How much has your council tax gone up this year?

[Richard - London]

Lewisham council, going up 4.9% because they need the cash, yet last year they spent millions on support for people illegally in the UK.

 

[Haggisman]

Mortgages, council tax, energy bills etc now has a lot of people walking a fine line.

Indeed, going from 2 to 4.5% (quite realistic for anyone coming off a fix in the last 2 years) is a ~30% increase on a 25 year mortgage, 50-100% increase on energy bills, now 20% on Council tax, not to mention the increase in food etc. it's no wonder people are struggling

 

[Brando]

To me, council tax always feels so disconnected from reality.
IIRC Cornwall Council has managed to lose money in Iceland's bankruptcy and to the man with the boat. How can Council Tax be invested in anything other than the council's services and region they look after?

 

[Richie]

That's why it's based on house value, which generally (although obviously not always) follows size. If you and your partner want to live in a 5 bedroom house on your own then fine, but unfortunately you'll pay for the privilege

(It's going to really grind your gears when someone tells you that families with kids put more demand on the education system and child services than those without! )

Na, not at all. My post was tongue-in-cheek (hence the popcorn gif)

I realise that the kids of now will be the ones keeping the country going in the future when I am a retired old fart and a nett drain on the system.

To me, some of the taxes you pay during working age (whether you have kids or not) are there to put back into the system at the times (in general) where you did nothing but take from the system i.e. 0-18ish (working age) and then in your old age until you die.

 

[darael]

Not council tax, but my annual water bill has gone up 12%.

 

[Nasher]

Not council tax, but my annual water bill has gone up 12%.

Yea and their excuse is to cover the costs of all the extra things they should have been doing anyway. But somehow, illegally managed to get away with not doing for 30 years. People should be going to prison over this, as they should over the post office thing.

 

[Haggisman]

Yea and their excuse is to cover the costs of all the extra things they should have been doing anyway. But somehow, illegally managed to get away with not doing for 30 years. People should be going to prison over this, as they should over the post office thing.

Yup, saw in the news that Severn Trent have just been fined £2m for dumping sewage... great - that's my water bill going up to pay for that, because it sure as hell won't be coming out of the pockets of the shareholders and others in charge who allowed it to happen in the first place. So glad I get to pay for the joy of having my environment dumped full of ****.

Na, not at all. My post was tongue-in-cheek (hence the popcorn gif)

Don't worry, I realised, hence the smilies

As Brando said, it does seem very backwards and outdated. Valued based on a quick drive by "viewing" 30 years ago...

 

[Richie]

As Brando said, it does seem very backwards and outdated. Valued based on a quick drive by "viewing" 30 years ago...

When you attempt to challenge the banding you are in, you quickly realise how inept the system is which is why I am for having it changed or, at the very least, a full country wide revaluation and rebanding done.

 

[Stu999]

When you attempt to challenge the banding you are in, you quickly realise how inept the system is which is why I am for having it changed or, at the very least, a full country wide revaluation and rebanding done.

There should definitely be a lot more bands and values based on a more recent year. It’s so backwards the current system.

Well, Land Value Tax would be a better option but baby steps.

 

[Trifid]

Not had a notification yet, but I expect it will be the usual 4.99%. I expect it will also include the removal of weekly bin collections this year too despite cast iron promises from the conservative administration last election that they will stay.

 

[Richie]

There should definitely be a lot more bands and values based on a more recent year. It’s so backwards the current system.

Well, Land Value Tax would be a better option but baby steps.

I tried to challenge mine and here's a couple of examples of the Valuation Board reasons to try and reject it:

1. "We looked at the local area for similar houses" - Yeah, they did but the examples they gave me were only from the affluent areas which were located further away than a less affluent area. They never used any houses from the less affluent area to compare
   
   
2. You'll like this one - "your house is more modern than these ones we looked at so we valued it more". Same size (footprint, rooms etc) but, because it was built more recently they upped the valuation? - This in itself is a reason to do a full countrywide revaluation then.

 

[Brando]

When you attempt to challenge the banding you are in, you quickly realise how inept the system is which is why I am for having it changed or, at the very least, a full country wide revaluation and rebanding done.

I challenged and won on our build. It was a painful experience. Cornwall Council kept repeating, over and over, we'll see you in court. It felt like they were trying to intimidate me. Their court, not the actual court. I kept saying that's fine, see you there.

The week it was due in their court they approved my re-banding, instead. Bonkers system, an awful experience.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

There should definitely be a lot more bands and values based on a more recent year. It’s so backwards the current system.

Well, Land Value Tax would be a better option but baby steps.

