this will just entrench regional disparities even more. Band G house in the north worth £500-£600k may already be paying council tax at a higher level than a Band G house in the south worth 5 times more.

my council has been Labour run for about 10 years. It has wasted huge amounts of money on many failed schemes and projects. It would be better if it did go bankrupt and someone was appointed to run the statutory services

It’s great for them that you still back Labour, it doesn’t mean everyone else will see those pledges ignored and feel the same.

Regional needs differ.

It all boils down to, I want a big house in a nice area but want everyone else in the country to pay for the services I use and might use in the future.
Me me me me me.

No it's not fair and it's never going to be fair. Life isn't like that.

We live in this society right now with the needs we have right now. Changes take time.

You know the council tax band when you buy a house. You know it goes up proportionally. The higher bands clubbed together are a small percentage of all houses.

If you are in a higher band house wherever it is you are doing ok wherever you are.

Pay it or don't. Move or don't. We all will have the same information to make decisions that are best for our own households within this society. You are free to change your circumstances. You are free to whinge about it all the time as well but what's the point? What's the point in living in a house, in an area, and all you do is complain?

No Government is going to give you more money in the future. Reform are just going to hand it big businesses with a nice offshore fee, Conservatives would just run everything into the ground. At least Labour are saying we need more money now to get things up and running again.

Yes our bills are going to go up, yes our take home pay is going to go down. But that's life. We'll pay the bills because we do. And we are net contributors even with two non-contributing teenagers. No one pays for our teens, and why should they, they were our choice, our problem. Our choice of house, our problem. the small percentage of people in higher council tax band houses, that's their problem. We all have problems to pay for (I am not saying our teens are problems they are not they are our favourite things to spend money on) but their housing, education, leisure, everything they break or lose, yes they are all our problems, just ours. Your house bills are your problem. Your choice of house.

I will vote locally. Because that has the biggest impact on our daily lives. Not what is in the bank account, but on all the other things that happen when you leave your house.

The roads have been resurfaced, not all but many more than previously, local bus routes for those unable to drive have been reinstated and expanded, again not perfect but getting better.
Schools have expanded to accommodate SEND pupils within mainstream.
More drains have been cleared so the recent downpours meant much less localised flooding.

Youth clubs for teens are being opened up again.
The new build housing are being made to add schools and community areas.
Our MP is asking for small, not even crime but antisocial behaviour, to be reported so they can build up a picture of what is going on.

These issues are what matter to our day to day lives most.

I have a feeling that our MP will be voted out because of "boats" which will be a great shame because right now they are open to contact and improving things immensely around here.

We are interested in politics at a local level and what is being done. And yes we pay more but finally we are seeing something for it.

Yes I think so

so sick of the property owners must be minted rhetoric

people spend their money on different things

the people in F,G H are already paying council tax

recently viewed a band G house, detached

small downstairs with integrated garage and 4 beds upstairs nothing special

the council tax bands aren't set on how much a household uses, its a property tax in all but name, a tax on the house you live. If the council tax was set on how much services you use then it would be on the number of people living in the house

Sadly things are looking worse locally. We have more rubbish, the lollipop man made redundant and more homeless people.

As was the community charge/Poll tax. It was per capita on how many adults lived in a property. We, two adults, lived in a three bedroomed semi in a Northern town, and it worked out at around the same as we’d paid in rates. If either of our adult DC had moved back in, they’d have also paid.

I wasn’t against it, it had an element of fairness. Perhaps something similar but with a property tax on homes worth in excess of £1m, on a sliding scale. Not hard these days to find what properties sell for.

It was fair if you were a homeowner as you would be the same or better off. However quite literally every single person who rented was worse off as previously rates were almost universally included in rent. Rents were not reduced to account for the fact landlords no longer had to pay rates. So renters faced an extra significant charge that many simply could not afford to pay

True, but ever since, Council Tax has been levied against occupiers, whether renters or owners.

Yes agreed. So it may be possible to come up with a fairer system today but I’m not sure any government wants to tackle a wholesale re-evaluation or design an entire new system. It’s actually unbelievable that the implementers of the poll tax had given no thought to what would happened to renters. Largely the poorest section of society then.

You are deluded. People in other areas of the country are not funding me or my family. I pay more than my fair share of tax.

I have checked the council tax for a Band D house in the area of the North that I grew up in, the area of the Midlands that my brother lives and the area of the South (40 miles from London) that I live in now. Guess which area has the most expensive council tax? The area that I live in now. Add to that people in this area have, on average, paid a lot more stamp duty whilst moving up the ladder so to suggest that they are being funded by cheaper areas is ridiculous.

When people already in higher band houses made the decision to buy a property they would not have considered that their council tax could double over night. They can’t just sell them now because who will buy them?! The property market coming to a standstill helps no one because the majority of stamp duty is generated in higher value areas so that is more tax that won’t be collected and we will have an even bigger deficit.

I have looked at a new build estate close to where I live. There are houses in the £550-£600k range that are in band E, F and G. The F and G houses are not mansions, they are family houses with postage stamp gardens. Why do you want to punish these people? What have they done to you? And this area is no “nicer” than the suburb of a Northern city that I grew up. It’s just more expensive because it is closer to London.

I already pay over £3000 a year in council tax. The house is worth quite a lot because it's in London.

It's a three bedroomed terraced house that has had a loft conversion done. It's laughably far from being a mansion or luxury accomodation. In fact it is actually a bit cramped given that five of us live here. One child has a box room with no space for a wardrobe.

The house was bought when I earned a lot more before changing career. If the council tax doubles that will be a lot of my salary gone in taxes.

Council leaders can be paid more than the pm
Money won't go anywhere it's needed I don't trust councils.

I think ours is going to go up by just under 5%, the previous conservative led council didn't put it up or not by much for a number of years, which meant cut's to essential services, but more importantly a continuation of their jobs !
Still irks me that I pay more than the majority of people in Westminster, living in social housing in the North, but if they were to actually bring it into line with the house price inflation we have seen over the last two, nearly three decades, (the bands were set in 1991) it would be political suicide.

I have nothing to add but I see it was on 666 comments and I'm not ok with that

I'll save us all from the tyranny of 6-7

You're welcome for that earworm 😆