Is your Council tax rising? Fed up

[coffeeteac]

news.sky.com/story/council-tax-how-much-is-yours-going-up-by-13076146

Mine is going up 4.99 percent. I am fed up of absorbing the costs of everything rising and rising. My wage is not getting that much better.

Just feels like we are getting poorer every day. Just fed up.

4.99 here too

Councils are using the money to pay for things. Everything is more expensive for everyone including councils (labour and materials to fix potholes, transport for SEN children, energy bills, temporary housing as not enough social housing, partially funded pay rises for school staff) and councils have been underfunded by central government for years (local government is a philosphical thorn in the side of many on the right). So it's understandable but not any help if you are already struggling to pay your bills etc.

I'm sure there is also a lot of mismanagement and unnecessary bureaucracy eg my son was employed by the local council in their parking department but on a zero hours contract via a temp agency (who got a cut of his 'topline' salary paid by the council). This meant the council saved on things like pension, holiday and sick pay, but didn't build a team of skilled workers as people were underpaid with no loyalty, so they were constantly having to recruit and presumably pay more temp agency fees.

Council Tax urgently needs reform.

My issues with it

• already on money earned that has been taxed once already
• Based on house prices in 1991
• Households with more than one adult in their household pay the same, despite using more services
• No excuse not to pay or competition in the market place. You can be jailed for not paying
• Inefficient collection methods with each council doing their own thing
• No accountability for statutory service customer experience. For example, our bins are all bundled up and left in one place on the street after a collection. Often, after a collection there is debris on the road where it has missed the truck. I've complained but it gets you nowhere. They're small niggles but is a weekly reflection of a council service

The narrative from Birmingham on their situation is awful. For example, the lead Councillor claiming they only knew about the situation just before it was critical. In addition to the awful management of a project budget to implement a new IT system.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-66715441

In Manchester, we're also seeing an overspend on a major project. But again the narrative is terrible. Here they say
"It's like when you do your own Victorian house, you pull off the wallpaper and half the house falls down"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-68337230.amp

I don't find it funny, or relatable. If I had a DIY disaster, I wouldn't be asking all my neighbours to contribute. So why should we contribute to a project that clearly has poor contingency planning?

My council bankrupt so yes it is. It's annoying but there's been a surge in demand for statutory services (I find it strange things like adult social care are funded via the council rather than central government but hey ho) and things need to be paid for, central government aren't going to help.

Same, option 2

"Households with more than one adult in their household pay the same, despite using more service"

Wasn't that what the poll tax was about though ? Making you pay per person rather than per property ?

I don't know, poll tax was replaced in 1993. I was 18 in 2006, and started paying council tax in 2009 after three years exempt as a student.

My point is that, unlike other taxes, it is not based on an ability to pay.

Yes, I'm sure it will be.

I do slightly blame Kent County Council as they made poor investment decisions and lost money that way- funnily enough the council tax has been going up exponentially since then!

But I also blame central government for poor funding to public services and for everyone's costs going up due to interest rates and energy prices, due to their poor fiscal and financial policy.

Yes. It’s going up 9% 😢

It clearly needs reform and scrutiny at some of the spending, but I suspect one of the main reasons that councils have run out of money is cripplingly high energy costs. My children's school was, three years ago about 600k per year. It is now approaching 2 million. No change in usage. Multiply that by schools, leisure centres, in fact any buildings owned by the council and you have millions and millions not budgeted for in the long term, because how could they know there was going to be a war.

Something to consider is that the energy cost increases can be partially or fully offset by the interest rate rise, paying more on the cash they have in the bank.

I've just looked at my council's last finance report, they earnt £3,967,000 in interest in 2021/2022 and £6,734,000 in interest in 2022/23.

I'm aware of some NHS Trusts that have sizable charities who have offset their energy costs this way.

Why should they be hoarding cash in the bank ?

Surely they should be collecting the cash they need and using it on services they provide.

Not turning themselves into investment funds.

They obviously need some operating cash. But when things like banks and councils turn into hedge funds it's great right up until the point the investments tank. Then the people who have taken out massive bonuses for years are nowhere to be found.

You're not wrong.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/society/2022/nov/29/thurrock-council-admits-disastrous-investments-caused-500m-deficit

Option 1 please
We are definitely paying for others to have more services

So when your council is building a new road at a cost of £1m and they have to make the first payment in October, do you think they just magic £1m out of thin air in October? They have it in the bank or secure investments (unless they're Thurrock!) Until it's needed.

I don't know why the poll tax was so hated.
It seems better to work out a formula for payment for local services on a per person basis rather than a how much we decide your house is worth basis.

7%.

Ours is likely to be going up 9.67% this year BUT the local authority is chronically underfunded, so the money has to come from somewhere whether that be cuts or charges.

The cost of social care is rising. People are living longer with complex needs and everyone wants people to be well looked after. But huge numbers of people have no assets to pay for it or they hide assets and lie. No-one wants to pay. You see constant thread on MN of people putting property in kids names etc to avoid assets being swallowed up by care fees. I work in this area of and people are always trying to avoid paying for anything. themselves.

9.99% 😢

4.99% here, which is taking us up to £315 a month. It’s shocking!

Councils spend a lot of money on social care. This cost is increasing all the time. I do think this needs to be reformed, but not sure what the solution should be.

4.99%. I'm old enough to remember the poll tax. It wasn't perfect but I think the concept of all adults paying is a good one.

Something has to give in the uk it's time the government advocated for higher wages or significantly cut tax we barely have incomes to spend in the economy

4.99% here ,, fed up . Poll tax was not perfect but it needs looking at somehow