Have You Received Your Council Tax Bill

[emmie]

yet. I have and its nearly £100 a month, just what do they do with all the money,

[New Judge]

“So no-one else would willingly pay more for better services?”

I’m already paying more (than I did last year, and the year before that, and the year before that) and my services are no better. On the contrary, they are worse. Local Authorities are not capable of providing “better services”. It’s not what they do. They mainly exist to provide employment for vast numbers of bean counters and scribes who produce nothing of tangible benefit to anybody. Any additional funds they are given will simply be squandered to expand that remit. I’d prefer to keep my own money and secure my own services. At the moment I don’t get to keep my money and I still have to pay for most of my own services (because I’m too “rich” to qualify to have them provided “free”).

[tonyav]

Have You Received Your Council Tax Bill

Yes I have and it's gone up again, I seem to be paying more for less services !.
( I wish my council tax was £100 a month ).

[237SJ]

Our's has been the same for about 3 or 4 years and now it has gone up by £3 per month. I can't complain about that as our Council is very good.

[atalanta]

No, I haven't received my council tax bill yet. I am concerned lest they send it out so late that I have to pay first 2 months contributions in one go. Nor have I seen a policeman round here for years. Nor have the chronic potholes been fixed. Drivers round here park atrociously, but no amount of complaints ever produces results. And they are talking about closing the local tips, making people drive many miles to dispose of stuff. ( I beg their pardon - recycling centres. )

[DTCwordfan]

we could do with some more flytipping sites and lanes to dump crap in - where are you, atlanta......?

[Guilbert53]

>>>> just what do they do with all the money,

Go on your council web site, and look at all the different departments. That will give you some idea of all the different things they have to do.

As an example of one thing they pay for which most people are unaware of. My son has special needs and so could not go to a local school but about 5 miles away.

Because he cannot manage a bus himself the council paid for him to go to school by taxi all his school life (as well as paying for quite a few other special needs children in the borough to go by taxi). Can you imagine how much that cost over his school life.

Another example of costs. My wife works with children with severe special needs. She has to talk to parents, the council, NHS, schools etc to find out what is best for the child and get it organized.

For some children the cost of all this support over a year can be between £20,000 and £30,000. Some is paid by the NHS but most by the council.

There are all sorts of "hidden" things that councils pay for that most of us have no idea about.

[New Judge]

Quite so. But there is no earthly reason why such services should be funded or administered by Local Authorities.

[DocHH]

£225.00 a month after the 25% sole occupancy reduction!

[angie55]

NJ-so please tell us who should pay for those services then? And what should the councils be spending their money on?

[jourdain2]

Ours has gone up to over £1,200 p.a. for a small semi.. We have no bus service, shop etc.. The dustbin men are great (every fortnight) and we have fought hard to keep the travelling library - this will now call once a month instead of once a fortnight. The percentage increase is more than our pension percentage increase.

[tiggerblue10]

Mine is now 117 and that's with a 25% reduction.

[Maydup]

Tiny 2 bed property, council tax up from £134 to £144 per month. grrrr

[emmie]

as i said what do they do with the money,

[New Judge]

“NJ-so please tell us who should pay for those services then? And what should the councils be spending their money on?”

First of all, it’s not their money, it’s our money. Councils don’t have any money of their own; they only have what they appropriate from council taxpayers and what they are provided with by way of government grants.

Services such as those described by Guilbert should be funded directly from central taxation. As I said earlier, 80% of LA funding comes from that source. There is no reason why it should be doled out to an intermediate layer of administration (with all the associated bureaucracy – and costs - involved). Such care is not a local issue. There is no reason why the standards involved should be under the control of local politicians.

Council Tax is an iniquitous tax. It takes no account of ability pay (unless you have an income beneath a very low level) and it is levied equally on millionaires and pensioners. Reducing the responsibilities of LAs and reducing the sums they can raise directly via Council Tax will mean that more services are provided from central taxation and fewer bean counters and scribes will be needed in Town Halls. As unfair as some people believe that central taxation methods are, almost all of them are certainly much fairer than Council Tax.

[angie55]

What a condescending way to talk about people who are only trying to do an honest job. I was one of those people before I retired and I was not a bean counter or scribe. You should be ashamed of yourself.

[pixie374]

Mine's £176. I don't get single occupancy because my daughter is 18.

[New Judge]

I’m not ashamed of holding a view, pixie.

My viewpoint is not directed personally against the people who work for LAs. It is to do with the organisations themselves. There is simply no justification for LAs to have control of many of the things that they do. There is no need for them to be involved with social care, no need for them to administer education (among many other things). In fact, there is very little that needs to be done by LAs, especially as they are controlled by local politicians, many of whom are simply busybodies who enjoy interfering in other people’s lives.

Along with the services themselves there are huge overheads accrued to pay for the bureaucracy involved. If you have been involved with a local authority you must have seen the amount of waste and inefficiency they attract.

If the government is really serious about saving money they could begin by absorbing back into central government control most of the functions currently devolved to local authorities.