Council tax bill - is this wild or are yours insanely high too?

[Notmycircusnotmyotter]

My local council took £232 in direct debit today for council tax. I'll be honest, I don't budget to the pound, so was shocked when I saw it and assumed they had wrongly taken off my single person discount. But nope. £232 is what 75% of the council tax charge is for my 3 bed terrace.

WTAF. This feels insanely high.

please don't tell me all about bankrupt councils and adult social care. I've heard it. I know.

My point is how are ordinary people paying these sorts of bills? I'm a single parent of two on a decent wage and it stings.

I was somewhat sympathetic until you started bashing public sector workers. They will be the ones wiping your arse in a few years.

Ours is £145 a month, roughly £9 pcm more than last year if I remember correctly.

Our water bill on the other hand is shocking! From roughly £300 last year to over £800 this year.

Council tax wasn't around when I was a kid and I think that poster said she was retired so older than me

On a meter? Or merely estimated. Essex and Suffolk water estimated that mine should go from 20 to 42 a month. Bloody ridiculous. I cancelled the DD and read meter each month, work out what I've used and pay that Averaging 20/22 £. I was already £60 in credit to start with

I assume for landlords they simply pass the charge back to tenants? How does that work for those in flats?

What always surprises me is how cheap London council tax is.

my sister lives in a 4 bed zone 3 semi, worth just under 1m at today’s prices, and her council tax is 230 for 10 months in band d!

I moved to the NE for cheaper living, also a band d property, and my council tax is £250..

So much for London being an expensive city. If you afford a house the actual costs are much lower- public transport, council tax etc are cheaper.

Mine is £134 a month for a two bed Band A terrace as a single person, and my water rates are now £61 a month, so I am looking at £195 a month just for those two bills, add on gas, elec and the horrendous cost of food and I sometimes wonder what the point of it all is.

Yep. All of us including those who work in the public sector. I hear this "we pay your salary" bollocks a lot. Newsflash - civil servants pay tax too.

Way to let a point fly right over your head.

Unless you’re both about 102 and had to grow up in a workhouse, I’m assuming there was state funded healthcare and education available. Collected via taxation. 👍

Like teachers and care assistants and social workers and rubbish collectors?

Do you not like having street lights that work and leisure centres and public areas having their grass cut?

How else do you think people should be paid for this work?

Local council workers are not civil servants.

Ours is £450 and we don't live in a mansion by any means. A 4 bed terrace in semi-rural Scotland.

Economies of scale. A lot more people live in each sq km in London than elsewhere.

£220/month full price, £165 with single occupancy discount.
Band F for a 2 bed flat particularly stings though, as does only get 25% off as a single person. All newer builds round here are much higher bands than older properties of similar size and value, the whole system needs looking at. I'm paying more than families in 3 or 4 bed houses that are worth 3 times as much!

Public sector workers.

I live in a 3 bed house in spain with a big garden and my council tax equivalent is 65 € a month. A big difference to the UK! However, stamp duty when you buy a property is higher here so swings and roundabouts I guess.

Our potholes are filled in promptly too because we can't have tourists damaging their rental cars...

My council tax is my biggest monthly bill aside from food (which I can at least tweak). Thankfully I’m now mortgage free but the insane council tax bills are something we just can’t tweak. Even downsizing doesn’t give much of a break, my elderly mum’s tiny 2 bed flat was nearly £170 pm before discount.

Although, to be fair, the council really do seem to invest in our town. Unlike a lot of towns that deteriorate over the years this one has improved a lot. It’s just when I go through financial struggles (bit of a roller coaster) it’s hard when you can’t just trim that one bill a bit.

Well id be happy to pay for neither tbh

3 bed semi
£344 a month
It’s a lot

is that including your water and sewage charges though? you have to take those off to compare against England and Wales rates.

@JackandVictor assume from username that you're also Scottish? When we moved into our home it was banded as an E but Google told me other comparable houses in the street were D. I appealed and had it accepted so ours was rebanded down and the excess already paid was refunded. Told our next door neighbour who did the same and had 8 years of overpayment paid back to them. May be worth exploring for you.

Yes it is, however a friend in outer London pays less between her CT and Water than I do.

The good news is that as a single, child free person, you are more likely than many others to need social care support. You can claim "your share" then.

I cannot imagine being so bitter about providing support to the most vulnerable children in society.

It's very well known.

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/quarter-of-council-tax-revenue-spent-on-unjustifiably-generous-staff-pensions-xrvlmj6hp

Mine is £3000 a year. I live in an average sized 3 bedroom house and because its a new area we also get factoring type charges on top and nothing done (there isn't even a bin here).