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?

I would not need to move if they doubled my council tax, but I would be hugely pissed about it, because the bandings are a shambles. I would challenge things legally, as I am sure many others would too.

The lack of back bone around raising income tax is astounding. A workable solution right there, not being moved forward due to fear over back benchers & nonsense manifesto pledges. These are not the people we want in charge of our economy.

Dan Neidle did an interesting tweet the other day about how tax revenue massively drops at 50/60k income, and again at 100K income. These cliff edges are strangling our economy. Get rid of them!

Stop tinkering with all this other shit and sort out income tax. Encourage people to work and earn big.

The government (whoever is in charge) always seem to underestimate human behaviour when it comes to taxation. The VAT threshold is another one.

I feel like I am watching a load of toddlers run the show.

@HighLadyofTheNightCourt If you don’t mind me asking, how much is your CT now?

I’ll soon be in a similar position (hopefully), £500k house in NW England.

Such an excellent post !

You can check what your council tax might be by
looking up the postcode on the council tax checker on the Govn website

We currently pay £414 a month!

That’s a lot.

Yep! One of the highest in the country.

It’s so wrong, a big majority of people in these homes are asset rich but cash poor. When houses were appraised for the council tax banding it was so hit and miss.

My house is in band E, every alternate identical house on my close is in band D, The next road, same style house by the same developer Band D for every single house. I’ve had an expert try to challenge VOSA without any luck. He used to work for them so is very experienced, they wouldn’t explain there decision to him.

A house in Kensington in the same band as mine pays over £500 less a year in Council tax, I live in North Derbyshire with less chance of earning anything like London wages.

I had a flyer come through the door last night from the conservatives, on the front page Kemi pledged to scrap stamp duty. Also seen a report that financially this isn’t viable for the government, she’s talking out of her arse, can’t stand the woman. I saw her on a program once where she was so proud of snitching on another pupil at school, she’s truly awful.

We are not asset rich. Our house is worth £350K, my husband is retired on state pension and I work 3 days a week for minimum wage, getting about £1,000 a month. Our house is Band G as are many other houses in the area. A tiny minority of people in our area will be able to afford to pay twice as much Council Tax as they currently do. I forget the exact figure but I think we pay £423 a month as it is which is by far our largest outgoing. If it doubles we will need to sell, who will buy our house with an £8K a year Council tax bill? Where will we move to? We will have to pay over the odds for a Band E as there will be so many people trying to buy the same properties. It's offers over the asking price in Scotland. Properties can go for silly money over the asking price when there are lots of offers going in.

I have never voted SNP, I am not a supporter of independence, but if the SNP policy is to not follow suit and to not raise Council Tax I will vote SNP at the elections next May. Many people will feel the same way.

Please try not to assume that the title of this thread is actually true. It is derived from an article in the Torygraph and is at odds with the information available.

There is a lot of speculation in the press. I am still not convinced it will happen.

One of articles today was speculating they would include band F and allow the payments to be deferred until the property is sold to address the asset rich/cash poor issue.

Not quite sure how that satisfies the governments immediate requirement for revenue.

The same story with minor variations appeared across all the broadsheets and newscasts at around the same time. Most of the stories doing the rounds over the ludicrously delayed run up to the budget will be SPADs flying kites and the odd leak. If they don’t like where the story goes then stopping the planting would be basic common sense. There were very good reasons for Chancellors adhering to purdah before a budget - we are seeing a demonstration of why purdah was sensible.

The reality is taxes always needed to go up, Labour shouldn’t have chickened out of putting it in the manifesto (or at least should have used the first budget as the “bite the bullet” budget). Instead, dicking around and making the world’s most overcomplicated tax codes even more complex and pretending this wouldn’t affect employment and pay was a disaster. Communications for this government have been utterly shambolic pretty much since the election - a vast amount of goodwill has been squandered for nothing. I just despair at it.

You don't need to patronise me.

The government have been leaking this stuff to the press to gauge a reaction, and causing ripples through the economy, for several months now. It's not been pulled out of a journalist's arse, it's come from Downing Street.

Whether it will happen or not...? None of us can unpick this shit show of a budget build up, so let's wait and see.

What did you think of the story the FT printed, indicating what seemed to be the more likely direction?

True. There’s been so much kite flying it’s a barrage of tax hike ideas.

Glad I’ve found this thread as I thought I was going mad. I see Band F is being included now and I thought I was safe. 🙄

Who says band F is being included?

That was the latest Torygraph take at the weekend. But as you have rightly pointed out, more than once, none of us will know until next week what is actually going to be announced or how any changes would be applied.

I think it seems no more or less credible than the direction referred to at the start of this thread.

I find the FT story more convincing.

Nor the fact that by the time the house sells it could be worth hundreds of thousands less than at the point the additional charge was levied. Near me nothing over £1.2m is selling houses but house at 350k are moving quickly. This seems to be the case across the country for older housing stock.

It is likely to be a lot easier to pay the deferred payments from the proceeds of the sale of a £1.5 million band F house in London than from the proceeds of the sale of a £400k band F house in Northumberland.

Easier? What about reasonable or fair?

Property wealth tax is pitched as some grand solution to inequality, but it doesn’t actually solve anything. It taxes people on the paper value of their home, which can shoot up or crash depending on whatever mood the housing market is in that week, or on external factors you have absolutely no control over. New train station nearby? Up it goes. Homeless hostel down the road? Down it goes. Yet you are still expected to pay tax on these imaginary gains. Imagine being taxed on money you can’t spend and don’t actually have. No other tax works like that, but apparently it’s perfectly acceptable when it’s someone’s home.

Good luck selling your home - houses near me at £350k are selling, the ones round the corner at £1.2m are not budging in spite of being on the market for 18 months+ and being 300/400k less than when they were put on the market. Don't worry though, you can just just defer the tax until you sell. Wonderful! Because nothing screams “fairness” like handing over a bill years later based on a valuation that has absolutely no connection to what your house actually sells for.

Meanwhile, all the things that genuinely drive inequality remain untouched. Instead, the spotlight is firmly on ordinary homeowners whose only supposed “wealth” is the roof over their head.

So yes, a truly inspired idea if the aim is to punish people who did nothing more scandalous than buy their dream home (usually after much scrimping and saving) and stay in it long enough for the price to rise on paper. Ordinary people get slapped down for daring to be aspirational, all so the government can keep shoveling money into a system it has repeatedly refused to sort out.

Easier? What about reasonable or fair?

That was rather my point.

Please you elaborate. I am missing the point.

Thanks