Council tax!

Local services have to be paid for somehow. We've had such cuts in services that I'd actually be glad to pay more.

I haven't had mine yet but was talking to friends today on a zoom who live just over the county boundary and they were complaining about the % increase. I understand the rise is well above inflation this year. Thankfully I get the sole occupant discount but I expect I'll still be paying about £2000 altogether.

Oh! That does seem a lot! How much is the increase from last year?
Am waiting for ours to be received but I would not be able to pay that amount grannysyb

I can’t remember the exact yearly amount but my bill has gone up £4 a month from last year. Fairly relieved really I thought it would be more . I do get single living reduction

We have to provide services somehow. Local councils have been hit very hard by austerity but still have to provide the same services. My council tax is my biggest monthly expenditure after food, yet I still feel it's necessary to pay for the good of the community I belong to.

It won't only be council tax going through the roof. Businesses have to claw back money somehow so I expect to find increases on pretty much everything.

That's steep! I could be wrong but I read all Scottish local authorities had agreed to freeze council tax this year.

My council tax is frozen for this year but there will be cuts in services and we now have to pay for garden waste collections.

That seems quite steep. I know services have to be paid for, but the system seems quite arbitrary, with some areas paying much more than other areas.

The system is very uneven, my DD lived in another London borough a few years ago and was only paying about £200pa more for a five bedroom house!

Ours is just over £3,000, and we have to pay for garden waste collection!

Mine has gone up £6 a month and I have to pay £36 a year for garden waste collection...

Council Tax is, in my opinion, just a mess. If you take. band D rate, then the most expensive rate is about two and a half times that of the cheapest rate. It is riven with unfairnesses but, like the funding of social care, no government has had the courage to address it and especially after Thatcher failed so spectacularly with the Poll Tax.

Ours has gone up £100 over the year.

I'm shocked now that I have no idea how much ours is.

I wouldn't mind if I thought I had any kind of decent service. I don't. Interested to see what percentage increase the councillors will undoubtedly receive. Hope none but think that might be cloud cuckoo thinking.

It is a real mess. We are in Band E, but there are only two of us left, so our cost to the council is far less than a family in a Band B or C property who will use far more services. Linking the tax to what a drive-by assessor of your property deemed to be its value 35 years ago is nonsense - nobody's use of council services is linked to the value of their house, and anyway, property values have shifted since streets were last assessed.

I don't mind paying for services I don't use, as others do use them and it's swings and roundabouts, but I do object to paying the same as a household of six, particularly when there is a discount for single people which recognises that the fewer people at an address, the less they spend.

It gets even more complicated where discounts are concerned - eg if a group of students live together they pay no council tax, but as soon as one of them graduates or leaves their course the whole household is liable to pay.

I don't know what would be fair, really. Things do have to be paid for, and in the long run it is fairer if we all pay to make services available to those who want or need them, but neither house value nor household size seems a sensible basis for determining the charge. Maybe individual bills would make sense, with discounts where applicable, or a ring-fenced addition to income tax? That could be shared amongst councils on a per capita basis, so that people in less wealthy areas don't suffer from the 'double whammy' of getting fewer services from a cash-strapped council.

Mine just came through the door, and it seems quite an increase this year.
But as Aveline said, services have to be paid for.

grandmajet ours is the same.

I agree Kim19,Ours has gone up nearly £100.
Councils are a law unto themselves.
They have so much power too.
You can`t argue with them.

Doodledog I think the points you raise just demonstrate what a dog’s breakfast it is. Council Tax is really more or less the same as the rates system it replaced and fundamentally has nothing to do with household composition, income or service use ( apart from tweaks like single person discount and whatever CT benefit is now called). The Poll Tax was a controversial idea as it was flat rate regardless of income. The LbDems used to favour local income tax - don’t know of they still do. The majority of local govt spending is funded by grants from the government according to a formula that is heavily criticised depending on if your council is a winner ot loser. It’s just a mess, no one is going to tackle it.

Councils are not a law unto themselves - there are govt imposed limits on how much they can increase the CT by every year and they are subject to tight legislative and financial frameworks. The main problem they face is the fact that central govt grants to councils have been slashed over the last 10 years.

suziewoozie isn’t our council tax now a flat rate regardless of income? Same as the poll tax?
I thought that the poll tax was based on the number of working adults in a property. I was living in tied property so didn’t take as much notice as I should have.

That is a lot grannysyb. Ours is the same for Band F - I argued the band but never got anywhere.