Council Tax

[pipme]

Average proposed for us 4.8% so I expect around 5.4%
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/

Who is kidding who on the inflation front ? Told you the bu##ers are printing unearned dosh .. aint over yet !!
Consumer Prices Index (CPI) Jan 2005 increase on year 1.6%
Retail Price Index (RPI)................................................3.2%
Retail Price IndexX (RPIX)............................................2.1%

RPI The September RPI is also used in the formula governing the basic state pension increase payable in the following April, capped, wouldn't you just know ! at 2.5% So that's a cut for pensioners then !

RPIX Is RPI eXcluding mortgage Interest. Makes RPI look better for Govn.

CPI is the EuroDisney model, which, you've guessed it !! does not even include local taxes like CT !! ..Apparently EuroMicky is looking at adding in the missing parts, don't hold breath ... So I wonder what the next UK index will be ? 'BII' Blair Incredulity Index, perhaps ?

Anything that shows something different to what we feel in our pockets I'll bet ..... Guess what ? We get what we damn well deserve.

 

[boob man]

I think it's the biggest rip off ever,my tax is going to be near on £120 a month over 10 months for wot someone to collect a few rubbish bags and a non existent police force.

 

[pipme]

Yeah I agree, they do not even grit our roads, one access quite steep hill, have to take to the shovel and grit box when it snows !!

£1467 band E hereabouts .... £4.02 per day....Wait til they reassess property values, rises ? you aint seen nothing yet !!

.... FOR three years residents in South Cambridgeshire have enjoyed a bit of a free ride with council tax, but this year councillors are proposing a 100 per cent increase despite stern warnings from the Government that capping will take place.

The district council wants to raise its bills to £140 a year, from the £70 rate they have stayed at since 2002, when an audit found surplus cash reserves which were then used to subsidise tax revenues....

Here we go, here we go, here we go-o !!

And more of the same :-

.... Sir, You claim that I have “admitted that homes would go up a council tax band in many areas of the country”. This is untrue. What I have said on numerous occasions is that anyone whose home has risen in value in line with averages is unlikely to pay more tax.

Revaluation isn’t about raising more money overall. Even properties which have increased in value by more than the average will not necessarily move up a band (if, for example, the current property is valued in the middle or towards the bottom of an existing band).

Making council tax fairer is what the Balance of Funding Review wants; what the select committee on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister wants; what taxpayers want; and what the Government wants. That’s why we appointed Sir Michael Lyons to investigate in detail how to do it. Revaluation of council tax in England is part of that process.

Yours,
NICK RAYNSFORD,
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister,
26 Whitehall, SW1A 2WH.
February 4.

This guy aint talking to me is he ? Heard this same talk about the Uni fees, how much better that they were going up to £3k ---- From Mars or Venus or wot ?
Hey, Nick switch the light off when you leave.

 

[nstreet]

Our council tax has gone up between 12-18 percent each year since the Blair government. This year its only going up 4.5%. Funny that, it being an election year and all.

Although I have heard that they will introduce it low this year until after the elections then we will all be hit with an update and back dated bills!

All we get is the bin emptied and a street lamp right outside our bedroom window which we definitley don't want and a grit bin at the bottom of the hill, which is nearly always empty when you need it. All for £1300 a year. What a bargain

 

[GrantF]

I think it's the biggest rip off ever,my tax is going to be near on £120 a month over 10 months for wot someone to collect a few rubbish bags and a non existent police force.

You've got it easy mate, try £240 for 10 months

 

[VeRetired]

Council Tax might seem to be unfair if you don't have a family or dependents, but Education, Nurseries, Social Services, Refuse Collection, Trading Standards, Leisure & Open spaces ......etc. all have to be financed and if the government won't do it, then local taxation is the only alternative. But if you think you've got a beef with the current labour (not Labour) gov and its Council tax grant allocation to local authorities you should have lived under Thatcher's pernicious Poll Tax period. The two cannot be compared.
I live on the border of Liverpool adjacent to Lord Derby (a rich landowner) and he paid less poll tax than 90% of the people who live in this area, I have four children, all married and left home now, but under the Thatcher/Joseph/Ridley regime I had to pay 6@£350, like many I struggled.
I don't mind paying my Council Tax if if impacts on the right people and meets the needs of the community. But what gets right up my nose is my local council has sold off its Housing stock, Elderly peoples homes and sacked all the Direct workforce (tradesmen and street cleaners etc). Closed down the swimming baths and reduced the opening times of the libraries. These measures were taken to keep this years Council Tax increase to a minimum. Say 4%.
A local councillor who used to do the duties for legitimate expenses now gets a minimum of £10k per annum for attending a handful of meetings. For that kind of dosh he isn't going to rock the boat or upset Tony.
Long Live the memory of the 47 Liverpool Councillors who stuck to their manifesto and defied Thatcher, alas, it was a Labour welsh windbag who brought them down.

