Council Tax

Messages
6,001
Thought I would set this bomb ticking as I am off to sunny Portugal next week :cool:

Here we go.
I am old enough to remember Rates. An unfair tax by most measures
MrsT recognised this and as a vote catcher brought about Poll Tax and experimented in Scotland
What a disaster that turned out to be so it was replaced with CTax
It seemed to me that the levels for the bands were set arbitrarily and there are many anomalies of which I have direct personal experience. No councilor has come out with a rational explanation - at least in my area
All decidedly unequal
A band G in my area is £350 per month and I get Bins emptied once a week (free - N Yorks I believe charges),
insurance of the Fire Brigade and now I am struggling to see any other services.
Police are absent, no community officers, roads in disrepair, litter is collected by volunteers, town centre gone etc etc.
The council have a sustained regular income from CTax over the lifetime of the resident that is managed poorly and adds little or no value to my lifestyle yet I put up with it!
Solutions please
 

2b1ask1

Special case
Messages
20,220
Move to Greece where most taxes are meh! Optional at best… economy is screwed but that is as much to do with Europe as it is to their poor tax collection.
 

Phil H

Member
Messages
4,107
Become an MP; have a fully expensed town house for use after late night sittings in the Commons bar, a constituency property complete with duck island and moat, and of course the obligatory security systems monitored by your local police force - all at nil cost to you.

You might wish to demonstrate your concern for international development and, time consuming though it may be, support twinning initiatives with exploratory visits to deprived areas such as the Caribbean where you can buy local property to save on your international travel time and minimise your carbon footprint.

With any luck there will even be enough left in the pot for a litre or two of unleaded.
 

D Walker

Member
Messages
9,827
I’ve long held a similar view.
I have stopped looking at the breakdown.
When we lived in Teeside the police pension “ contribution “ used to go up 8-10% a year.
However, my police mate didn’t get such a rise.
Came home one day to find a council rep snooping round our house that we’d just moved into.
Apparently looking if we needed to be reassessed on our banding. Apparently our front porch was an extension. Pointed out that every house on our road had a front porch, ours had been replaced previously so only change was brick colour. I pointed out that all the houses are on same band.
I then let her in back garden, took her to the top of the garden and said look at all the house rears.
What do you see, er, they all have extensions....so..Are you going to reband all the others above us or drop us down a band. Never got an answer, and I followed it up with a letter every time we got the annual CT. Before you all shout. I knew they wouldn’t up band all the neighbours as the guy next door had warned me when they moved in, the same survey had been done on theirs while they were out, which he contested and won.
 

MrRMB

Member
Messages
102
It's all spent on Social Care... and it's still not enough to pay for a decent end of life existence.
Was just about to say this. The £330 we pay would cover a fraction of a resident in Care. Some out of the box thinking is needed. I wonder if a flat payment of £40k (?) by everyone at retirement age to create a large pot would be a plan?
 

Wack61

Member
Messages
8,764
There are anomalies throughout , why if you live in London,Scotland,Wales or Merseyside do you get a bus pass at 60 yet everywhere else it’s retirement age , ie state pension age which for me is 67 (unless they move the goalposts again)

there was a guy who‘s council tax was a band higher than every other house in the street so he complained to the council who looked into it and levelled it out

they moved every other house in the street up a band , I bet he was popular
 

Scaf

Member
Messages
6,511
Was just about to say this. The £330 we pay would cover a fraction of a resident in Care. Some out of the box thinking is needed. I wonder if a flat payment of £40k (?) by everyone at retirement age to create a large pot would be a plan?
Whereas many people will have that sort of cash at retirement, there will be many that won’t so a plan like that would never work. And although 40k sounds a lot, in the world of social care it’s about 6 months of care home fees.

These thinks will only ever be fixed if people pay in more over the long term and if those able to work and contribute do so, still too many people able to free ride in the country, and nothing is for free, so we all pay.
 
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