Why is council tax so high?

Take a look at the leaflet that came with the demand. You will see a breakdown of the various items that are far more than those you quote. Education is the biggest by far.

Topping up the pension pot of council workers is the biggest amount.

I'm sure that some nice kids will take this off your hands around the end of October when we celebrate an attempt to blow up Parliament.

FoFP

And the evidence that is?

Disposing of more and more dumped cars, dumped fridges and other dumped rubbish is another cost the rest of us end up forking out for through the council tax.

(Or so a representative from my local council advised me).

dan

I've always thought it unfair that I should pay a huge sum each month to eductate other people's brats when this has nothing to do with being a property occupier.

Paying for bin removal, police, fire, local library, local road maintanance, parks maintainace I'm fine with as these are services which can be used by local residents, but education is not in any way specific to *all* local residents - ie only those who have a collection of little brats.

I realise they have got to be educated, but this should surely be paid from general taxation rather than by what is effectively a property tax.

You were presumably a "brat" and received the benefit of some sort of education at some point.

I have got no problem with paying towards the coutry's education bill, but it just seems odd to link it to occupying a property, especially when the whole way it is charged is grossly unfair, where you get cases of a property shared by a couple with two adult children paying 25% of the bill each, yet a similar property with only one person in it pays 75% of the bill (as he only gets 25% discount).

So why do people dump cars, fridges, rubbish etc? More than likely because the council doesn't allow people to dispose of them. The council tax was

850 when I moved here just six years ago. Now it's 1530, having just looked at my bill. It's stupidity to allow local government to raise this sort of money directly from the local residents. Why is this not centrally funded? Surely the costs of services over the past six years is now not almost double what it was six years ago?

Kind Regards, Shane Cook.

A report from the Audit Office that came out in the last 6 months. Numerous articles reporting this in The Times, Independent, Telegraph, Economist and other Press.

True, and that's because the EU in its wisdom decrees that it's not green to do this. So we're stuck with having to pay for the disposal of rubbish that some anti-social bratacoid has just dumped.

Rob

Just dump it on the side of the road and then ring the council complaining that somebody has left it there. They will send a man with a van round to collect it and take it away. If they don't then you can make a complaint and sight the Environment Act to them - the EA makes them responsible for clearing up rubbish on land maintained by them and if they don't do it then they can be fined.

I've done this several times (washing machine, old sofa, old mattress) and just sent an email to the refuse collection and environmental health departments at the council. I usually find if you dump it late on Sunday (so you don't annoy the neighbours too much and they don't know who did it) and then run home and send an email, by Monday lunch time, it's usually gone. However, I suspect the performance of collection is based on how good your council is.

Come off it - why should we do pay more and more for an ever reducing service. It used to be that you could throw anything in a bin bag and the council would take it away.

Then in came wheelie bins and unless you had a big one (which some council areas did - mine didn't) then you had to stock pile any rubbish you couldn't get in the bin until the following week because the collectors were told they could not lift bags or rubbish in boxes - only that in the wheelie bin.

They then phased out these single purpose bins and gave you another - one for your recyclable stuff and the rest for other non recyclables. The recyclable stuff would be collected one week (but you had to wash it first, otherwise they wouldn't touch it) and the non-recyclable stuff was collected the other week - guess which wheelie bin gave off the worst stink and resulted in masses of flies.

I'm now forced to spend more time sorting out my rubbish every and having to remember what week it is because if I get it wrong I'll have up to four weeks worth of rubbish spilling out of my bins if I get it wrong.

And despite the fact that my council tells me it can generate revenue on my rubbish by selling it for recycling, my council tax bill has gone up 50% over the last five years.

In message , Shane Cook writes

ISTR that it was mainly centrally funded, but remember when the Labour Party Manifesto said they would not raise taxes - well they have been the cause of raising everything that isnt called a tax as such.

Wouldnt it be nice to elect a party who told the truth - but then they wouldnt get elected, because we want to believe the lies which sound better.

Council tax is so high mainly because the council employess have pension funds which need to be maintained.

I always phone the council and ask them to remove rubbish, when they refuse I stick it on the pavement and report that it has been dumped (which is true.) It is always removed the same day.

>

Single people living alone in properties which could accommodate 4 adults are the main cause of the current housing shortage and silly house prices. They should abolish the 25% discount, if a single person wants to live alone in a property which can accommodate 4 adults they *ought* to be screwed by property tax. A single person can pay less council tax by moving into a smaller property or sharing a property. People who share their cars don't pay any more road tax, why should people who share their houses pay more property tax?

The trouble is that they *did* tell the truth (at least as far as taxes were concerned).

Their promise was not to raise *income tax rates*, which they haven't. So they've raised practically every other tax instead, including council tax by the back door. And the most cynical was raising NI, which is effectively the same thing as raising income tax rates for everyone except those who live off unearned income and pensioners.

The property taxes only pay a relatively small proportion of the costs of council services. Most of them are paid for by grants from central government- or effectively from general taxation as you call it.

This is also why relatively small increases in overall council spending have a much bigger impact on council tax. It is a gearing effect. This is also why people have become so dissatisfied with council tax- above inflation rises on a regular basis.

Neb

Which simply has the effect of driving up the Council's costs.