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?

We are already taxed though on our properties and the SD is eye watering when you need to sell to buy another one and the cost of the other property is expensive and usually needs money spent which again is costly

i think the poll tax was fairer

Utter nonsense. Mine is band G. Four bed house with a garage. Neither a mansion nor worth millions. I'd struggle if council tax doubled.

They are F. Our council is expensive. Town councils have gone up more than 100% since unitary.

That"s right, so if a landlord owns property in the affected bands they probably won"t be renting it out without a decent rent cut, bad luck for landlords with big mortgage debt.

I think they are deliberately stalling it, saves having to pretend that we have to "build more houses!" all the time?

Mid or East Devon area? I know that is very expensive for the service delivered (family in the area). The impact of organisational changes is an interesting one - its made some more expensive and others cheaper. It seems to have a lot to do with the efficiency of the existing regimes but in some cases it seems hard to justify but I’d be looking closely at alternatives come election time.

South Somerset. Town councils have no cap and have picked up lots of the old district council stuff that’s important to the local area. County council (now unitary) had years of conservative councillors too scared to raise taxes so we are now suffering and dealing with big increases.

Poll tax was iniquitous and penalised low income families where children stayed at home longer due to not having family money or high enough earnings to get them on the property market.

Some form of property tax makes more sense - I’ve seen calculations which wouldn’t bring dramatic changes on the current system but would progress with values (up and down) over time. That would replace SD. As part of a package replacing SD and making it cost effective to downsize where people wish it, it would be worth while.

It isn’t going to solve the issue of some councils spending more, some councils needing to spend more - local taxes will always vary like local budgets.

The biggest item on most local council tax bills is employer contributions to DB pensions schemes for staff.

They probably made sense in 1991 (when they were set) but no government has been brave enough to do a revaluation since then so we are stuck with this insane system.

My house is band G, we are in a small council area (in Scotland) and pay over £400 a month already. Our house is worth around £600k. We would struggle to find another £400 a month on top of mortgage and childcare costs.

I would support a progressive property tax linked to house values, if houses were properly revalued based on say average value over last 5 years Simply doubling Band G and H is a crude cliff edge which will catch a lot of people very unfairly based on massively outdated valuations.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/how-to-fix-property-taxes/id1511294104?i=1000734235354

This is interesting (albeit a little niche). Basically, CT (and SDLT) are both ridiculous taxes and need a total reform.

More likely that holiday homes/AirBnB get hammered for tax I think, that would raise a fair amount?

Poll tax was iniquitous and penalised low income families where children stayed at home longer due to not having family money or high enough earnings to get them on the property market.

And council tax penalises single adult households. And, no, it is not always possible to move to a cheaper property with a lower council tax band. Where I live the properties which are cheaper for council tax are more expensive to rent or buy than my small Band D flat.

Most areas give a discount on single person households (25% seems to be the standard). The poll tax pulled more people from more demographics onto the streets than any financial change I can remember - quite rightly since it largely shifted taxes from the better off to the poorest.

I’m very aware of the costs of downsizing in some areas which is why I mentioned it up thread and also included it in a package of changes which would move to a property tax more along the lines of some European countries.

@StrawberryThief1930

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

No, except from you.

However

I HAVE heard a lot of comment that a person with a one million pound house pays the same council tax as a person with a ten-million pound house, because the tax bands have been designed so that the richest people get the easiest ride.

There is a view that this does not make sense for a property tax that is supposed to be calculated according to the value of your home.

I will not be at all surprised if additional bands are introduced for higher values.

Still not fair why a single person living alone should pay 75% of the tax when 4 people living in a same band property pay 25% each.

I think the concept of the poll tax was much fairer, but - as with most things - how it was implemented needed a lot more thought.

Second homes (left mostly empty) already have double or triple council tax applied, depending on which council area the house is in. Holiday homes that are rented out/Airbnbs are often run as businesses so pay business rates instead of council tax and now need a license plus planning permission so already raise extra revenue for the local council.

The government would not do a poll tax unless it fancied dealing with riots on the streets like last time. I don't think even Reeves is that stupid.

I do think we are overdue for more property taxes though. I would be more than happy to pay more property tax myself if it meant raising billions more in tax for better services. It would also hopefully bring house prices down, which are a blight on society at the moment.

I suspect that the government will back down from it though in the same way they always crack when they get the opportunity to tax unearned income/assets, mostly because they are up to their necks in it themselves.

We're in Somerset and pay £165 per month for a band A one bed flat! I never realised just how much they all vary

I agree in retrospect when it was introduced everyone was up in arms ( I lived in Wandsworth at the time so my bill was £0 but I was still out marching)
Now
however with the benefit of age and a better understanding of what council tax pays for I can see
the higher the local population the more money it needs to manage that
More people = higher numbers of police etc etc etc
It doesn’t matter if 100 people live in 100 houses or 10 houses. It’s still needs the same number of police officers to manage them.

The larger size or value of a persons property doesnt automatically make a person more dangerous or need more support
So we should all pay equally on the personal benefits of knowing we are all protected and cared for equally

Oh my God, that is really unfair. How can that be justified?

This will cripple my elderly (80s) parents if it goes ahead. Their house is a relatively modest 4 bed on a nondescript road in a very unglamorous outer suburb of London. It’s maybe 1200 sq ft, so hardly huge. They were wanting to downsize anyway, as we are relocating out of London and they would like to follow us, but I worry that they’d really struggle to sell in the event of a huge council tax hike on their property, as very few of the families buying in the area could afford to pay those kinds of amounts either.

Pretty much any family-sized home around here falls into either band G or H; even our less than 1000 sq ft 2 bed + box room house, which we’re in the process of selling, is listed as band F. This policy would only contribute to the already rapid decline of my area that I see around me every day (and which is why we are moving out).

I hope not. This idea that taxing more and more will lead anywhere except a squeezed economy really needs to go.

Labour have fucked up, they’ll have to take it on the chin. They can’t keep manifesto pledges or post budget 24 pledge.

https://todaysconveyancer.co.uk/chancellor-looking-proposals-double-highest-rates-council-tax/

@PigletJohn Not just the OP.

Didn"t know they did triple, no wonder people are trying to sell up!