[Cherie]

he largest local authorities in England are to be allowed to raise council tax by up to 5.99% next year.
Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said councils would be able to increase core bills by 3% in April without having to hold a referendum, up from 2% now.
Combined with the 3% "precept" for those councils funding social care, it means some bills could rise by up to 5.99% without voters having a say.
Local government leaders have said they are at "financial breaking point".
And the Taxpayers Alliance said it "beggared belief" that tax bills could be allowed to rise at almost twice the current 3.1% rate of CPI inflation.
On Tuesday, the government announced that council tax bills could be increased to help provide extra funding for police in England and Wales.
At the moment, councils in England that fund social care provision - county councils, unitary authorities, metropolitan districts and London boroughs - are allowed to increase bills by a maximum of 4.99%.
Police to get 'extra £450m funding'
What's the deal with council tax increases?
Outlining the provisional local government funding settlement for 2018-19, Mr Javid said the one percentage point increase to 5.99% would give local authorities "the independence they need to help relieve pressure on local services" while "recognising the need to keep spending under control".
Some councils that fund social care directly are expected to implement the maximum 5.99% increase.
The BBC's political correspondent Iain Watson said, if that happened, that would see the average annual council tax bill for a Band D property rise by £95.
However, the size of rises will vary area by area, as council tax bills are made up of several components - depending on the make-up and responsibilities of different bodies.

[Crimson Dynamo]

Nicola would neva

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by Isaiah 7:14

Nicola would neva

just cut services to one bin collection a month?

[Vanessa]

[Greg!]

Originally Posted by Isaiah 7:14

Nicola would neva

We love our Nic!

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by Greg-nog!

We love our Nic!

Your services will be cut instead, I would rather pay a bit more to keep what we have got..!

[Oliver_W]

How about they **** off? Councils should find better ways to spend money they already get rather than taking more.

[DemolitionRed]

Originally Posted by The_Hogfather

How about they **** off? Councils should find better ways to spend money they already get rather than taking more.

Local councils are being funded less and less by central government. I work within a sector of the NHS that is broadly involved with MASH ((Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub) and from where I'm sitting, things are looking more and more bleak, especially for social services because the budgets are now so ludicrously tight.

They can only spend according to their cloth and there's not much of that at the moment. The problem here is, local councils are going to take the flack for this deliberately mean central government decision. This really is central government passing the buck.

[bots]

what a joyous time of year. Let's all sing a carol

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by bitontheslide

what a joyous time of year. Let's all sing a carol

so the personal tax allowance gets raised by 100.00 but they claw it back via council tax and more people are caught in the net as every household pays it

[smudgie]

Originally Posted by Candy Cane

so the personal tax allowance gets raised by 100.00 but they claw it back via council tax and more people are caught in the net as every household pays it

You can claim up to a 100% rebate if you are on a low income.

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by NanaChristmas

You can claim up to a 100% rebate if you are on a low income.

I didn't know that!

[Vanessa]

Originally Posted by NanaChristmas

You can claim up to a 100% rebate if you are on a low income.

Really? i didn't know that!

[user104658]

Originally Posted by Candy Cane

so the personal tax allowance gets raised by 100.00 but they claw it back via council tax and more people are caught in the net as every household pays it

Weeell, that's not really true, there are council tax reductions on low income scaling all the way down to paying zero. I didn't pay council tax in England cos we woz so poor when we lived there (two of us and a baby on 25 hours min wage, ugh...).

But yeah... for most working families, a 6% council tax increase will cost more than they'll get from the personal tax allowance increases . Robbing Peter to pay Paul, and all that.

For the vast majority, also, Scotland's 1p tax increase will cost less than a 6% council tax increase. In fact the only people who will be less affected by the council tax increase than the Scottish income tax are the highest earners - because even the highest council tax bands are only 3x the lowest. Meaning the increase for a 10 bed mansion is only approx £200 a year... whereas it's about £65 a year for even the grottiest band A bedsit.

Looking at it quickly... it seems that middle income is once again hit hardest in relation to income (average family home bands - C/D/E) who will pay just under £100 a year extra.

[Kizzy]

Originally Posted by Toy Santa

Weeell, that's not really true, there are council tax reductions on low income scaling all the way down to paying zero. I didn't pay council tax in England cos we woz so poor when we lived there (two of us and a baby on 25 hours min wage, ugh...).

But yeah... for most working families, a 6% council tax increase will cost more than they'll get from the personal tax allowance increases . Robbing Peter to pay Paul, and all that.