What we have now is effectively a property value tax, it’s just there isn’t that many bands and the bands don’t really scale so it’s more regressive than it could be.

If they decided to do a massive home revalue I think that would sink a few people, there's some shacks here that were bought for peanuts but land worth 2 to 5 mill , mines band A ,not sure if you get revalued after extensions ect, its something I need to find out
Pic is from a house that was under 200k in Late 90s ,I love this street as you have direct beach, estuary access, launch sup from garden, if irrelevant I am just day dreaming

It really wouldn’t. Council tax banding is based on 1991 pricing. If there was a revaluation, all the bands would just shift up with the valuation date. A band A property in 1991 isn’t suddenly going to become a band F in 2024 if there has been no material changes to the property (e.g extensions).

What you might find is very small houses which are currently band A jump up to band B to make way for flats/apartments in band A which have not kept pace with houses in terms of values.

 

[moon man]

Would this be revalued at house price, next to nothing or land value though? If they did a revalue
Now it's sold I am guessing it will go on price paid ? 2.5 mill or over

 

[arknor]

Now it's sold I am guessing it will go on price paid ? 2.5 mill or over

is that close to a cliff edge? and probably gone in 10-20 years?

is it Cornwall that hates outsiders?
I have a son in the RAF who was in cornwall or devon for awhile and he was telling me they don't like people in the forces either.

 

[FoxEye]

5%. They have said they're quite close to bankruptcy, and I completely believe it.

Govt has slashed council funding, up and down the country they are all up **** creek.

Exciting times. Do make every effort not to get sick, need to drive on a road, be the victim of a crime, etc. Because resources are stretched so thin, we might not be able to help.

 

[arknor]

Yea and their excuse is to cover the costs of all the extra things they should have been doing anyway. But somehow, illegally managed to get away with not doing for 30 years. People should be going to prison over this, as they should over the post office thing.

Leaky Loos

Northumbrian Water - Leaky loos

www.nwl.co.uk

If your toilet is leaking, we'll come and fix it for free.​

Must be easier than actually fixing their pipes....

 

[FoxEye]

is that close to a cliff edge? and probably gone in 10-20 years?

is it Cornwall that hates outsiders?
I have a son in the RAF who was in cornwall or devon for awhile and he was telling me they don't like people in the forces either.

Some bright spark is as we speak trying to build right on a cliff edge in Newquay, despite being warned that the whole area will be in the sea within 100 years, max.

And they needed to pump tons of concrete into the cliffs, which drew fantastic protests from concerned locals. But money, money makes strange things happen.

 

[413x]

5%. They have said they're quite close to bankruptcy, and I completely believe it.

Govt has slashed council funding, up and down the country they are all up **** creek.

Exciting times. Do make every effort not to get sick, need to drive on a road, be the victim of a crime, etc. Because resources are stretched so thin, we might not be able to help.

I don't get it.
As much as it sucks that in Wales we don't have caps.. If England is capped at 5pc.. And it needs more.. Its gonna go bankrupt and need more the year after.


I do wish there were ramifications for incompetence and waste at council level (ie sackings). But can't just force. 5pc arbitrarily if it needs more.

 

[arknor]

How many of these near bankupt councils invested money into hotels and malls?

Newcastle own 40% of a city mall that loses money year after year....

Then theres

Newcastle City Council has issued yet another loan to a struggling city centre hotel – having already shelled out almost £30 million on it.

Civic centre chiefs have agreed to lend even more cash to prop up the Crowne Plaza Hotel on the Stephenson Quarter development site, behind Central Station.

A £15 million council loan was first given in 2013 to build the four-star hotel, which it was hoped would act as a catalyst for the regeneration of the area, before a second of £14.8 million was then handed out just last year.

It is understood that a third loan confirmed this week, the exact size of which is unknown, comes from a £5 million rescue fund set aside by the city council last month to help save organisations left on the brink of collapse by the coronavirus pandemic.

that article was from 2020, wonder how many loans they had during covid.... why does a hotel need 30mil + in loans from the council and that was before covid... too big to fail like the banks?

Newcastle City Council sits on multi-million investment properties

Newcastle’s was the tenth largest investment property holding of any council, by income, in England in 2021-22

northeastbylines.co.uk

tough decisions now needed to avoid bankruptcy

Newcastle City Council faces ‘tough’ decisions to avoid bankruptcy

Plans are agreed to cut Newcastle City Council spending by another £15m over the next year.

www.bbc.co.uk

cut spending by 15mil , probably give it to a hotel as a loan instead

I wonder WHY????? WHY?????? is it because they keep investing all our money in failing hotels and other stupid crap? rather than spend it on actual services to improve peoples lives?