 

[david and julie]

Why do you go back so far? The current Goverment have been at the helm for a long time now. We have had massive council tax rises in that period some say around 70% for most of us at a time of supposed low interest rates and inflation. Yes Thatcher was evil and bad news for most of us, we all agree on that and you can blame her for a hell of a lot of nastiness

I don't see how you can blame her for the current tax rises though.

 

[VeRetired]

J+J,
I don't know where you live, but maybe one of the reasons why your C.T. has risen dramatically, is because for years rate & C.T. rises in traditional Tory heartlands were kept artificially low by receiving high gov. grant aid.This was to maintain support for the 'Think only of yourself brigade' Gordon Brown has put that right. If I live to see the death of the Conservative Party, I will indeed be a happy man.
As regards going so far back 20yrs? It's a blink of an eye!

 

[pipme]

Just pulled my records ... Council tax 1997 £86 2004 £140 rise = 62.8%
levelled rate 7.2% per annum ... Average RPI over that period 2.5% So in real terms the yearly increase has been 4.59% A substantial amount over and above inflation !!

 

[VeRetired]

In case anyone thinks I support heavy Council Tax rises they aren't reading my messages correctly.
Local Authorities have historically raised C.T. beyond what is reasonable to finance projects that Central Gov will not, if they can get away with it, or it could be you may live in an area where businesses have close down so the only rate base is Domestic so you pick up the bill.
It's hard on the ordinary householder who has to shoulder the burden of high spending authorities but the source of the problem lies with them. The L.A. assesses the probable spending and sets the rate for that year. Not Central Government. Gordon Brown would like nothing better than to see a zero increase throughout the land.

BTW Pip, I think I saw you live in a Band E that's about £300,000 worth of real estate. Depending on where you live of course. I live in a Band A and I pay £1000 p.a.

 

[david and julie]

VeRetired, I would put completely out of your mind any thoughts of the Tory party ceasing in your lifetime, it won't happen.

You have seen the death of the Labour party though haven't you. Just to remind you it was hi-jacked by Phoney Blair and his cohorts. What they did was copy all the Tory policies and rebadge themselves New Labour. You now have two Tory parties with no discernable difference between them, making it twice as hard to realise your dream.

Gordon Brown wouldn't know what a zero increase was if it hit him in the face.

 

[pipme]

.......BTW Pip, I think I saw you live in a Band E that's about £300,000 worth of real estate. Depending on where you live of course. I live in a Band A and I pay £1000 p.a.

But I paid less than a third of that figure for the house in '94 ... My income has not matched the increase hence neither has my ability to pay. A stupid tax !

I have also posted in the past Here my method of teasing out a 'reality'ish' value for one's home using current Insurance company rebuild costs and actual, area specific Land Registry data for the ground value. Thus teasing out the 'desirablity' factor. 27% for my homestead.

If this Govn had some control over borrowing then just maybe the prices would not have rocketed as they have done ... The cynic would say the whole thing has been stage managed, the up coming revaluation of property for Council Tax banding purposes will take full advantage of the increases ... Funny how the brakes were applied very close to the next election. ... Look out middle grounders wallets out ... tip upside down !

 

[pipme]

Here we go then Bath & North East Somerset Council .. Or by the acronym they banned their employees from using !! BANES
Good that, nice long name to dissuade 'oldies' from paying council tax by cheque .... got a sting in the tale (?) and they do not like it !

To the point, CT going up by av. 4.x% (pre-election)

News Headlines
Cuts of £3.4m loom
Some of Bath's most basic services could be at risk after council officials were told to ear- mark £3.4m of savings by the end of March. They are struggling to balance the books as they strive to compensate for overspending on major projects, such as the spa, and meet new pension regulations imposed by the Government.

Oh, this is good !! They foul up over the 'Spa' project costing zillions, unresolved ... provide sod all school transport, not even discounted passes ... a big cost to families and BTW a step change from free passes, about 5 years ago, not tapered, step !!
Now they want us, the customer, to take a cut in provision whilst they bolster (enhance) the pension schemes for a group who would probably be sacked for criminal neglect in any private company.
Hey, if things go on like this .. I may be living close by a Council chief wit h a nice half salary, index linked pension, while I take my own rubbish to the destructor ...... But these people are the 'Royalty' of the welfare state untouchables !! They are all too costly, loaded with certificates and scrolls ...... But 'kin useless at their jobs !!
Don't even mention 'shoe dye' in yer grub ---

COUNCIL LEADERS ASKED TO SHOW QUALIFICATIONS Can they be serious .... Rubbing it in ? No reassurance there for me ... gilding the Lily.... Purses and Sow's lugoles What does Bath and Scunthorpe have in common ?