To think an annual property tax is incredibly unfair?

[Itchthescratch]

I come from an area with low house prices. It is great! My friends can generally afford houses even with lower salaries as the earnings:house prices ratio is better. Rents are also lower so they have proportionately more disposable income.

I have moved to a more expensive area where house prices are higher and people have really had to push themselves to buy a property. Salaries are higher but not high enough to make up the difference. They have had to pay more stamp duty , pay more interest and have less disposable income each month.

I am really struggling to understand why my friends in the South should also automatically be paying more property tax under the new proposals being suggested by Burnham supporters? What is the justification? They would love to buy a large detached house for £300k like my friends from home but this isn't possible. It feels like they are being double penalised.

Just to add house prices haven't risen in real terms in the area in live in now for 20 years so the value of my friend's houses is simply money they have paid in.

I live in a 4 bed detached house in a small cheap town in the NE, our council tax is £2,750 a year. The same banding property in Kensington and Chelsea council is £1,403 a year.

What exactly makes the current system fair?

Manchester City also has low Council Tax rates as does Birmingham City. They get more business rates, more money from parking but also have huge efficiencies due to the fact that they are areas of high density living. It costs less to provide local services when everyone lives close together.

I think it's fair that local services should be funded by local people. So if an area can fund the services they need with low taxation then what's wrong with that? Isn't this what Andy Burnham's devolution looks like?

Because your money is going directly to pay for local services in your area. You and your community are direct beneficiaries of your tax. The same is true for people that live in Kensington and Chelsea.

I imagine the people of Kensington and Chelsea already pay a hell of a lot of money towards national taxes and a lot of this money will be pumped into areas like yours . Local taxes shouldn't work like this though.

Are you sure? I live in London, in a much less fashionable area in a semi. I pay £3,800 per year.

We can go through this a million times over but it is widely acknowledged that it is indeed subsidised.

Kensington has a famously low council tax because it has low demand for council services and massive revenue brought in from other sources.

People seem to think all of London benefits from this when it doesn’t.

The bandings are freely available to see on their website

It seems like most of London already pays less than I do. I'd like to see a more balanced system, not one that simply shifts the unfairness from one group to another.

It’s undecided but could be land value
In the main anyone living in A-D council bands would find themselves paying the same or less, whereas E -H would find themselves paying more

Who is subsidising housing associations rents?

Type 'is social housing subsidised by the government' into Google and it will give you a handy AI guide about all the ways SH is subsidised.

At .48% my £450k value house would be £1000 cheaper a year. Council tax here went up 10% (special permission) because council is bankrupt from special school transport and elder care apparently. More expensive when rural

Debt and fire sales.

I haven't read much about this, but it should surely be in proportion to each area's amenities, transport etc. I live in a village with no pavements, hardly any streetlights, no public transport, poor roads etc and it pisses me off that I pay the same as those in towns where more money is spent on these things. Why should it be the same as those living in a town or city with leisure centres, libraries, good transport etc. I also think such taxes should be based on the number of people living in a house, but not sure how that could ever be successfully policed. Again, not fair that a single person pays as much as a family.

Another argument for devolution 😳

DB's is £500 higher. Still the same quirks it seems.

Market value likely.

It costs 38% more to deliver local services in rural areas. I wouldn't be surprised if your area had the same or more spent on local services per capita

You've made a whole thread about this but haven't read the policy.

The poor widow won't be made homeless because if she can't afford the tax then it'll be collected when her house is eventually sold. At present the policy will stop people from losing their homes because of unpaid tax, not increase it.

But you'd know about this, and the cap on any increase for existing homeowners if you'd done your homework.

Various funding methods including government grants - tax payers money.

Yes but perhaps she isn't happy building up huge arrears that will have to be cleared when she sells. Maybe she feels she has to sell to protect what equity she has in the house from being taken away from her when she sells to pay these taxes and has to buy somewhere else. Maybe she can't then afford to buy another house in the same area big enough to house her family as she will encounter the same issue.

One year your house value will be £500k next yr its £575k year 3 its £600k. You are living in that house you aren't realising any of these gains yet your tax will go up accordingly. Is that fair? Why are paying more in te 2 or 3 just because its gone up on paper.

Houses are your homes not an investment, not some asset.

Reform council tax remove social care as this is majoirty of costs for the majoirty of councils and fund that nationally through increase in income tax so everyone pays into it. Then council services will be what they should be fire, police, bin collection, libraries, education etc.

Posters here being happy rhey will pay less buly lvt well what services will you get if councils get less money? How is the gocernment going to make councils get the right amount. Pretty much all councils right now are all struggling for funds. I dont see how lvt which will help

A land tax. The Govt adds an annual charge to your property. At what point do they force you to sell? When they have 30 percent, 50 percent?

They want the boomers houses to give to the migrants. The bigger ones to convert to HMO's, the smaller ones for families.

Most people working in tax policy call it stamp duty because 95% of people know what you mean when you say ‘stamp duty’ and less than 50% know what you mean when you talk about LBTT. Simple communication is way more important than official terminology!

And it'll start off at 0.48% but as we all know they will use every opportunity to increase it...they can never have enough of our money. Its always tax tax tax