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?

Yep
If developers get all that tax free
Homeowners should not be worse off

That so short sited and judgemental though.

Most people in great careers who are “responsible” with money and life decisions are that way because of the guidance and role models they had in life. They were given high expectations, love, support, boundaries, care, confidence - and many also a helping hand either with deposits or a subsided family home to live in whilst saving for a deposit.

Growing up in a chaotic, working class, non- working, low educated, single parent, working class neighbourhood, area with shit schools and shit job prospects (the list goes on) is not the individuals fault.

Of course, some people break the mould but lots of us are simply products of our upbringings. We are not grafters, responsible people. We are fortunate and have been invested in.

Financial literacy needs to be taught and modelled. Many who don’t work or don’t value careers are reflecting the values of the homes they were raised in. They are intrinsically disadvantaged.

Whilst I don’t think socialism works at all, and I do think people deserve differing lifestyles based on effort - I also believe in looking after our less fortunate. We’re not talking about taking from the rich and giving to the poor, we’re talking about improved public services that act as a safety net for us all.

Yes but why should it be at the expense of those in the middle who are prudent and careful but not exactly rolling in it either, it’s just inflation with house prices being in the South East

I haven't been able to keep up with this thread in the last couple of days and had decided not to contribute anymore but this one caught my eye and is just so unpleasant and wrong in several ways that I have now changed my mind.

Housing profit is quite clearly unearned. Income is earned. There is no special entitlement for any home owner to gain £££ simply from living in a home of their choice. The elderly and the asset owning wealthy have simply been fortunate because policy has favoured them.
You are completely wrong about what has caused the huge rise in property prices. It isn't a lack of building. It is related to deregulation of financial markets, in this instances deregulating lending eg adding women's salaries when taking out a mortgage, going from 3.5 times one salary to 5.5 times two salaries now, no deposit needed, then110% mortgages. extending from 20-25 year terms to 35-40 now. DJT is even proposing 50 year terms. Why do you suppose that might be?!
I haven't seen anyone attack individual owners for causing price booms. I think you are making this up. What really is morally questionable is that those with a great deal of wealth feel entitled to be funded for by those who are considerably poorer than them. The young, in general, are pretty fed up with being continuously discriminated against and understandably so.

Your comments about parents of children with disabilities are despicable. It is ironic how you accuse other groups of dog whistling when your post is absolutely full of dog whistles! There's none so blind eh!

Your last paragraph, I do have some sympathy with. I've said on here and elsewhere that the policy of many years has discouraged desirable or responsible behaviour and encouraged the opposite. That makes no sense at all. I don't know who you are referring to as 'the resentful'. It is again ironic that you yourself sound very resentful in your post, as do several other posters who are clearly in extremely comfortable situations compared to the majority. Resentment seems to be quite widespread after all!

Agree and people should break that mould
Be inspired to do so and make their lives better
I broke the mould
My parents left school at 12 /14 to work my mum a made of all work and my dad down the Irish mines
I worked hard all through school. No help from my parents, they could hardly read. I went to Uni
I worked hard to get the best degree. I saved and saved and eventually could buy a house at age 34
I still save, don’t waste money and invest in my and our kids future.
That’s a commitment I made myself
and
everyone can do it if they put their minds to it
With the exception of thise severely disabled there is no reason everyone can’t make life work for them independently

Those who do work and aspire are taxed to the hilt now, get little in support and now there is some idea that they don’t deserve to keep anything they have worked for

We’ll be a country of renters with rent paid for by UC and benefits when everyone is a pensioner if homeownership is going to be taxed.

How then will the country afford all that rent
Such nonsense, short term, destructive ideas cropping up

We are not a communist country

"How would they still be paying it now."

Because if the rules changed they would pay a % of the sale value now, the amount they paid years ago would be deducted from what they need to pay, or the government could stipulate that there are no refunds if you bought before a certain date.

I do sympathise with you as I agree that the middle earners tend to get rinsed badly, or have done historically.
Regarding what you have actually written though, you seem to be very keen to attribute all sorts of positive attributes to home owners in the SE. They are 'prudent and careful', rather than just working a normal job, living in the right place and being born in the right year. You also minimise how much older homeowners and asset rich have benefitted from the house price inflation in the last 30 years. It reads as if you want to take all the good fortune and even claim special credit for it, 'we deserved it because we were prudent', rather than admitting that it was 99% luck. You then complain bitterly when the UK's financial situation is in a dire situation and the current government consider trying to tax some of the unearned gains that have disproportionately gone to people in London and the SE or changing the system of property taxes that continues to disproportionately favour those in London and the SE for the last 35 years.

