[user104658]

Originally Posted by Candy Cane

if households are paying 3 per cent towards social care in their Council Tax there is a level of accountability for families who have elderly relatives don't you think?, rather than it going into a black hole of income tax

I'm not necessarily against the idea of raising local taxes to be spent locally - when it comes down to it I tend to believe in "the smaller the better" government systems (e.g. this is why I believe that a Scottish government governing 5 million people is FAR better than a UK wide government trying to govern 60 million).

I'm also totally in favour of increased local budgets across the board and I feel like everyone should be willing to pay towards that. I know no one "likes" taxes but, basically, I think everyone would be much happier in general if they got to live in nice, clean, well maintained towns with plenty of local facilities... instead of run-down austerity ****holes. That's worth paying extra local tax for .

However... because of the way council tax works... IMO flat %age increases to council tax disproportionately affect low and low-middle incomes and that's something that needs to be addressed. As is more accountability for how that money is actually spent.