What are your thoughts on replacing council tax with land value tax?

[MikeRafone]

So what are the thoughts to scrap council tax and instead tax value land?

that is what Andy Burnham wants to do if he gets where he want

he sees council tax as a regressive tax, as unfair and wants to see it changed to a land value tax.

Churchill was. In favour of Land tax as a fairer system. Advocated for by Adam Smith the founder of modern economics and Milton Friedman adviser to Margaret Thatcher

As an annual tax on a static asset, it's a crap idea. Where it can work is when the value of land suddenly increases.

For example a piece of land may be worth £100,000, but if planning permission is granted to build housing on it that value can increase to millions. There should absolutely be a tax levied on that increase in value which can be passed to local councils who will hopefully spend it on something useful like community infrastructure and social housing.

Yeah to be honest I think you are robbed over there between council tax and water bills. People say Ireland is more expensive but from what I see on here it much of a muchness.

Tbh it feels like a stale idea and I’m not hearing anything atm that isn’t from the usual bag of tricks to appeal to voters on the left

the biggest issue with UK governments is that they spend what they take - no build up of funds, resolution funds for example. So they’re constantly digging around the back of the sofa

Selfish, least selfish?!

Tell me more so I can understand this further?

I don’t see the connection between size of land and services used! It’s obviously a tax to punish people in larger houses and the assumption that they can pay more. Some properties are small but have big gardens and my neighbour has two fields! Plus who is going to check all of this out? It’s just more punishment for doing well in the uk!

“Who want to burden”

Deary me. It’s those pesky kids who

• pay taxes to fund your future state pension
• who provide the services and maintenance of the society you live in - build roads, mend your roof, nurse you when you are ill, administer the country, grow and transport your food, staff your supermarkets, hairdressers, shops, clean and pricess your water, generate your power, defend your country etc etc

without a well educated and healthy population singletons would have a much much worse (and more expensive) quality of life. You don’t live in isolation.

The property tax in Ireland is a fraction of what we pay in council tax in the UK. And miniscule compared to the Land tax for everyone in the south.
This annual rate less than what I pay for one month in council tax!

I'd be more in favour of something that is per person, including children etc.

Yeah. You are robbed over there tbh.

Wasn’t that essentially the poll tax?

I wasn't around then, but possibly similar.

How much is it going to cost to value all the land and make the changes? Billions no doubt!

No doubt it will be outsourced and we know how good the CS are at negotiating

I live alone in a one bedroom bungalow worth around £130k. Council tax band A.
As it is a bungalow with a small garden it sits on more land than, for example, a 3 bed terraced house. So I would pay more under LVT.
This would affect all bungalow owners, many of whom are pensioners.

Yes, it was. And while it made sense because everyone paid the same because they all received the same services, it was seen as horribly regressive because a millionaire would pay the same as someone on minimum wage.

The new proposal doesn’t help with that inequality either though really. I'd like tax not to be linked to someone's home, our home is fairly small but we live rurally so have a reasonable garden I suppose.

I feel like residents should pay for certain services (bin collection for example) but schools/care should come from central government

we need some radical thinking and not just ‘tax more spend more’

I agree. Council tax pays for all services, so every person should pay towards it.
Edit for spelling error

It should be per person not per household

That already happens to an extent - when you get planning permission you have to make various contributions to local services and funds, so eg if you get permission to build a large new housing estate you’d have to pay a sum towards community infrastructure (roads, schools, etc). Usually payable when you actually sell the houses.

Wasn’t that poll tax that caused lots of conflict when it was brought in years ago?

Which went badly wrong as people who paid nothing directly suddenly had a bill.

Local income tax is more subtle and takes a bill away in a sense.

The entire point of council tax "poll tax" was to take it away from landlords and visit in on the tenants. I was there and it happened to us.
We are now the people who end up paying regardless. Our council tax is £4k a year. We are on a tiny footprint though so who knows if we would be the ones to marginally benefit

Council Tax is a strange way to pay for local services.

Where i live, a 1 bedroom flat/bedsit with no garden is band A but so are all the Council estate 2 bedroom houses with front and back gardens. If we continue with Council Tax as it is, I think we need to add in several more bands.

It also seems odd to me that no matter how many adults live in a property they pay no more than the young childless couple next door. Some families now are Mum & Dad plus adult children/elderly relatives.

Personally I would scrap Council Tax and replace it with a local Income Tax collected straight from income, basically the same as income Tax but the rate set by each Council.

This is ignorant of the realities of renting/landlording. Yes, a tenant can dispute an increase but not all tenants will and eventually market rent will increase in line with landlords' costs.

Alternatively, if market rent doesn't increase, landlords will stop renting out properties that make a loss. Some of these will move into private ownership which doesn't help the ever increasing numbers of private renters. Remember our population is showing net growth at the moment hence the number of private renters is not decreasing despite some properties moving into home ownership.

My son rents and I worry more and more for him with every move this government makes. I say this as a lifelong Labour voter.