Council Tax

[EverythingAllatOnceAllTheTime]

Does Labour plan to scrap the single person council tax discount?

The Crown Estates (owned and managed by the Crown, aka King Charles) made £422m profit last year and 88% of that went to HM Treasury while The Sovereign Grant paid back £86m. I think we do quite well out of them.

@iwishihadknownmore "much better to ramp up CT on bands E F G & H, which proportionately are way too low"

E band is typically a 4 bed house and I live in one, it's hardly an 8 bed Georgian mansion. I agree (having worked in council tax) that the top bands do need to be rebanded with special attention on those H bands that cover a wide range of properties from some 6 beds to properties with 15 beds with 3 acres of land, all currently paying the same.

I don't think removing the single occupier discount is the way to go. It will hit far too many people too hard, it would be too much.

Council tax is 50% property and the land it sits on and 50% two people living in it, hence the single occupier discount reducing by 25%. This is also a shitty situation for any single parent with a child who hits 18 as now 2 adults live at the property. I firmly believe the single occupier discount should stay.

I think (long time since I worked there) but it is all worked off the D band and then each band higher is a set percentage above the D band, the same going down the bands too. My brain cannot do maths today.

Council tax exemptions whether property exemptions or disregarded people may be the way to claw back some money. Diplomats are disregarded for council tax like students but I believe students shouldn't have to pay. I also think any second homes should have a full charge, not dependent on furnishing levels as some councils do. It used to be the same across England that it was 50% then councils got to choose their own rate, and rightly so especially in tourist spots. I am all for full charge for any second home. Annexes too may need looking into.

Weirdly I was thinking this yesterday. I was thinking about the winter fuel allowance and was wondering about other groups that get a blanket benefit with no means testing because I was wondering if that would be a type of thing that would end up being cut.

One I came up with was council tax discount eg it applies to very wealthy people living alone as well as poorer people.

Im not saying I agree with it btw. Just that I wonder if things like this are the things that will be in the line for cutting.

If they do I will be below the poverty line, I earn £24k a year, single income, no benefits with £75 left at the end of the month, I’ll have no quality of life so won’t see the point.

@EverythingAllatOnceAllTheTime

It’s turning into death by a thousand cuts

Well, there's a surprise!🙄

Thank all the people voting for Labour & not listening to what others were saying about what Labour weren't saying!

🙄🙄

@Sparklingnorthernlights

mot to mention some of us have no way of downsizing without, moving into a beach hut & they're expensive!

As it is, the discount is only 25% and I don't get/use 75% of what it covers, so already paying over the odds.

@DancingPhantomsOnTheTerrace

nut even then, why should a single person pay the same as a family? Theyre using far less of what's covered by council tax

I'm actually outraged that they want to cut this.
discount The council tax is loads as it is ., step too far really .

@iwishihadknownmore

No, they'll argue the cutting discounts, is NOT 'increasing council tax' and they'd be (technically) right. The council tax on the property remains the same.

I suggest everyone waits until the budget is actually announced. At the moment people are getting their pants in a panic over rumours.

Anyway CT will rise by 5% as it does each and every year, whilst we get less and less :(

Have you asked yourself how we’ve ended up in this situation? Because I can tell you council tax getting more expensive and giving less services comes after it being consistently too low and underfunded for a long time.

If reasonable rises had been put in place over time, other service such as social care and housing been funded properly and not cut to the bone, we would be in a much better place now.

This has been created by the Tories. If they’d correctly funded all these things over the last fifteen years it wouldn’t need to be fixed now!!

Well if this is true then they can kiss goodbye to ever being voted in again. They seem to be a nastier version of the tories. Even the tories wouldn't impose withdrawal of the winter fuel allowance and remove the single discount and the cruel punitive tax rises that they are planning in October. Labour will quickly become more hated than the Conservatives.

@spuddy4

I think your wishful thinking is pure fantasy. They keep saying things like

we will have to make unpopular decisions

it will have to get worse before it gets better

What punitive tax rises are they planning? Have you had early sight of the budget?

The prime minister has confirmed the budget will be "painful". We all know what that means....

@PandoraSox

how would it impact you if it were to happen?

Just to point out I live in outer London my house is in band E, it's a totally ordinary 3 bedroom terraced house

It’s long been a tried and tested method that ministers leak proposed tax changes months in advance to either test the reaction or start getting the public used to the idea. The rumors don’t come from nowhere

I’m going to be absolutely fucked if this happens.

@Lifestooshort71 - I'm not going to dersil this thread - but don't agree. The seabed for example should be owned by all of us and all moneys should go to the treasury, ax should any money left by people dying interstate.

Any way, I don't agree with increasing higher bands for council tax. I would like to see council spending under greater scrutiny, for example the £0000s spent using taxis to take children to school. If they target the higher bands they will again just be further taxing those that they believe have 'broad shoulders', the ones that they seem to think have magic money trees that they tend each evening having studied and worked their socks off.

True. If that is the case with this rumour, hopefully they will realise that it would be a very wrong move.

Absolute nonsense. Councils are known for pissing away money. From painting rainbow zebra crossings for LGBTQ (despite the negative impact on the visually impaired) to literal corruption. When I was learning to drive yonks ago my instructor told me he had loads of clients who worked at the council who would sign in to work at the office then head straight out for a 2 hour driving lesson during working hours.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/tower-hamlets-council-lutfur-rahman-john-biggs-department-for-levelling-up-housing-and-communities-birmingham-city-council-b2500793.html

https://www.somersetcountygazette.co.uk/news/24233586.somerset-council-loses-7million-taxpayers-money-building/

https://www.thetimes.com/article/ccf4a7ac-2a89-46a2-a3bf-2655a235950f

If they are really planning to do this then it's going to be disastrous for people whose finances are already squeezed to the point where they have nothing else to spare to absorb any more tax hikes or removals of discounts. What this government don't seem to care about are those people who simply can't afford to pay any more.

There is a lot of scaremongering going on about the budget right now. It is not right to put people into a panic when none of us know what changes are going to be implemented or how we personally will be affected.

There is a lot of purpose built over 50’s housing in Cumbria. I don’t think a rich widow over 67 should be subsidised by me when she has a 3+ bedroom house all to herself. Sell up and downsize.