Council tax very unfair to single people

[Lettuceandtomatoes]

The council tax for my area is £1800 full whack, a single person 25% off. I pay £140 a month which is ok until I realised the three adults next door are paying £60 pounds each and a couple paying £90 each. So why this inequality aimed at single people, picking up the tab?

Just checked and the 2 bed apartments on the next road (same estate) are band A

Council Tax is called Property Tax in countries outside of the UK. It’s based on the value of the property and TBH, I won’t be surprised if future governments get rid of the discount when they get desperate for money. Unfortunately it has to be paid, and the more people you move into your home, the more people you can share the total bill with. Same as the mortgage or rent—a household with two adults in the same value as your home will pay 1/2 of what you pay for rent/mortgage. Same for home insurance—the bill can be divided by the number of residents in the home. Taxes swing in roundabouts—people without children don’t get any discounts, despite never needing state schools. 🤷‍♀️

Small bungalow, two of us £300 per month this year a 20% rise in two years. Our council is in trouble so need baling out again.

Every adult should be responsible for themselves. The poll tax was fair

Thanks

our block did a lot of checking and the criteria here is band C for the one beds unless they go over 500sq m in which case, it's band D.

this prompted a lot of research (and measuring!) and it turns out it's only bedsits paying band B.

variation by area is very random. I moved here from a cheaper council but I do think the council here is better.

People rioted. My parents were in Liverpool at the time and they often had 3 generations of adults in a small terraced house, suddenly they’d have to pay a lot more. I thought it was fairer but I guess it affects the poor more as they’re more likely to live like that.

Well I've got deja vu. So I've either dreamt about this thread, or someone else has posted it fairly recently. Both possible tbh.

Anyway council tax is wild. The way they've decided which house pays how much and so on.

I don't remember poll tax, but my exes parents always used to bitch that they were rich until it was bought in. They weren't, they just never liked taking responsibility for their own choices.

Caused riots at the time. I remember our neighbours had four adults then. They were steaming.

Can you share some stats @Lettuceandtomatoes to show that there's more risk for a house fire?

It's also very annoying we're basically double taxed on the amount. We've already paid tax on the money we earned and then have to pay CT.

It would be much fairer if it was absorbed into general taxation and was the same amount everywhere.

Agree.

It should be based on income but I don't see it changing anytime soon. Not sure if it's even something the government have considered. Maybe they have and they get less rather than more so do nothing.

Yes, my mum explained it to me later and I'm shocked that there was such a violent response to this.

it seems fairer than what we have now.

TBH the majority of your council tax is going on social care. Depending on where in the country it could be as much as 80%. If you want to see improved local services and lower council tax the central govt needs to increase the stipend paid to councils. Her Next Door With Two Kids (per an above poster) and her bins is a drop in the ocean of council expenditure, comparative to social care.

Pardon please clarify.

@viccat yeah take-home wage in the UK isn't take-home, it's take-home minus a further random bloody amount that can be anything up to another 15% off your wage.

Council tax is nothing to do with how many bedrooms you have it makes no difference at all.

@Lettuceandtomatoes If you don't mind me ranting about this here, I recently discovered that the council aren't allowed to spend any money from land sales etc on basic maintenance.

This seems to be a rule originating in Westminster.

So our local council have just made a huge amount of money selling off land to a corporate company - and they are literally not allowed to spend it on the basic maintenance stuff that we really really need.

I'm tired of the council saying "let's spend loads more money on the Christmas market" and ignoring the state of the roads. I say this is a pedestrian and bus user. The pavements are perilous for anyone with mobility issues - not an exaggeration.

And the constant issues with bin collections.

There should be a rule that they have to get basic provisions right before they start getting overexcited about how many Christmas markets we can have, and what time of day they happen!

Basically capex income can only be spent in capex projects....to make money for everyone's mates.

I don't think I'm clear on how larger houses with lower occupancy cost the country more.

Has there been a study?

What is wrong with taxing a property per tax paying adult member of the household? The same exemptions could still be applied but it would be fairer to charge per person as a variant of the banding.

This isn't what our council told us. But it's probably all hogwash.

Fire risk maybe?

Somebody once tried a charge per adult and it didn’t go well…

It goes off the property not how many people live there
Maybe we should have a poll tax instead that went swimmingly last time was brought in didn't it.....

I do.
Horrendous.
It was one of the many policies that buried the Tories in 97.

I know. But a hybrid of the two systems seems fairer than the current or previous one.