It’s not a special entitlement
Its a home

Housing goes up in value along with everything
That's life
When people move they don’t get to pay less than market value because property goes up in value

This nonsense will never happen because it will crash the housing market forever
No one will buy a 2 bed if they think in the future theyll need a 4 bed. They won’t want to pay the tax every time
People will chose to buy once as a forever home or not at all and those that do won’t renovate because they’ll lose the money

So
one move per family will lead to huge tax losses to the Govn
and those who chose not to buy will get their rent paid for them anyway by the taxpayer
Can you imagine all those pensioners getting rent paid
Thats before we even concider the loss of good housing stock through lack of maintenance

crash crash crash !!!

Absolute nonsense

So homeowners are worse than a developer
Not a very clever idea then

The rise in prices was due to too much cheap mortgage debt and the gullibility of the public thinking that someone would continue to borrow more and more at the bottom of the pyramid so their house price could go up forever, the "not enough houses" argument was always weak, it will be even weaker when the political/social push back against mass immigration gets fully going.

What things that genuinely drive inequality would you change?

Short sighted and judgmental, I don't think so.

I admit to being biased because:

I grew up in a chaotic, working class, non- working, low educated, single parent, working class neighbourhood, area with shit schools and shit job prospects (the list goes on) and a very long list of other disavantages.

Oh and I left school with no qualifications.

We’re not talking about taking from the rich and giving to the poor,

No, we’re talking about a cash burning, incompetent and dishonest government squeezing ordinary workers even harder because the genuinely rich have already packed their bags or have their wealth tucked away in structures the government can’t touch. Don't get me started on the corporate tax dodgers.

They are handing some money out to some who genuinely need it but also wasting lots on a growing parasitic group who have somehow rebranded themselves as “deserving” through unashamed entitlement.

It's largely a supply and demand issue. The beginning the middle and the end.

Just off the top of my head in no particular order. Education, reforming the welfare state, Upskilling the country to make it competitive.

Although it's all pissing in the wind if we don't address looming post war baby boom pensions / resources crisis.

Supply and demand for credit yes, not physical housing.

https://www.mortgagesolutions.co.uk/news/2025/11/17/asking-prices-drop-by-1-8-in-largest-fall-since-2012-rightmove-says/

The article say that house prices are falling because demand had fallen - buyers are being cautious.

It proves if there are more houses than buyers that prices will drop and the interest rates is only one aspect of the purchasing decision...

Factually the supply of physical houses in the UK has not kept pace with what is needed for decades.

One example will be enough.

'Mansion Tax' was discussed on Politics Live yesterday. The overall concensus was:

• criticism about how this budget has been approached and the rolling press leaks (Labour MP)
• that council tax bandings are out of date and not fit for purpose
• upping higher band rates/adding a separate property tax over X value (2 million discussed) would be a drop in the ocean, raising 'peanuts' fiscally, more symbolic than a serious money maker for the gov
• likely political suicide
• it's not a real attempt at taxing wealth and fixing property inequality
• it's all pointless if the gov keep allowing us to be price gouged by big corps like Black Rock and Palantir.

And of course, more chatter about why they are not raising income tax. Labour: because 'manifesto promises' and boxing ourselves in.

Sounds like a sensible conversation was had.

It's impossible to correct property inequality in the UK whilst there is a shortage of supply. Anything else is just tinkering around the edges.

Well we’ll have to agree to disagree then.

My concern around building these garden cities - huge new build developments with no infrastructure - is that we have a declining population.

It’s all good and well building houses but are these the houses the population need? I’d argue no - we need more social housing. Housing with decent gardens for kids and drainage.

We’re also battling climate change and constructing houses and destroying our environment takes a toll too. Any construction needs to be absolutely necessary.

One the oldest generation have passed on, demand is going to slow due to the record low birth rate. It’s literally 1 generation.

They need to be building small 2-3 beds if anything that are affordable. Not cities of big houses that 3 person families don’t need.

Scrapping the royal family is estimated to save £500m every year, perhaps we could start with that.

Agree

I would vote for that.