Council tax

[Michael Rolls]

An apparently well founded rumour is that the wretched Reeves woman will double the council tax payable on homes in bands G and H in the budget. This would certainly apply in England and Wales, but I am not sure about Scotland. Scotland sets its own income tax levels, which are generally higher than south of the border, but I don't know about council tax.
I really can't understand such a stupid idea, which would traumatise the market

[GrannyMac]

Surely it would make more sense to add some more bands at the top?  Homes worth multiple millions shouldn't pay the same as those at the bottom of H.

[Michael Rolls]

totally agree

[klondike]

A local income tax would be fairer. There could be someone just above the pension credit level where council tax is waived in a big expensive family home that now costs a fortune to heat in winter but they don't want the upheaval of moving in their final years. It's income that determines disposable income not how valuable the house you live in is. 

[Dextrous63]

Exactly.  There will be a fair few people who stretched themselves when things were better to buy a bigger or better property, who have since been stung terribly by inflation, interest rates on mortgages etc, and who will now be stung even more through council tax hikes.

[Ashy]

In my humble opinion this disastrous government is more likely to raise the 5% cap on council tax rises for everyone pending a revaluation. If she simply makes council tax into a super tax at the top bands, there could well be unintended consequences. 


"I can foresee all sorts of unforseen difficulties." - Sir Humphrey Appleby.

[Michael Rolls]

One of my favourite quotes

[Michael Rolls]

Just a thought - are ministerial minds hard wired to stupidity?

[Dextrous63]

Just a thought - are ministerial minds hard wired to stupidity?

Seems so.

There's yet another minister (who I've never heard of) who has just been discovered to have paid insufficient council tax.  Luckily for him, the council said it was their fault, so he's off the hook.

Irrespective of that, it's poor optics, to use modern parlance.

[klondike]

Unlike Rayner who should have been prosecuted for her housing tax "errors".

[Dextrous63]

Unlike Rayner who should have been prosecuted for her housing tax "errors".

I believe that she's yet to settle the bill, despite rumours that she's plotting a comeback to usurp St.Harmer.

It seems particularly poignant that she's banging on about how she's returned to grass roots to help her constituents, but curiously hasn't sold up her South Coast flat nor spent much time up T' north.