Council tax reform

[Alice in Blunderland]

How do you think council tax should be charged ? Should it be a one size fits all type payment where every househould pays the same rate?

Should it be that the more services you use or recieve the more you should pay ? ...larger families look out it will be assumed bigger family so more services to be used.

How about those in the bigger more expensive properties paying more than those in the smaller cheaper ones similar to as it is just now.

Or should it be scrapped for another system altogether ?

Thoughts on this one please. :)

[JAWS]

It should be based on the number of adults in a household.

[Humerous Vegetable]

I live out in the sticks, so no street lighting. I have to take my rubbish 1/2 a mile down a track to my wheelie bin, recyclables 3 miles to Thurso. I have no school-age kids and have only seen 1 police car in the years since I moved here (sitting at the side of the road eating their pieces) so I'm not really sure why I'm paying so much Council Tax. I do use the library sometimes....maybe that's it.

[Penelope Pitstop]

I think Jaws has got it right. Base it on the adults living in the house.

Doesn't matter how many rooms, toilets that you have in a house.....should go by the number of people living in it.

I also agree with humerous veg, if you live out of town you don't get the added benefit of street lighting, etc....but I suppose that goes with wanting to live in the country.

[Angela]

It should be based on the number of adults in a household.

I think so too.

I do think it's unfair that a single person has to pay 75% of what a household with 2 or more adults does. :confused

Still, like humerous vegetable, I do use the library a lot :roll:

[Chrissie]

I think it's about time we all took a stance with the council tax and said 'enough is enough'. It appears to be a bill that when it comes through the door we just accept that we have to pay it (the majority of us do)without anybody bothering to challenge what are now becoming to be a joke charges. I can understand (kind of) where the water charges come from but for the life of me the 'poll' tax I cannot understand - we have our bins emptied (which could be soon once every fortnight) and street lighting (depending on where you stay) what other services to we receive for this scandalous bill that justify it's cost to the normal working man/woman taking home a normal wage!

[veekay]

The thing that makes me really mad is that we in Caithness pay the same amount of council tax as those in Inverness.

[Piglet]

yep we will be paying more for less services, if the refuse collection goes to one a fortnight. will they be supplying us with extra bins then for our rubbish.

I think it should be based on the more services you receive the more you pay - even if it dose mean bigger families are penalised it is up to them how big they wanted there family, if they use more services they pay more.

[Humerous Vegetable]

I think it's about time we all took a stance with the council tax and said 'enough is enough'. It appears to be a bill that when it comes through the door we just accept that we have to pay it (the majority of us do)without anybody bothering to challenge what are now becoming to be a joke charges. I can understand (kind of) where the water charges come from but for the life of me the 'poll' tax I cannot understand - we have our bins emptied (which could be soon once every fortnight) and street lighting (depending on where you stay) what other services to we receive for this scandalous bill that justify it's cost to the normal working man/woman taking home a normal wage!

I suddenly remembered - we're paying for councillors and their 4x4s!

[j4bberw0ck]

The thing that makes me really mad is that we in Caithness pay the same amount of council tax as those in Inverness.

They'd argue it's a rural area; much bigger, more scattered population; takes far longer to empty bins and all the other stuff people expect the council to do. And of course there are fewer taxpayers to split the burden between.

You want local government? You get to pay.

[cuddlepop]

As of April our rubbish is heading for a landfill site in Caithness as ours is full.
That must be costing a fortune.:(
On the Council Tax question it should be in proportion to income/services and fairer than it is at present.

[Alice in Blunderland]

I do feel the current system is unfair but as to what the answer is I dont know as someone will ultimately feel they are worse off.

[Foxy]

I live in a rural area and pay over a £1000 in council tax. I get my bin emptied once a week, i have no street lights. The road that runs past my house is full of holes and needs resurfaced, was told it's on the list and that was three years ago!!. If we have frost our road is low priority so it dosen't get gritted even thought the gritter passes the end of the road, should at this point confess that three years ago i did get a couple of heaps of sand left at side of road to spread myself, but nothing since and i have asked for some but it never arrived. So is council tax fair i don't think so.

