Gordon Bennet - hope nobody here lives in Croydon

[xoggoth]

Croydon has been given permission to hike council tax bills by a massive 15% to help pay off £1.6billion of debt.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/counc...-list-29144375

2 of my nephews live in Croydon and one is not well off. Council tax pees me off. It's based on stupid out of date assessments of value. I'm band E yet my house is worth a bit less than that of my neighbours who are band D. Apart from waste disposal I get very little for it.

[SueEllen]

So you have no street lights where you live?

If you don't you need to complain as you are paying for it.

Council tax also pays for education, social care, child services, road repairs including pavements, libraries, fire services and policing.

And yeah I agree it should be a property tax as countries with it have people who tend to live in housing that suits their circumstances at a particular time on their life.

[Protagoras]

Council Tax is one of the worst taxes around in my view. I don't think that estimated property value decades ago is a good proxy of ability to pay.

I'd much rather see a combination of a land value tax (payable by whomever owns the land) and a local income tax.

[vetran]

So you have no street lights where you live?

If you don't you need to complain as you are paying for it.

Council tax also pays for education, social care, child services, road repairs including pavements, libraries, fire services and policing.

And yeah I agree it should be a property tax as countries with it have people who tend to live in housing that suits their circumstances at a particular time on their life.

No but we do have a nice shiny new £50 million council building after they gave the old one away. We do have half the street lights turned off because they can't afford to pay for electric. Potholes and bus lanes galore. We have a number of stabbing incidents that would make Mayor Khan proud. Our police are regulars in Police camera Action turning the same idiots round after they leave prison.

I pay nearly the same council tax as someone in a 2 bed flat and someone with a £10million mansion, but they are still instigating a fortnightly bin week and a 10% hike because they pissed all the money away.

[Zigenare]

No but we do have a nice shiny new £50 million council building after they gave the old one away. We do have half the street lights turned off because they can't afford to pay for electric. Potholes and bus lanes galore. We have a number of stabbing incidents that would make Mayor Khan proud. Our police are regulars in Police camera Action turning the same idiots round after they leave prison.

I pay nearly the same council tax as someone in a 2 bed flat and someone with a £10million mansion, but they are still instigating a fortnightly bin week and a 10% hike because they pissed all the money away.

General refuse is collected every 3 weeks, blue (paper) and brown(glass,plastic, tins etc) bins alternate weekly. Food bin (pink lid) collected weekly.

And you think you've got it tough...

[d000hg]

2 of my nephews live in Croydon and one is not well off. Council tax pees me off. It's based on stupid out of date assessments of value. I'm band E yet my house is worth a bit less than that of my neighbours who are band D.

So get it reevaluated. CT isn't perfect but on average it tends to be about right.

Apart from waste disposal I get very little for it.

CT covers things such as schools, social work, libraries, refuse collection, environmental health, police and fire and rescue. But I thing other things too... local infrastructure like street-lights, pavements, road repairs, etc.

[vetran]

So get it reevaluated. CT isn't perfect but on average it tends to be about right. CT covers things such as schools, social work, libraries, refuse collection, environmental health, police and fire and rescue. But I thing other things too... local infrastructure like street-lights, pavements, road repairs, etc.

Any government would be able to re-evaluate it reasonably easily. Most houses have been sold a few times since the initial valuation, many houses could be inferred based on the sale of their neighbours.

The bands could be increased so > £1m houses could pay a significant sum.

[Protagoras]

Any government would be able to re-evaluate it reasonably easily. Most houses have been sold a few times since the initial valuation, many houses could be inferred based on the sale of their neighbours.

But this would not address the fundamental issue. The council provides services to people, not properties.
The 'value' of these services is disconnected from the property value.
There needs to be a charge with a per-capita element to recover money from those who best can afford to pay.

[ladymuck]

Martin Lewis, on the MSE website, has a whole guide to getting your house re-evaluated if you think you're in the wrong band:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/re...il-tax-credit/

I agree Council Tax is a poorly designed way to raise income for local facilities. The Poll Tax, the details of which I am too young to be aware of, evidently wasn't acceptable to the populace either but like all taxes in the UK, it needs reform of some description. I just think successive governments are too scared after the Poll Tax debacle to change it.

[vetran]

But this would not address the fundamental issue. The council provides services to people, not properties.
The 'value' of these services is disconnected from the property value.
There needs to be a charge with a per-capita element to recover money from those who best can afford to pay.

oh goody poll tax!