Who said it was expensive to live in london?

[coffeeandeav]

Ok so joke title but I am surprised that some of the cheapest council tax is in London.

Reading a thread the other day I was shocked that a lot of people were patriotic £300 pcm. Mine is £150 over 12 months but house isn't anything special.

Sorry for the fail link.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11899155/Where-expensive-cheapest-council-tax-England.html

London has low council tax due to the ability of local authorities to create revenue from other sources.

Other local authorities may not have the same scope for income generation. A sleepy seaside authority with a failing high street/empty or exempt retail units, sky high social care costs and aging population does not have the same scope as say Westminster, which has traditionally had low council tax as it rakes it in through Business Rates.

Apologies for spelling/grammar. It's been a long day.

House prices are absolutely crazy but other than that I found living in London to be quite cheap.

Council tax and public transport much cheaper than my current Yorkshire life.

Lots of cheap restaurant and theatre deals.

Free museums and activities.

Everyone has a shit car so no pressure on that front.

How many Band A properties are there in those boroughs though?

Errrrr I’m in a London borough (one of the ‘shit’ ones mind) and ours has just gone up 15%. We only live in a flat, band c. It’s not ‘cheap’ at all, it costs me £13 a day to get to work and back (zone 5 into zone 1)

London is a pretty large demographic, it might surprise you to know.

Westminster makes vast amounts of revenue in business rates. The proportion of housing is tiny compared to anywhere else in the U.K.

Probably quite a few, the valuations were done 30 years ago before house prices went crazy, in fact prices were falling then.

As well as the business rate income, it's also cheaper to deliver services in an urban area than in one that's rural, because the population is a lot less spread out.

I live in Westminster
Bins are collected daily
Streets swept several times a week

Amazingly cheap council tax.

I think London is a cheaper place to live than a lot of areas (housing excepted of course). Cheap and plentiful buses for transport, cheap eats and lots of free cultural activities.

My one bed flat central London flat (Southwark) has council tax in Band F so I think my council tax is exorbitant.

I used to live in the City of London. Council tax there was really cheap.

Surely it should be the same rate of council tax and the 'excess' returned to central government.

I also find Airport parking cheaper. £16 per 24 hours at a hotel on Bath Rd. Same chain at Manchester Airport is £50 per 24 hours.

And your band F council tax is less than my band B council tax house up north.

In London, typically the more expensive the borough the cheaper the council tax. Tax in Haringey is more than double what it would be in Westminster for the same band.

This is my experience too. I live in Zone 2, house cost a bomb but beyond that I find life cheap. Lots of places to buy food so not limited to village shop or driving to out of town supermarket. No need for a car as public transport so good and walk and cycle lots using bike scheme. Walk to work (whereas colleagues outside London paying wildly expensive train tickets). Council tax relatively low.

@CatsOnTheChair really? Which local authority?

@CatsOnTheChair I’ve had a quick google and either your LA must be really expensive for Band B to be higher than Band F in London…I accept out of london F is more than London F but usually only by around 30%

southwark Band F is £2445

Gateshead Band B £1812
Salford Band B £1712
Cumberland £ around 1600 (parish variation
North yorks ?varies by parish nothing >£1800

Very few.

I know people who live in those areas and I have lived in various London boroughs.

Generally due to when the banding was done there are more lower band properties in outer London boroughs.

Some LAs have decided to keep their business rates instead of getting a grant from the government.

Others due to their levels of deprivation - there are some council estates plus random other social housing right next to very rich people's homes - decided getting grant is more beneficial.

Southwark band F £1595?

I live in the London Borough of Richmond in a two bedroom cottage. Band F £3093 per annum.

Yes same here, £ 200 a month for small 2 bed flat near Croydon

@CatsOnTheChair you aren’t reading the correct column.

Wandsworth has one of the lowest council taxes in the country. Major reason I'm not moving out of London.