[golach]

I am in a Band C property in Edinburgh and my total Council Tax, Water and Sewerage is £1364.31 for 2007, I personally do not see this as excessive, I agree its a lot of money, but as said earlier not excessive.

[j4bberw0ck]

On the Council Tax question it should be in proportion to income/services and fairer than it is at present.

"Fairer" would be in proportion to the number of people in the house......... and maybe based partly on how remote you are........

[molly]

..We get our bin emptied once a week.
..We have no street lighting, and have to walk half a mile with bin.
..No school bus passes end of road so i have to do the school run. Been told as less than 3 miles to school, my elder children dont qualify for a bus but the council dont consider the risk to young children walking on a main road where cars can legally do 60 miles an hour, which would happen if i did not drive as my young child starts school soon and she would not qualify for a bus either.
..There is no local bus service passing end of road so only way into town without using car is taxi. A pavement would help but costs so much. However, we pay almost £2000 for the privileges above

I understand we chose to live outside the town. but the reason for that is simply the houses being built in the town now are no bigger than any of the housing estates in pennyland and old ormlie but do cost a considerable amount more.

[Alice in Blunderland]

But.... :confused should people living in more expensive houses pay more for their council tax?


Should people earning a higher salary pay more for their council tax?


Should the elderly pay for their council tax?


Should larger households ie. more people pay more for their council tax?


Should people living inrural locations pay the same as people in towns and cities?


All questions but no right answer! or is there? :confused

[changilass]

It should be based on the number of adults in a household.


I think it would be fairer to base it on the amount of people rather than adults in a house.

Since we got out son, our rubbish, water usage etc has increased rapidly.

We chose to have our son, so we should pay for him, why should a couple with no kids have to pay more than someone with 3 or 4 kids??

We all make our choices in live, we should learn to live with the consequences instead of expecting others to deal with them.

[molly]

I totally agree with you changilass. It should be based on the amount of people in the house and not on the size of the house. Although what services you receive should be taken into consideration

[Angela]

It should be based on the amount of people in the house and not on the size of the house.

I've just googled council tax band for my postcode...

I live in a flat -council tax for my neighbours in much larger flats in the same block is two bands higher than mine.

I agree with Molly -I don't feel that's fair on them, as we all live on the same street and have the same services and amenities available. I don't think that the value or size of your house should come into it.

However -there's only one of me, so I pay 75% of the total tax (25% discount)..2 people will pay 100%...and then where there are four or five adults living in a flat they are still only paying the 100% between them.

I don't feel that's fair either.

I really don't know what would be fair to everyone, or indeed if it's possible! :confused

[Rheghead]

I would consider bringing back the Poll Tax. One person, one payment, we all pay the same, what can be fairer than that?;) We all pollute, we all need public services and personal wealth actually has little bearing on the cost of individual needs. In fact the more you earn the less you need to take from the council.

[Margaret M.]

I have a house there that I use only a few weeks each year so I would like to see a system where one pays for the services used. It wasn't so bad when the holiday home tax was 50% but that was eliminated. The tax is very steep for having a trash can emptied 3 times per year and a very low level of water usage. I would like to have the choice of having a water meter installed and paying a private company to haul trash, but no, the only choice I have is whether to keep the house or not.

[Errogie]

There was a lot of understandable bad feeling about being made guinea pigs for the poll tax during its short lived experiment but it has to be said that it was a lot fairer than taxing bricks and mortar which don't make direct use of Council services.

If it's going to be changed I would back a local income tax collected by the Inland Revenue which is already there doing that rather than a whole Council department running round valueing houses and duplicating the collection process. I think about 50% of Council revenue comes from their tax raising powers the remainder from central government but the Councillors understandably want to hang on to that part.

There is no love lost between central and local government but this duplication of money raising and collection is just plain daft!