For the vast majority, also, Scotland's 1p tax increase will cost less than a 6% council tax increase. In fact the only people who will be less affected by the council tax increase than the Scottish income tax are the highest earners - because even the highest council tax bands are only 3x the lowest. Meaning the increase for a 10 bed mansion is only approx £200 a year... whereas it's about £65 a year for even the grottiest band A bedsit.
Looking at it quickly... it seems that middle income is once again hit hardest in relation to income (average family home bands - C/D/E) who will pay just under £100 a year extra.

Everyone knows there are reductions for people on a low income but even those on UC ESA or JSA have to pay a percentage towards CT now and the rise will no doubt be reflected here.

Nobody gets to pay nothing anymore except a very small percentage of people.

[Cherie]

[QUOTE=Christmas treeza;9745496]Everyone knows there are reductions for people on a low income but even those on UC ESA or JSA have to pay a percentage towards CT now and the rise will no doubt be reflected here.

Nobody gets to pay nothing anymore except a very small percentage of people.[/QUOTE]

This should please you given you were complaining about the PTA being raised?

[waterhog]

the biggest tax of all - is the government and what ever one we have - they are all the same.

put up tax for less service is a delboy deal but only he could convince us it was worth happening and more importantly land on his feet.

[bots]

My council have been pretty fair in their increases over the last few years. I don't know anyone that likes paying council tax, but I'm happy to pay the money knowing that the fire service will be there if I need them, that local services are maintained.

When Maggie T first introduced the poll tax, all hell broke loose, and that issue was the one that actually forced her out of power. The first thing that John Major did was introduce the much fairer tax that we still have today.

Want to grumble, but really, I can't.

[Kazanne]

Councils need to spend their money on things that are needed instead of wasting it on things that aren't necessary such as the paintings on the side of their vans to advertise themselves as being a caring council lol,and glossy calendars that people mostly just bin !!there is 1000s of pounds saved already.

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by Nutcracker Sweet

Councils need to spend their money on things that are needed instead of wasting it on things that aren't necessary such as the paintings on the side of their vans to advertise themselves as being a caring council lol,and glossy calendars that people mostly just bin !!there is 1000s of pounds saved already.

Exactly, no types of taxes should be raised until the councils/government spend the money they already get properly.

[user104658]

To be fair, our local council publishes a list of what they're spending on every year and there have been cuts recently for things that are pretty essential but I can't see where they could make savings elsewhere to fund them. For example, the village I live in used to have one bus an hour which was bad enough, that's now cut down to a bus every 2 hours, and there's a high chance that from next year there will simply be no bus at all. That's because the council has to subsidise it as it's not a profitable route for bus companies otherwise. However... We're 7 miles from the nearest town and without the bus, anyone who doesn't drive (mainly the elderly) is completely cut off to the extent that I can't even see how it would be possible for them to continue living here. A taxi to town and back is £20 and there's no other transport option .

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by Toy Santa

To be fair, our local council publishes a list of what they're spending on every year and there have been cuts recently for things that are pretty essential but I can't see where they could make savings elsewhere to fund them. For example, the village I live in used to have one bus an hour which was bad enough, that's now cut down to a bus every 2 hours, and there's a high chance that from next year there will simply be no bus at all. That's because the council has to subsidise it as it's not a profitable route for bus companies otherwise. However... We're 7 miles from the nearest town and without the bus, anyone who doesn't drive (mainly the elderly) is completely cut off to the extent that I can't even see how it would be possible for them to continue living here. A taxi to town and back is £20 and there's no other transport option .

But then you I remember you saying your council tax didn't go up last year? mine went up 5.5 per cent, 3 per cent of that to social care, will be interesting to see what they put it up by this year as they were on the high end of council tax rises last year, and we had to pay an extra 50 quid on top of that raise to get the green collected, that was a disaster for them so they have brought that back under the umbrella of council tax for this year.

[bots]

Originally Posted by Toy Santa

To be fair, our local council publishes a list of what they're spending on every year and there have been cuts recently for things that are pretty essential but I can't see where they could make savings elsewhere to fund them. For example, the village I live in used to have one bus an hour which was bad enough, that's now cut down to a bus every 2 hours, and there's a high chance that from next year there will simply be no bus at all. That's because the council has to subsidise it as it's not a profitable route for bus companies otherwise. However... We're 7 miles from the nearest town and without the bus, anyone who doesn't drive (mainly the elderly) is completely cut off to the extent that I can't even see how it would be possible for them to continue living here. A taxi to town and back is £20 and there's no other transport option .

yeah there is a similar service level here and there are so few taxis that you are lucky if you get one booking a day ahead. Driverless cars are going to be a real saviour for those that can't drive