My house is Band F council tax - what does this mean re Budget?

[housemonkey]

I love my house. It's four bedrooms detached newbuild. It's probably worth about £750,000 (not meant at all to be a boast, as I know lots of people's houses are worth a lot more!). It was put in Band F by the VOA (don't know how they assessed it). I love my house, but it seems insane that it will be hit by Rachel Reeves' mansion tax. At first, that was for houses over £2m! I complete agree that the council tax system needs revamping. But how do they actually define Band F houses? I can't find a clear explanation anywhere!

That’s part of the problem though, waiting for the budget. It’s scaring people. And scared people tighten their belt, which isn’t what the economy needs.

I heard that if this does come in it won't be until 2028 when they think all the valuations will be completed. They're in cloud cuckoo land because everyone is going to dispute their valuations and they will not be completed by 2028. And that's the run up to the election when they'll have to be careful who they piss off.

Yes it’s an absolute cheek, RR acts like the people in those bands are not paying their share in the first place

What exactly is council tax supposed to fund? If 2 people live in a 5 bedroom house then they produce less rubbish etc than 5 people in similar 5 bedroom house but both pay same CT, makes no sense

Well why don't you worry about it and drive yourself mad for the next couple of days? Nothing you can do about it, whether it happens or not.

It’s bins, roads, street lighting, educational stuff, fire service etc,

I get why you can’t pay per use, but it’s utterly ridiculous it’s so much now, we pay over 300 pounds a month for a band g property in the south east, as said up thread, the rural roads are full of pot holes, there is no street lighting where I am and no pavements, I obvs hope never to use the fire service, and we have no educational needs as all adults, so I pay to support others and for my bins being emptied, what should we do, sell up and try to find a band f property as council tax is becoming like a mortgage?

businesses are already struggling, people aren’t getting pay rises, unemployment is rising, growth in the uk is stagnant, and now what? Labour want to kill the higher end of the property market, as so many people, will need to sell up, meaning everything band f and below becomes more expensive, as people buy those instead pricing even more people out at the bottom end. When we have a shortage of rental properties, which is getting worse due to the new laws and landlords are selling up,

at the same time Labour are putting forward even more bumper spending policies, let’s remove the two child cap shall we and splurge a few more billion.

labour have always been tax and spend, tax and spend, they generally do one term, kill the economy, hurt a lot of people and then don’t get back in for at least a decade, but this is the worst I’ve seen it,

they have to stop spending so much.

Years ago I challenged my banding, and was successful.

I gathered all the data I could about nearby similar properties' banding, house sold prices etc and could show mine should be in the band down.

Ours is a band G house- we bought it for £495k 18 months ago.

We pay £415 a month in council tax already. We can’t afford for that to double.
However, we met with our local labour MP a couple of weeks ago to discuss this and she was under the impression that bands F, G and H will be revalued rather than just being doubled. Who knows though, guess we just have to wait until tomorrow.

You know what's in the budget before anyone else? And not only that "know" what's in next year's budget? Wow! Can you pick my lottery numbers this week?

Always worth doing, we were successful in one house and unsuccessful in this one….we just snuck into G

its a very nice house and big but its not a mansion

I always thought council tax banding was based on the amount of rooms in the house? Either way, we are also in Band F and are currently paying £350 a month, our house is not a mansion and probably worth around £600k...... we physically won't be able to afford another rise on top of mortgage rises/food prices and don't get me started on the Gas and Electric rises which Ofgem are doing absolutely nothing about..... We are all being robbed
If this is brought in, not only can we not afford it, we then won't be able to sell our house because who is going to want to buy a house in band F/G/H? She will have a massive impact on the housing market
Also agree with posters above, I can't see what Council Tax pays for, our street lights are turned off at 11pm, the roads are full of potholes and all our council seem to do is close all the roads with temporary traffic lights causing mayhem for commuters

I’m not sure it would hit f, although she may have them revalued, but there are a lot of people, in band g, particularly pensioners or those with low disposable income, where this would mean they need to sell up. And then compete for band E houses, raising the price of those as they become more desirable, so an 600k house starts to cost 750, and then the same for band d, as the band e normal cohort gets priced out and has to buy band d. And so on, meaning people at the bottom, our kids, who already struggle to get on the housing ladder, it becomes an impossible dream as starter homes become more expensive.

