council tax band G & H to double

[StrawberryThief1930]

has anyone seen the rumours that the council tax rates for bands G and H are going to double?

I know everything is just rumours at the moment but im worried this one might stick. easy to implement in an existing system and doesn't require the revaluation of thousands of houses etc.

I'm about to buy a G band house. Seriously questioning whether we can afford it. The current council tax is £4k a year. so £8k a year. Over £300 a month more than we had budgeted. we have spreadsheets coming out of our ears trying to check we can afford this house. Buying with a 40% deposit. im sweating...

anyone have the same worries? or further thoughts?

Ours is about that as well, band E in the SE of England. Extended four bed ex council. Most in the road are band D.

And also that “bungalow” will probably be just as expensive as her current house! That’s how it is where I live.

Mines a G. Two roads over, a house twice the size is an E.

The bands make no sense.

Not all of them!

We owned a house (period, detached, 4 beds) in the West Midlands that was band G...worth around 300k when we purchased in 2014. Recently sold for 470k.

However, at the same time we purchased it, DH's boss lived in a house in Henley-on-Thames (period, detached, 4 beds, similar size) that was also band G - worth around 2.5m.

Don't be silly. Plenty of cookie cutter houses are band G.

The bands need to be redone really

Our council tax would be impacted. We’ve also been hit by VAT on school fees. I don’t have the words for how much I loathe this labour government. Oh well, they will run out of other people’s money soon enough and will be booted out. I can’t wait.

When we bought our house 9 years ago it was band E, after we bought it the council decided to up the band to G which was a shock, the houses along our street are a mix of bands although all basic three bed semis but we were told because ours hadn’t been sold in many years it was miscalculated when banded. We could have fought the council but it ran the risk of all our neighbours being changed bands too and I don’t think they would have been too happy!
Doibling our council tax will cripple us, not on a low income but it’s a stretch every month. We are in the East Midlands and not a particularly posh area.

I'm in a band G and really worried about this because it's the easiest thing to change. No new bands, just a 100% uplift on existing levy. In fact I'm not worried, I'm incandescent with rage. It entrenches what is already a regressive system and stinks of class warfare. Labour are protecting true wealth again. Living in a 5 bed house? Yeah, you can pay nearly £10k. Living in a 30 bed mansion? Yeah, you can pay nearly £10k too. One of those examples will really struggle with this, the other will still see it as small change.

I don't mind paying some more but this is going to push ordinary people who are still working into finding almost £10k a year for services they don't really use. My council tax is over £4k now, I was happy to pay £6/6.5k which is still a wedge of money but £10k every year on top of whatever else they're planning is beyond the fucking pale.

I would rather they brought in an annual property tax, with the first £500k being exempt. Charging .5% on the next £500k, .75% on the next £million and a full 1% on anything over £2million. That is by far the fairest thing to do because it actually means those who really are minted and living in houses that cost well over £2m will actually pay a fair proportion. But, again how will they value houses in order to apply the charge? The easy answer is they won't. It will be Band g and h that get clobbered because its easiest, not right, just easiest.

No doubt, because of the vagaries of London councils, they're all living in Band F townhouses. Massive, 4 floor townhouses, but Band F townhouses. God, I loathe them.

Oh yes, let’s pick on pensioners again, to punish them for voting Tory and Brexit 🙄

It’s based on population so we’re in an area with lower population but geographic area is big so there’s less people to pay council tax.

G in South Somerset including all precepts - £360

G in Westminster including all precepts - £141 (higher population)! How is that fair?

I just looked up what those bands are and are they any house over £160k? If so that’s crazy. That will force so many people into having unavoidable large bills. It will surely completely knacker both rentals and home owners. I’ll have to look up what our council tax band is but I think it might be D.

Extreme caution is needed.

Until they learn that you need more people in gainful employment paying tax rather than just keep turning the thumbscrews.

I'll be really pissed off if this happens. We already pay £400 a month. Our mortgage has trebled because of interest rates.

I think there are options to defer payment until sale/death in countries where property taxes on high value houses put too much pressure on income-poor owners- so the single pensioned in the big family house, for example , isn’t placed in hardship

Where do you live??? We have 3 beds, no garage and are band G…..

But the houses were valued years ago. Not all are expensive. Just outside Edinburgh houses of £400k are band f & g. And that's a fairly cheap family home here.
To even downsize in Edinburgh is still an expensive house and stamp duty is far more than in England.

My parents band g house in Devon is £4003 per year currently, it's fairly modern, 3-4 beds, (the smallest is a study really) detached but more modest and worth less than most houses in their village. There are no cheaper bungalows to downsize to. If their council tax doubles it will take a third of their pension

We're a band G. Family of 4 in a bungalow worth less than £500k, we're hardly millionaires. Going to seriously struggle if this happens.

Sorry @WallaceinAnderland that was for the post your quoted

We are band F and pay £335 per month. It's a quarter of our mortgage payment!

Surely they would have to bring in some sort of exemptions for the higher bands if they did double them? Our next door neighbour bought the house brand new in the 1990s and now lives alone because her husband died. The kids grew up and moved out of home and she now lives there, perfectly capably as she's in her late 60s.

She is, however, a pensioner on a budget. She doesn't need as big a home as she has now, but "downsizing" to a bungalow would probably put her in the same tax band, as most bungalows near us are in expensive roads with high prices and high tax bands.

Sure, if you bought a high band house in recent years, you're more likely (theoretically) to be able to afford it, but those that have ended up accidentally living in expensive properties shouldn't be penalised.

If they then brought in stamp duty / CGT on selling your property at the same time, it'd be a case of damned if you do sell, damned if you don't.

I would hope it's just the rumour mill.

We pay £370pm for a band G 3 bed, 1 bath home (in a nice location). It's a lot already!

Would actually quite like to 'downsize' or 'rightsize' for retirement but bungalows / spacious flats without insane charges are few and far between and probably similar value anyway.

We would find doubling hard to swallow and it just makes no logical sense. Also create a weird issue that our band F neighbours pay less than half what we pay. It would make selling our property harder too!

The council tax band your property is in has bugger all to do with how many rooms it has ir whether there is a garage. Nor does it actually have much relation to the current value.

it’s all based on the value the property is estimated to have had (or woukd have had if it’s a new build) in 1991. (See attached table.)

the rates charged for each band are then set by the local council and will vary from one parish/ward/area to the next with ‘nicer’ areas being charged more.

Doubling seems a bit extreme and sounds like RW propaganda. It would also seem strange to double two bands and leave the rest the same?

Were renting a very old house that needs loads of work and is underpriced to reflect. Think avocado bathrooms.
Its band G.
I have just submitted my notice to the landlord as we will not be able to afford a ride in council tax. We are scraping by as it is.