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 said meaningless if you can’t afford to pay for it.

If I have a house which is in negative equity, which won’t sell and I can’t afford the mortgage then it is meaningless. I’m genuinely concerned that this could be my situation should the decision be made to double the council tax bills for my band.
Now, I don’t think they will because it wouldn’t actually target the most valuable properties and would disproportionately impact those of us in the north of England.
But worse case scenario is that if they do and also implement some of the other proposals then I’m well and truly fucked.

Do they use more local services than you?

Others have… it’s been a common theme .

Council Tax is a property tax, where the size of the bill bears a relationship to the relative value of homes in the area.

It is not a metered charge on usage of Local services.

So your question is irrelevant to a discussion on the amount and bands of Council Tax.

It'll be a way to get them to downsize.

Agree
These sweeping statements are nonsense and show a lack of a precaution and understanding of others

What if they need those bedrooms. What if they are in fact using the space and need the space Theyve purchased
Theres a real assumption that people in band g and h have bought beyond their needs. That’s nonsense
Theres also an assumption that all elderly people have at some point bought a property to accommodate children. Hello. Not everyone has kids. Some may have already downsized.

Bit tough when somebody's Greater London/Southeast social housing was built later and already has a much higher banding than four bedroom detached properties in the same street, though. That bit always seems to be forgotten - they are going to feel extremely penalised if the band their rental property is in has a large increase on an already much higher rate.

But if all those people in homes standing in 1991 get moved up and above them, maybe that'll be interpreted as being fair?

Whilst this isn’t how council tax is currently metered out I think it should be

This from today's FT

Just in case anybody thought UK's tax in general, or Property taxes in particular, are unreasonably high by normal standards.

Why should they have to.

We're trying to sell our band G house and the market is already pretty dead. If our council tax doubles I can't see us shifting it at all. It'd fuck the housing market.

Not necessarily, no. But the tax we pay isn’t dependent on how much we use services. It should be based on how much you earn. And I’m pretty sure that the people who live in £2-£5m houses round here earn more than I do as a teacher…

I’m a bit miffed Australia has been left out. Also the pink part for property isn’t particularly low?

Don't the lower and middle groups pay higher taxes than us, that would always be hard to change here. Those groups have no more left to give really.

Useful chart though for information.

You are describing an income tax.

Council Tax is a property tax.

Income tax is based on earnings
We already have a tax for that

Council tax is not
If you pay these surely you know that

Great minds and all that
didn’t see you’d already commented

Interesting to see our property taxes are high ( along with some other countries but similar amount at the top )
Whilst our social security contributions are really quite low.

Income profits and capital gains like 6 others is an upper outlier.

If we took this chart as something to follow we should be raising social security and not property taxes

It would be interesting to see a similar chart on benefits

@PigletJohn

Great chart!
Really puts into perspective social security taxes vs other countries.

I agree that the values are very variable, which is exactly why I said that we need to use up to date values. Using values from 35 years ago is obviously totally unfair on many, mainly those outside London.
I think that Tories and Labour and equally bad and Reform won't save the day either.

I didn't say that only young people are struggling financially.
I said that people in the higher banded homes are better off than the majority (in general), particularly those that bought some time ago and especially if they have paid off their mortgage. The young tend to be the ones who have bought most recently and are therefore in the most debt and have usually paid far higher prices for their homes compared to those who bought them 30 years ago. The elderly tend to be mortgage free and therefore have a valuable asset, which means that they have choices which are not available to the majority.

It seems fairly obvious that people who own expensive properties are better off than the great majority, which is what I actually wrote. It's also fairly obvious that, generally older people, with no mortgage have a significant asset and, again, are therefore better off than the majority.
I think @HighLadyofTheNightCourt didn't read the post properly because she seems very worried about her own personal situation.

That's a fair point. Do you mean that you think some social housing is banded higher than larger houses within the same street? I'm all for up to date banding, as I've said.

Interesting chart but there are a few other countries I would like to see included. I wonder why they have lumped income tax together with CGT.

It would also be essential to look at what people actually get for their tax. For example, childcare in Sweden and Italy is free and Denmark is very heavily subsidised, free for some. University is also free in Sweden and Denmark, the healthcare systems work far better and maternity and paternity leave is extremely generous. I think people would object much less to paying higher taxes, and would find them affordable if they were able to benefit from free childcare, other great benefits for parents and had no student debt/didn't need to subsidise their young adult children.

Council tax is done based on house price, which is one indicator of what you can afford. Does it make sense that a £550k house is only one band below the top, and people owning houses worth millions pay slightly more? What I’m suggesting rather than people living in normal houses (and believe me, a £550k house is very normal round here) shouldn’t have huge raises in council tax - the same could be achieved by charging more council tax to people with much more expensive houses.