Council Tax Has Risen by Almost 80% in the Last 30 Years
In the News
Council tax has increased by 79% in real terms on average since it was introduced 30 years ago, according to new figures.
The TaxPayers' Alliance says a typical band D property occupier must now pay £2,065 compared to £568 in 1993-94.
Its research shows there have been 9,462 individual council tax increases, compared to only 404 freezes and 363 cuts, while 57% of authorities have never reduced the charge.
The Local Government Association (LGA) pointed out that Whitehall has relied on councils raising their own taxes to fund their spending on rising demand for services.
A spokesman for the LGA said: 'In recent years, the Government has relied on council tax raising powers to increase councils’ core spending power.
'Faced with the increased cost of providing local services and rising demand for support, councils have faced the tough choice about whether to increase bills to bring in desperately needed funding to protect services at the same time as being acutely aware of the significant burden that could place on some households.
Wow that’s a lot. We have all had to rethink and tighten our belts in the last few years haven’t we.
Many councils are paying more on interest payments than services. We have lost a huge amount of industry which is wealth creating and made huge payments to the EU as well as run a significant trading deficit with them. We are a much poorer country and have to face the reality of being poorer rather than think we can maintain the same level of services. Politicians need to focus on the economy and restoring a trading surplus and we need to curb the activity of people who keep importing so many products and take foreign holidays. So the burden of tax should fall more on products and holidays etc rather than council tax which everyone pays to the same level even if they are economically responsible and not causing huge levels of debt. We need to focus taxation to the benefit of the economy and punish more the activity of those who are most damaging to the economy.
There isn't much that can be done about it but the public sector often pays itself far too much with very generous pensions. I feel this is completely unfair and part of the reason why councils have so much debt. Public sector pay should be linked to private pay and conditions. A huge number of people in the private sector have taken wage hits but the public sector for mid to high level positions have kept paying themselves more.
It's a bit like the TV license where a significant chunk of it is paying for their pension shortfall rather than actually paying for tv productions.
BonzoBanana I worked in the public sector for 28.5 years (retired last year) and we were on very rigid pay scales and pay in equivalent roles in the private sector was higher and they would have additional “perks” - company cars or huge car allowance, private healthcare - I had colleagues who were younger with less experience who moved to private sector and would start on more than I was on doing the same role.
There are no final salary pension schemes now, they are average salary so not what they were, my pension is about 50% of what my take home pay was.
pwclayton Lots of people in the private sector are on very low wages as many firms are in a distressed financial state and in survival mode others are doing well. My point is like for like roles, clerical, administration etc are higher paid in the public sector nowadays with better pensions. The average wage between the public sector and private sector isn't that far apart and yet the private sector allows for extremely high wages sometimes millions for certain roles which would have no equivalent in the public sector. However its really about different firms. The private sector has a greater wage range as would be expected from companies having to compete with each other and create a margin for themselves. There is no guaranteed income for them.
However my point is more about the higher middle income and high income public sector employees who have excessive wages and pensions. It's the extreme range of wages in the public sector, politicians, civil servants, higher council employees. Freedom of information has shown many of these people are on wages over £200k with fantastic pensions a few well over that too, one I think was reported to be over £600k. I honestly can't accept such huge wage ranges. I just don't believe these people merit these high amounts.
Someone entering the job as a new employee maybe gets £20k a year and if they manage to reach the very top £200k, to me that range is excessive and should be more like £20k to £80k. These wage ranges are excessive and unfair when people are forced to pay them through taxation. If these people really are amazing then they need to be in the private sector where their work could create wealth for our communities and create jobs.
A friend who works for the council in my area, says the council is always inventing jobs to squander taxpayers money and that the newcomers/employees earns more than she does. I live in Band D and I keep on getting non stop leaflets about closures for XYZ due to lack of funding.
Council tax needs to change in my opinion to make sure everyone who lives and uses an area on a frequent basis pay into its up keep. Between holiday homes and students councils lose out on alot of money whilst people are still using local facilities.
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