Covid: What is council tax and should it go up in the pandemic?

[Borchester]

Thanks for the history lesson. But I didn't say Thatcher started the practice. She used the practice.  The fact remains it's a very good tactic, to let those that need the money, to in many cases fulfil national responsibilities. Take responsibility for collecting it thereby removing the need for more taxation by the national government.
Done in the name of small government. It's smoke and mirrors, nothing else. Never the less it is extremely good at diverting attention and with it any blame for the need for funds to keep the wheels turning.

Not really.

By the late 1980s Maggie had fettled the Argies, sorted out the miners and run out of things to do. So she started on the rates, which were a cack handed tax but something we were all familiar with and thus inclined to accept. But she got the wind up her tail and introduced the Poll tax. This was a reasonable tax based on the idea that those who cost the most should pay the most. Unfortunately for such a shrewd politician she had forgotten the basic tenet of tax gathering which is the British public unshakable belief that someone else should pay.

This led to that Jon Major doing PM impersonations and having fantasies about nuns on bikes. Apparently he is quite a lively soul and had he got stuck in would have probably won in 1997. But he was such a dull bugger in public that he didn't.

[Good old]

No, it wasn't.


Since about 1180 in England, and whenever Stephen and Maud settled their punch up in the Welsh Marches in Wales too registered residents in a Hereditament have been required to pay amercements to the shire reeve for the privilege of services rendered.

Thanks for the history lesson. But I didn't say Thatcher started the practice. She used the practice.  The fact remains it's a very good tactic, to let those that need the money, to in many cases fulfil national responsibilities. Take responsibility for collecting it thereby removing the need for more taxation by the national government.
Done in the name of small government. It's smoke and mirrors, nothing else. Never the less it is extremely good at diverting attention and with it any blame for the need for funds to keep the wheels turning.

[johnofgwent]

It was a Tory tactic under Thatcher

No, it wasn't.


Since about 1180 in England, and whenever Stephen and Maud settled their punch up in the Welsh Marches in Wales too registered residents in a Hereditament have been required to pay amercements to the shire reeve for the privilege of services rendered.


Now, to be fair, in the early days, these were payments to the local warlord for upkeep of his mercenary army. And other options were available. The records from the 13th Century unearthed by Bernard Knight in his research into Exeter for his fictional Crowner John novels for example show that some 70-80% of the population chose to live in, or near, the castle ward of the town, and pay an amercement to do so, in order to receive such protection as the castle's mercenary forces were able to give against marauders


The remaining population who were either to poor, too stupid or too "independent" to pay were free to set up such homesteads as they wished between the end of the castle ward and the banks of the River Exe. On multiple occasions these people provided a most useful service to the castle, for when the marauders came, and come they did, the clashing of swords, the anger if battle, the screams of the women and the smoke rushing from the burning hovels which served as a funeral pyre for the children all served to we'll alert the castle that the raiders were back and the mercenaries hired by the lord now had to go earn their keep and / or die in the process


The property tax on Hereditaments continued until Maggie Thatcher decided to replace RATES with a Poll Tax. The poll tax was a fundamental change to society. Everyone was suddenly forced to have a bank account from which to pay it, and the tax was very popular in places like Westminster where high occupancy rates per square foot of land meant the year before its abolition it was less than 140 a head, while out in the sticks it was already £250 a head, double the old rates bill for the average married couple. Not that they were the target of the Tory vote of course, had they been, the bill would have been lower.


Following mass rioting and the burning of Porsches in Trafalgar Square, the poll tax was abandoned and local government funding met 80% from central government grant and 20% from locally imposed council tax. Our first council tax bill was £310 a considerable saving from the previously notified £270 each.


This year it will be £1550. A 5% rise on last year, for no obvious reason

[Good old]

Quite, SW.
I'm already paying £2,590 pa in Council Tax, and for that I get pot holes and my bin emptied. I even have to pay extra for a green garden waste bin.
Not value for money and simply a way of the government masking income tax.

It was a Tory tactic under Thatcher, and a Tory tactic , in recent years,  Keep income ,and corporate tax down, cut support to local councils,  and leave the taxing to those local councils. It then becomes a case of go without, or go broke, for the councils. It applies to all councils. Many might not have gone broke as such, but only because they no longer give a decent service in many vital areas of local services.
It's a simple case of if you want it you pay for it. If you try to supply it for nothing you go broke.  This is nothing more than a case of government , daring any local government to try and go beyond the restrictions put on them by national government cuts to money that would always be needed to maintain many of the responsibilities placed on them.
It would seem it is nothing more than a government saying to local government raise your own money ,so we don't get the flack, or  go without, or even go broke.

[Barry]

Quite, SW.
I'm already paying £2,590 pa in Council Tax, and for that I get pot holes and my bin emptied. I even have to pay extra for a green garden waste bin.
Not value for money and simply a way of the government masking income tax.

[Streetwalker]

It shouldn't be going up at any time .

My mismanaged  council has gone bankrupt with a £60M budget deficit , services cut to the bone and are now selling off any assets , buildings ,green spaces ect .   All maintenance of council properties is on an emergency H&S basis which basically means they will fall into disrepair and a headache for the next bunch of thieves who take over . Its also reported (by the tories ) that Sid Khan wants to increase his take of the council tax for London specific spending . (more cycle lanes on the south circular )

So all in all everyone is skint the pot is empty but we will be asked to find an extra couple of quid due to the incompetence of Labour run Croydon council and Labour run City hall .

Nothing new there then

[GBNews]

Covid: What is council tax and should it go up in the pandemic?

As homes across England face higher council tax bills from April, what is it and should the rise be scrapped?

Source: Covid: What is council tax and should it go up in the pandemic?