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.

Council tax is simple to collect, simple to assess, and limited options to avoid. The main issue is lack of revaluations at reasonable intervals, and the way it deals with home improvements.

I'd prefer local income tax myself, but I'm sure that would be more unpopular.

Obviously Band D is a crude metric for comparing cost of Council Tax between authorities.

In some places, there will be relatively few homes that are below Band D. In some, the vast majority will be.

In Liverpool, 59% are Band A and 15% Band D
In Barnet (outer London) its 5% Band A and 53% Band D.

I would be gobsmacked if there were any Band A properties in Kensington (inner London) but can't get AI on my phone to generate the results.

I used to live in Harrow. They lowered their council tax by not providing any waste facilities for their residents. This was because there was an enormous recycling facility paid for by Hillingdon council tax payers about half a mile from the border. It was a source of contention and eventually settled well away from anywhere where it might have reflected badly on the (Tory) government.

Harrow libraries were also shit - I used to walk a little bit further to use the nearest library in Hillingdon.

You're right.

People are such morons and we all have to put up with it.

True.

There's a spot on my walk to work where someone throws a can of Kronenberg out of their car window every couple of days. There was just half a dozen a few years back - there's hundreds now.

Such selfish idiots.

They really are. We have problems in my town with people who's gardens back on to any kind of park or wooded area - they just throw anything they don't want over their garden fence into the wood. Anything: buggies, duvets, bags of household rubbish, garden waste, old shelving, panes of glass, car seats - all manner of crap.

We really are surrounded by idiots.

And of course, you can't catch the flytippers without a police force that people who aren't using it don't pay for ....

There is a public bin on Greenland at the end of my street. This one same house is constantly dumping there. General waste bags of it, carpets, old beds, old sofa. All sorts.

We know it’s them as you see it in their front garden first. Councils response to multiple
complaints not everyone realises fly tipping is wrong…. As well as we don’t have money for cameras to catch them. But at least once a week there is a dump there. One time it was asbestos.

Yet we have signs up everywhere saying about fines. There is a whole wardrobe there today.

Personally I wouldn't have a problem with summary execution for littering. We get our priorities wrong.

Council Tax for a property in
Band H is precisely three times the amount charged for a property in Band A within the same local authority area.

so if you live in a band A property you'll pay for example £1200 - then H can't be more than £3000

yet property in A band could be worth £140,000 and the property in H band could be worth £2,000 000 yet will never pay more than 3 times what A is paying for council tax

if you take out a mortgage for a property worth £140k having put 0 deposit then your repayments would be £778 @ 4.5% over 25 years, for a £2 million property the repayments would be £11,117

You use the services tho. Ie education, roads, bins, birth death marriages, elderly care/social services etc to name a few but you want other people to pay for services you use? Im sure education alone would cost you more than your monthly CT bill

Well no. It’s your bins being collected, your children going to the school, you who will be walking down the pavements, and anyway the landlord would just put the rent up.

No council or local authority houses? Not one single park, no library, no council run services for the elderly? Nonsense.

I bet they do understand but are too tight to pay to dispose of their large items and its always someone else’s problems

Ours is still weekly. We pay the 4th highest council tax in the country though!

It's changing to fortnightly from April, but food waste will still be weekly. I can't see it making much difference to the council tax, the waste collection budget is tiny compared to that for education, adult social care, police and fire service.

We still have separate county and district/borough councils. I'm hoping that the move to a single council will mean efficiency savings and the seemingly endless council tax rises will at least slow down a bit.

The bit I really resent paying is c.£400pa to the town council. All that they do is manage a couple of venues which are hired out for events and should be self funding, and maintain a park and the cemetery.

Being dead to not need care I suppose is a blessing.

Of course they understand. After the first time they had it explained to them. They have no excuse other than lazy tight arses.

A single person, over 25, gets £400 a month UC to live on, plus housing costs.

Many one-bed flats here are band C, same as my house, so c/tax is £153 a month. How on earth would they ever be able to pay bills and live on what's left after paying that?

Our council doesn't give 100% exemption to people on means tested benefits in most circumstances either, they still have to pay 20%.

Yep, my old landlord did not live in the UK. Why would he have been responsible for paying a tax that goes towards bin collections, police, fire services, roads etc when he is not the one using those things?

Why am I charged nearly two grand for a Band B property where I live, when the same band in my sister's town - which is dripping with wealth and services in comparison and the standard of living is far higher - is charged less? They even have a disparity within the same local authority depending which town you live, because of "town council precepts".

That’s a whole other issue. We shouldn’t have foreign investor landlords.

They should be resident in the country with the exception of those who are just letting out the old family home while working aboard.

We're in band F. Think it's a bit of a cheek. How can we be re banded up to a G ?

No street lighting, waste collection, police or fire brigade? No roads to sweep and maintain? No environmental health checking on food safety in restaurants and take aways?

TBH our local council provides very little of this, 3 week collections, charges for taking almost anything to the tip, a booking system that deters people going there.
Library is a weekly service in a pub or it was.
Street lighting turned off at late at night!! Police? you mean the Speeding fines collection service? Police stations closed, need to wait 20mins on the phone to get an appointment to see anyone, they wont even accept lost property, i found keys and £100... they suggested i post it on FB...

Roads maintained??? ha ha thats funny, swept? nope, hence the huge floods we get as drains and ditches over flow.

Cannot comment on fire, they have shut almost every local station in the area over the last 20 years or so, all centralised now.

Public services are in the pits... & nothing has improved since Labour got in, nothing works in this country anymore.

We are paying ever more to get less and less, meanwhile CEO of council earns around £200k

Why can’t they be prosecuted and fined, must be so frustrating