and with the rental market in disarray with landlords selling up, rents increasing, rentals then become more in demand, meaning rents increasing further. More people forced into house shares.

it’s a huge knock on effect. She needs to encourage people to move up the chain, to free houses at the bottom, not make people move down.

and assuming people who live in band g houses have enough money to pay more is very foolish. It’s far from that simple.

she needs to stop spending. If the country sees another splurge tomorrow, where she say removes the two child cap and spend another 15 billion when we are already in a hole, of now mainly her making. then breaks her promise from last year and starts to put lots of stealth taxes in to pay for it, there will be an outcry.

we all know Labour aren’t getting in again after this term, and likely not for at least a decade or more it’s that bad, but they need to stop making it worse. It’s now worse than truss tried to do.

@Wickedlittledancer - she is completely incompetent and if this goes ahead, she has handed the election straight to Reform

As a side note, we don't even qualify for child benefit due to the ridiculous process that 2 people can earn £49K but if one earns over £50 then you are not entitled so we literally get nothing from the Government!

Yes, that’s another ridiculous situation which needs looking at. With income tax as well, 2 earners on £50k each are over £10k net better off per year that one earner on £100k.

@Another76543 - Exactly!! yet they’re upping benefits and potentially removing the 2 child cap but what about those of us who don’t qualify? We have to continue to pay through the nose for absolutely everything… it’s a really unfair set up

I am Band F, 4 bedroom detached house of moderate size, I currently pay £4,116 per year in council tax in an area with no street lighting and crap roads. Every house on my road (other than 4 1950's houses in a row) is different from each other but, having just checked online, at least 90% are Band F and G - these are not fancy houses at all.

This is probably the one time I'm grateful that Zoopla has no idea how to value my house, it values next door at much more than ours despite being smaller and less attractive. I'm really hoping the government use Zoopla for their assessments!! Seriously though, we have been squeezed on everything related to living here, gas, electric, council tax, water, insurance and everything else in day to day life. My wages have not gone up in years, my DH has just taken a pay cut of approx. one third of his salary in a necessary job move, we have one DS just finished uni and another due to go to uni next September, I'm worried about affording heating this winter let alone being taxed again for living in a 'mansion'.

Re your first comment about revaluing @Wickedlittledancer, according to the BBC today (citing the Telegraph and Times as their source), 2.4 million properties in Council Tax bands F, G and H will be revalued under Rachel from Accounts budget proposal.

It states that "The tax will apply to properties worth more than £2m, which will affect about 100,000 homes with an average surcharge of £4,500"

So, it doesn't seem as though it will affect those with properties in the highest three bands which are deemed to be worth less than £2m...

Although how these valuations will be conducted/arrived at, is anybody's guess!

Can't quite figure out why they would bother to revalue F,G and H if they are going to "mansion tax" £2 million.

Unless they have some idea that some properties in band F will qualify which to me seems unlikely.

The amount of properties in F is going to be much higher than G and H, so effectively a lot of effort will be put into something that will hardly generate any revenue if they are to revalue F.

G and H probably a different matter.

Still it seems from the average of the media reports I have seen to date my guess would be that they are going to very much bottle it from what say the IFS originally proposed and only apply the greater tax to the very largest of places.

Can't quite figure out why they would bother to revalue F,G and H if they are going to "mansion tax" £2 million

makes no sense to me 🤷🏻

I thought council tax was set by the council. My flat is a G and currently worth £200k so it's all about location really.

If you have a lower value house in a high band there surely is a chance it could go into E or D band or maybe they will just check they are not over 2mil, it seems a bit half a job if that is what it is. Hopefully it will mean some will pay less CT anyway as some seem very high for fairly average value properties

Huge disincentive to Londoners to build extensions/carry out major home improvements. Knock on impact on building trade.

It's based on the value of your property in 1991.
The council sets the rate but the bands are based on 35 year old data which was shaky to begin with.

You’ll find out tomorrow