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?

The government needs to stop messing with the housing market. It's caused so many problems for ordinary families. They need to let natural supply and demand fluctuate so that everyone can afford a home.

They tried to stimulate growth by the stamp duty holiday and all that did was create artificial growth and house prices increased dramatically. Now hundreds of people can't afford to buy and rents are going up like crazy.

Governments should leave the housing market alone. They are playing with people's lives and when they can just waste £50bn and shrug their shoulders, it's criminal.

I’ve just checked ours, we are in an a F so hopefully would be ok. Doubling it would really impact our finances as it would for most, I imagine. Two houses on our street are G and they are only slightly bigger than ours. We definitely wouldn’t buy a house in that council tax bracket, and I imagine it might seriously damage the property market. And even if current house prices fall it won’t change the stupid 1992 value of the house so will just make the tax seem more unaffordable.

Surely changing the outdated system and then increasing the amount paid for houses over say 1.5mil or the top 5% of houses in a council tax area would be fairer?

So, using the Nationwide house price index (not an exact science, obviously), time travelling back to 1991 and based on what we paid when we purchased, the West Midlands house in band G, should actually have been in band E, perhaps. Imo, there's no way it would have been worth between £160,001 and 320,000 then. Unfortunately it was in a street with many larger houses - a few were huge and in band H - so I guess they were all tarred with the same brush when the bands were allocated.

Doesn't it make sense to wait and see if they actually do it and then make a decision? Considering the difficulty in finding rentals and the expenses associated with moving, this seems a bit hasty.

You can apply to get your house rebanded if you think it is not correct.

There are some other reasons. But with potential other tax rises, we want to be on the front foot and start minimising our expenses. We simply would be completely screwed if the council tax rise does come into play. Our mortgaged rental property thatvwe own and rent out is now costing us a fortune with mortgage rate rises and additional costs, income tax potential rises. This latest news on potential council tax rises was the final straw tbh.

Elderly neighbours are generally the ones who can well afford this rather than us younger, huge mortgage and child care costs folks.

Trust me, I used to be a benefit assessor. My record is someone applying for Pension Credit about 20 years ago when they had £250K squirrelled away in their bank accounts.

Define 'very expensive'.

My property is band G and I already pay over £400 a month for council tax. We just could not absorb that doubling. It's pretty much all we have left after all of our current bills are paid.

As for selling, who will want to buy a property in band G or H?

I hadn't realised this could be on the cards, I'm in Band G. It's a detached 4/5 bed but the bands here are strange. Next door is also Band G a 3 bed bungalow. Any detached seemed to be given Band G despite It's size. All the semi's are Band C. There doesn't seem to be much inbetween here. I think in 1991 it was just a quick glance to assess the houses.
I'm finding the council tax difficult enough now let alone them doubling it. When I first moved here it was so much cheaper. Each year it just goes up and up. Council tax is a very unfair tax because it's not even based on current value.

Ours is band F and is already 360 pounds a month. Whilst i'm relieved for us that we aren't in G, this seems like a very crude stick to beat people with.

This will be the problem - no one will be able to sell properties in bands G and H unless it's at well below market value. I can't see how this makes any sense at all.

How would you like local authorities to pay for things like social care?

Doesn't taxing £1 million properties a bit more seem fairly sensible?

For the vast majority of people, this type of asset wealth will be impossible to ever achieve.

Having just paid a fuck ton of stamp duty to buy said Band G house, I’m wondering if this government will allow us to keep any of our own, hard earned money?

It’s so dependant on where the house is though. We all know that one million pound houses in London can be modest three bed terraces - not mansions.

I find it hard to believe that they are being inhabited by cleaners and porters and people on a low wage.

I'd love some examples.

I live in a band G property. It’s not worth anything close to a million.

And I’ve earned every penny of my ‘asset wealth’

There must be so many income poor people living in band G houses that simply cannot afford an increase of this scale. All the properties on our road are band G and above and many of our elderly neighbours simply could not afford another £4k a year on their council tax.

We have an ageing population, that costs. Who would you like to foot the bill?

Unlike her predecessors RR hasn’t ‘leaked’ her budget to get headlines & gauge public opinion instead she seems to be going for the look at and properly evaluate all options approach, with we’ll tell you the outcome of this in the proper manner. Unfortunately this has led to to lazy journalism wanting still wanting headlines so they are speculating to fill column inches. It’s not helpful and it leads to people panicking over all sorts of things without knowing whether or not they are to happen or who they will actually apply to. It’s being jumped on also by other parties to try to stir the pot - remember a lot of the ‘speculation’ is fuelled by lobby groups with their own agendas - it’s rarely questioned or interrogated by journalists, not many of them seem to do that anymore.
It’s going to continue like this for the rest of the month but you won’t ’know’ anything until they actually announce it.
There is likely to be some tinkering over property taxes mainly because of the disparities in the system due to so many successive governments kicking the can down the road but what that is, hasn’t been announced.

@wonkylegs far too much sense there!

if they cannot afford to live in that house they will have to do what everyone else does and move.

Are we going to cosset every pensioner forever more? When I’m a pensioner - who will pay for me to live beyond my means please.

What? She has flown so many kites it’s seriously damaging movement in the property market at the moment. The sooner she is out of office the better, she is in way over her head. Won’t take long if they keep snatching other people’s money!

So there are plenty of houses but none that she fancies. Maybe that’s a her problem.

Yep, my previously rented home was a G and was just three bed townhouse. In Bolton!

And the council can say “tough shit we think it’s correct”.

Whaaat? That will put our bill up considerably....
Although I have thought for ages that they should overhaul the system as the current rates are based on the house from decades ago.
Not double though.... 😬