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?

I totally agree about basic lack of understanding.

The idea we could just abolish public services and have a voluntary system of fundraising to repair roads is the maddest thing I've read for a while.

Believe me I’m old enough to remember it. The single people didn’t even get a voice, as usual and the ones with the loudest voices won

I'm a little irritated that houses in our road are in a lower band because in 1991 they didn't have the massive extensions and extra bedrooms they now have. Not to mention the extra people therein.

It's a flawed system which needs updating but won't get it as there's no political advantage.

@calligraphee I'm guessing you don't pay your council tax to Birmingham City Council. Nearest thing to a place with no functioning services.

of course single people had a voice, a lot of them were on the street rioting.

If someone lived in a shared house of three, poll tax would have put their bills up a lot.

Poll tax was crap for low-paid single people (who tend to share houses).

We’re you actually around then? Everyone should be responsible for themselves, why on earth not?

Many councils are struggling all over the country.

Yes the Tories are painting it as council mismanagement in B'ham - and presumably some will be that - but the direct settlement from the government has been reduced so much.

Does the current situation with council funding mean that democratically elected local councils should be scrapped and remove all public services altogether? No.

I've supported CTax reform ever since it was introduced - it is not progressive enough IMO - but the answer is not the even more regressive poll tax.

Your council can ask DLUHc for a capitalisation direction if they want to spend capital on revenue costs. DLUHC grants that fairly often as it's a way of staving off a s114 notice.

They only have one house between them to catch fire.

The arguments against poll tax are well-rehearsed, it was regressive.

I'm not sure you understand it, tbh.

What do you mean 'was I around then'? I wasn't rioting if that is your question. I watched the riots on the TV.

But 4 by far increases the risk

Do you have stats to back that up?

But if we're going down that route then I'd argue a property with a single person living in it is potentially more at risk of crime - more chance of it being empty in the day.

Do you have stats to back that up?
Think the answer to this might be 'no'

I'm not sure the £100 million IT cock up at BCC can be blamed on the Tories - and I'm no Tory.

I agree that councils have been starved of funds from central government for years and that's a large part of the problem. But some of the councillors are a joke but know they'll always be voted in - on a 25% turnout.
Others are great, work hard and usually move on to better jobs elsewhere thus leaving a shallower talent pool.

How would you reform Council tax? (genuine question).

They tried a different way of doing things some years ago, when Thatcher was in charge.

So perhaps look up the Poll Tax and see how well that went. 😂

My council tax is £320 a month so I’d happily swap!

I really think council tax should be based on adults over 25 in the property. Fairer to single people, but also reflects the extra costs for households where there are several adults present.

It’s really rude and assumptive to jump to the conclusion that a single person is on benefits! Quite disgusting really.

Well, they're right in a sense. The bulk of it goes onto things like social care which (although necessary) are very expensive to provide and only a minority will be in receipt of.

What extra costs would they be?

have not RTFT. IIRC council tax covers things like rubbish collections and simple maintenance, street lighting etc?

so really it's not that single households are being penalised, but that multiple occupancy houses share the economies of scale?

And how does that work out if 6 people live there

What got me is when I lived in a private close We had our own street lights , management company maintained the roads entry gates etc. we put our bins at the entrance for binmen to collect.

However we had no council tax discount despite not having full services ( which we were paying the management company as well)

Re. reforming, taxation should be progressive. Therefore it should be more accurately linked to house/land value. With big additional levies for second homes, holiday homes.

If councillors repeatedly get elected despite being poor at their role, that is a matter for the electorate.

Isn’t it split so half is for your house and half is for the people in the house.
you pay the same amount for your house and you get a reduction for having less people

There are two routes to council tax; per property or per capita. Just for clarification, when one Margaret Thatcher tried to introduce a per capita tax,, the whole country complained. Neverthless, it remains the only possible solution. If you are an adult, you should pay your whack for the services provided by you local council.