Labour isn't Working - Thread 37

[NoWordForFluffy]

In Nuthatch's absence, I've been asked to start the new thread!

A chat thread for those of us who don't like this Labour government.

"Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy; its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."

Previous thread: www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5548208-labour-isnt-working-thread-36?page=1

id base it on housing standards
( we still use those from the 70s )

A single rm of 7m2 is a housing standard for a bedroom whether you use it for storage or crafts is irrelevant
A sofabed in a living room does not make it a bedroom

Prices go up
and down.

The way Burnham is going he will crash the market, so will he then refund the tax paid on the higher valuation?

Why doesn't a sofa bed in a living room make it a standard? Is this to protect holiday lets?

Who's going to check all the 25.6million houses in England alone?

Edit thanks for your reply.

Number of people is the fairest way.

So a family of five, two adults and three children, pay the most?

No
The standards weren’t set up to cheat the system
They are housing design standards that we still use
They aren’t set in law and just advisory
but they can easily be used to define what a bedroom is and HAs and council house designs were / are based on them

In terms of how this is assessed
There's there’s the million dollar question
Sale details ? Perhaps and if you don’t agree you’d have to appeal
but saying you use a 7m2 room for crafts would be irrelevant
Because It would simply be too expensive for the Govn to run and open to abuse

Depends if it was like the old poll tax which only charged adults

Given that a lot of adults who go to university and pay council tax and then return to their families, are those students liable for payment in both houses?

Uni students are exempt atm

Why not?

They use services, they are on receipt of CB, at the least, why shouldn’t they?

In Europe, they don't distinguish between bedrooms and other living rooms. A one-bed appartment is called '2 rooms', a 2-bed with separate living and dining room would be '4 rooms'. Bathrooms and kitchens are excluded, although sometimes an extra space like a kitchen-diner counts as a half.

That scheme would seem most sensible.

It's certainly not cheaper and easier to find - and keep up-to date - prices for every individual house in the UK!

Why not carry on with house prices.

Because as I explained above, it's outstandingly unfair that people who are already paying more for a lesser house should have to pay more tax.

Plus it's very expensive to keep re-doing valuations... and dealing with the appeals.

It all makes the current council tax bandings look almost sane, and I'm no fan of having my post-tax income further walloped...

And again - income tax is the mechanism used to tax income:

Income tax taxes income - bigger income, more tax.

Capital gains tax taxes capital gains - more capital gains, more tax.

VAT taxes created value - more value created by the business, more tax paid by the consumer.

Fuel taxes tax fuel consumption - more fuel used, more tax.

Council tax taxes housing - bigger house more tax.

Poll tax taxes people consuming services - more people more tax.

Tax each thing separately. You don't need to allow for income in each different tax. It's complex, distorting and leads to unfairness.

Bur there no poll tax at the moment and council tax is used for services, so if there is a reform for the way housing is taxed it still makes sense to pay for services accordingly.

A bigger house does not mean more services usage.

Completely agree!!! Have suggested before that it is the only objective measure - cannot argue with the square metrage.

Would be transparent so that if one council is charging more per m2 than another - easy to compare.

Square footage based on land value.

Paying for social care as part of council tax came into effect in April 2016.

The problem with that though is that the actual cost of square meterage of a home varies so much depending on area, so then you might have the same bill for people with very very different incomes.

And yet a bigger bedroom doesnt equate to use of more services

Blimey, thats two Labour supporters visiting this week. We are popular.

Actually, thinking about it, it may not be that different to now - councils take averages so you wind up in a higher band in a less well off council area anyway.

My example - I lived in an expensive area in the SE and was in Band C - my current house is worth about £150K less than that but I'm in Band F.
It is bigger admittedly.
So I guess that could work.

Bless you 🙏

Was just having an interesting chat about how to solve the problem about the council tax. And yet you had to spoil it all by saying something stupid.

I have reported your post on the other thread.

You seem to be following me and using my posts here as a TAAT.

That’s not cricket.

That was to the Visitor.