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 take it you don't like them? 😂

That's even worse than GCC!

Again this is something else we don’t have a bill for in Ireland

No because a typical household rarely had 4 adults in and it was worked out on a 2 adult household.

Nowadays many people have 4 adults but then they’d all pay 25% each - so by that logic a single person discount would mean only paying 25% of the bill.

Perhaps it would be better to base it on the number of adults living in the house, that does seem much fairer.

It seems unfair that an elderly woman on state pension or single mother with 3 kids has to pay 75% council tax whilst on a low income but a household with 4 working adults earning decent wages only have to pay 25% each.

Yes, what exactly did water privatisation bring to you and I ? And now the greedy bastards want us to re-pay them for all the work they should have done for decades. I mean it's not like there is any shortage of reasons to never vote Tory again, but if anyone needed just one, surely this is it. Every household in Britain has been rinsed for several thousands of pounds. Legalised robbery.

So if it’s on affordability it should be linked to income tax.. not the value of your property

Water is still publicly owned in Scotland.

Croydon? It is outrageous and something that needs serious investigation.

The answer is that it’s her ball and she’s taking it home.

Glasgow city centre's like a third world shanty town these days, and at the weekend it's like an open air asylum.

😂😂

The cost of adult social care (ASC) needs legislating and private equity needs crushing out of the system altogether. When ASC is run by provate companies for profit it's NEVER going to be affordable for local authorities.

Of course, we're too far down the line now and the costs associated with caring for older people, and adults with disabilities and mental health needs will just keep on rising, meaning all local public services and infrastructure continues to decline as authorities desperately try to do more with ever-shrinking funds.

Private equity in the care sector (and, indeed, in the health, education and housing sector) is a disgusting scourge on humanity, frankly, because it's NEVER set up fr the good of the person - it exists ONLY to create wealth for shareholders and investors.

We've allowed it to happen though and it's not going to change without a massive effort of political will and campaigning, sustained lobbying and, potentially, a bit of public disorder - which I'd be all for if it meant some meaningful benefits for so many people essentially being left to rot in a social care system that, ultimately, gives not one fuck about them.

The problem with that, is that you then get a disconnect between tax paid and the accountability of the elected authority. And if you tried to make a proportion of income tax link to where you live, then you will just get people who can move setting up very low tax ghettos on the edge of cities where they enjoy they facilities and pay fuck all for them because they can travel.

You may as well try and introduce a local sales tax like the US.

Please don't get sucked into comparing your property with others in totally different places around the country. It's such a hackneyed argument, and I'm getting sick of people high up in government and think tanks trotting it out in their class war bullshit.

Westminster are clearly raking in the money from things like business rates and parking charges/fines, and probably have a lower proportion of things like adult social care, schooling and other things they need to pay for compared with other parts of the country, so they obviously don't feel the need to rinse homeowners for tax based solely on an arbitrary number such as home value, which is the way it should be in every place ideally.

I still love it! Though I have sympathy with the council due to the shit show Labour left.

As has been outlined above council tax contributes to the funding of essential local services including rubbish collection, road maintenance, policing, fire services and both child and adult social care (including child protection). These services have to be funded if we are to have a functioning society.

Currently, the funding comes from CT that relates very roughly to the value of peoples' houses. Changes are possible.

We could:

• Move to a fixed contribution per person. This was basically what the communuty charge (poll tax) was. It was incredibly unpopular. It was regressive and low earners standard of living was hit the hardest. *Roll CT into income tax. This would decouple it from property values. This could be appealing, but there are many threads on here about people being relatively asset poor despite a high income. This type of change would result in young families with higher incomes, but struggling to.get on/up the property ladder paying more. Older lower earners who bought big houses when they were cheaper would pay less.
  Some would say that CT at least marginally addresses the issue of asset inequality between generations.. There are issues with this argument (e. g.how do renters fit in), but CT is one of the few taxes that roughly relates to property value.
  *The goverment could try to make it 'fairer'. Possibilities would include revaluing all properties, a renters discount, increasing the single person discount or taxing equity not property value. These would all be very expensive to implement and are likely to be electrolally unpopular. If someone pays less someone else has to pay more to make up the shortfall.

We need the money. Without it already struggling essential services would be hammered further. The choices are awful. Drastically reducing funding for child protection social services? No longer fixing roads? Drastically reducing funding for fire and rescue services? Things are challenging now, without the money raised by CT they would be even worse.

None of the above options are electrolally popular so sucessive goverments largely leave it alone. Like most things there arent nice easy answers.

Where I am from, the council tax is based on your income. And we pay for our own waste disposal. Okay, council tax and what is included in monthly payments are different so it is not one for one. But in general I like when publis services are based on income (like council tax, childcare, elderly care etc.)

That’s the problem with council tax it seems like someone just sticks their finger in the air and goes you need to pay £230 a month but your neighbour £150.

Then it looks like what you get out of it is bugger all. Pavements with cracked and unlevel slabs, pot hole filled roads, street lights barely on, schools that are not doing great, library’s closing, a bin that gets emptied once a fortnight if you are lucky and charged extra for a garden waste bin that they then sell as compost. Really bad compost as well.

I wonder how much fly tipping clean up costs vs the savings of collecting bins less.

Social care and Sen needs should all be central. Places with higher government paid help and care for those are likely to be areas where people have less to start with.

Downsizing won’t always help because again finger in air prices and that relies on being able to afford or find somewhere to move to.

All the champagne bottles they have to collect from the 1 bed.

How to tell somebody you're a Nationalist without actually saying it....😄

Your user name gives you away 😉

Also the taxis for some of them is another huge expense

I get that people think that services arent of a good standard. I also understand that people think that the way that CT revenue is raised could be made fairer. Although how this alternative system would be best organised i am not sure about. None of the available options will be universally supported.
What i am sure about is if the revenue received by councils is reduced essential services will get even worse. Potholes in roads, overstretched social services departments, poor SEND support, infrequent rubbish collections - with less money these things will just deterioate further not improve. Services need paying for.

It's your fault; you just aren't looking hard enough - this one even comes with parking big enough for a very large vehicle.

I don’t object to paying taxes if we are getting a decent service. I object to paying tax when the council have stopped maintaining roads and pavements, stopped cutting grass and trees and weeds, turned off half the street lights, closed the libraries (along with the adult education classes that used to be held there), stopped services like pest control, the scheme that used to remove large items of household furniture and white goods for a nominal fee, started charging for green waste removal, introduced car parking charges near every green space or shopping areas. Volunteers keep the parks tidy. I could list countless schemes and initiatives that no longer exist.

Our council has said outright that the only things that they can fund this year are emptying the bins, social care and SEN provision, plus the quarter of the council’s budget that goes on paying pension contributions. Everything else is gone.