Council tax is a c**t

[Upholstery]

What kind of a tax doesn't take account of how much money you have? It's all just a bloody con.

I agree that social services need to be centrally funded. Funding it through council tax will not and cannot work because the most deprived areas are least able to absorb council tax rises, yet they tend to be the areas with the greatest need. The majority of local authorities are struggling to balance the books because the demand for social care is increasing as the population ages.

Local authorities must provide statutory services regardless of their budget constraints. Some statutory services, such as social services, are heavily regulated, meaning that there is very little scope for efficiency savings. Other statutory services, such as street-cleaning, are less regulated (e.g. the government does not specify how often the streets must be cleaned). So there is scope for cutbacks there. The problem is, such services were probably cut to the bone during previous cost-cutting exercises.

Also, if you notice an expensive "council vanity project" in your area, it was probably funded partly or wholly by a grant from another government organisation.

Speaking of which, my 79 year old father in law tripped outside his house in poor light. It was under a lamp post which has been out for 20 years. The local authority, Glasgow City Council, said they'd no money to fix it. A few phone calls and emails threatening to go to the press prompted them to send five men out to repair it the next day. They really are absolute scum.

Unconstructive and not useful in getting any closer to understanding.

All I will say to you now is, frankly, eat what you ordered; you wished for higher taxes, you're getting higher taxes. Don't complain about it if the rich aren't allowed to.

I think taxes are a good thing.

I pay my taxes. They buy me civilisation.

No they don't. Ireland have the very same PAYE system as the UK, yet don't pay council tax or water. They generate their taxes via investment as it is considered a trade tax haven and only Luxembourg exceeds it (marginally) in wealth and GDP.

Ireland have so much money, it has a generous benefits system and invests in its infrastructure, education (one of the best globally, alongside Finland and Japan), and its citizens.

The UK citizens are completely oblivious to other countries and seem to be deluded into believing counci tax is normal.

Ok, how about a more constructive response.

Taxation pays for the things that enables a country to look after it's citizens. The armed forces, the justice system, education, infrastructure etc.

Without these then the country would not work.

Humanity started with no taxes and no services, like you want, but it's moved forward. Things that are of universal benefit get paid for visa taxation

I'll ask again but I'm not expecting an answer. In your zero tax, zero services world how would the military work?

Ireland isn't most EU countries.

You had your chance. Bye.

So again no answer. Lol

Oh yes, 25% off, 😡, I am single person in a Band A in a shit area that the all but broke council never cleans and is so vile that just leaving my house makes me depressed. I pay £133 a month which is a couple of quid more than I would pay if I shared a Band D! It is a deeply regressive tax. I create less rubbish, use fewer (hardly any in fact) services and the whole things incenses me. I would be less angry if the area I live in at least looked clean. I can see mine hitting £175-£200 a month by the time I die as the council always puts it up by the maximum amount.

Has it escaped your notice that all houses and flats are charged council tax? Where are these mythical properties that are exempt, I want to move to one now!

I asked for a link to the graphic that @Penfoldfive posted as he claimed that councils hardly spend any money on Education which is clearly untrue. I worked for one. Think you misread it I wasn’t clear enough.

GCC?

I’m sure it has been mentioned but the single person discount drives me mad!

I get 25% off because I’m a single person - why is it not 50% off if the average home has 2 adults living in it 🤬

You could always enrol on a university course. University students are exempt from paying council tax.

Well I hope he is OK.

But CT is different in Scotland and England. It is general lower than in England, so your Council has less to spend. In England, councils can increase council tax by a certain percentage each year without a local referendum. I doubt a CT referendum would be popular, so the rates do not increase, but the rates for services do, which I imagine reduces the quality of such services.

In Scotland, the council tax bill includes a separate charge for water and sewerage services, which is collected by the local authority on behalf of Scottish Water. In England we have to pay for these services in addition to CT.

Overall, CT is a fair way for people to contribute. Imagine how much it would have cost your Dad to get the light fixed, compared to what he pays in CT.

Less to spend, hence fewer services. A vicious circle with us suffering in the middle.

Birmingham….but now I’m shocked to hear there’s another council in the same boat 😐.

Yes, the new administration got lumped with trying to sort out the financial mess left by the old one.

You do realise the mess left by Labour in GCC?

Two rotten, corrupt, dishonest cheeks of the same arse.

By the same logic a household with 4 adults should pay double

The one I really hate is the water rates, again you can't change providers and it goes up with no real improvement to services

Birminghams problems go back to the 70s and successive administrations ignoring advice over equal pay and pensions. Basically they "forgot" that when the equal pay for women was upheld, the pensions should also have been uprated (they were told, but ignored it).

Come the early noughties and - surprise surprise - a whole bunch of women realise they have been massively shortchanged as their pensions hadn't been increased to reflect the pay award (from the 1970s). So rather than a pension fund that has invested for all the growth from the 1970s to the 2000s, the shortfall had to come out of council spending. Year on year on year.

That is the root of Birminghams lack of money. And once you've had incompetence of that scale and persistence, a few hundred million on a borked computer system is chump change.

So, more or less, the Community Charge, aka the Poll Tax, all over again.