Council Tax to Soar in April Whats Your Thoughts
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Almost every council in England is planning to hike council tax bills by the maximum amount in April, in fresh misery for cash-strapped households
Analysis by The Mirror of local authority budgets found the vast majority were planning to increase bills by 4.99% on April 1 - the highest allowed without a referendum - as they struggle to balance the books. It means people living in Band D properties face an average hike of £103 to their annual bill, which has already been pushed above £2,000 in many areas.
Mine is so expensive as it is , going to be difficult if it goes up much more , what’s your thoughts ?
I wouldn’t mind so much if it seemed we were getting value for money. Things seem to be a lot worse yet are costing more? I know my local council is one of the worst in the country for spending on themselves so not feeling great about the price hike
Just had my water bill as well gone up ridiculous amount 12%! Can't get it cheaper on meter as more people in house than bedrooms but its just silly now - goodness knows what my council tax will be....
2022 - £700.20
2023 - £786.39
2024 - £889.40
They can't take anymore than we have.So guess they'll be opening debtors prisons soon.All very Dickensian.
Ours is approx £2,282 a year. It’s beyond a joke! It’s hard to see where our hard earned cash is being spent where I live.
My council made ridiculously investments in retail property when surely they knew the high street was dying. They borrowed the money when interest rates were low and of course they are higher now and it was property like the large Wilko retail premises which is now empty so they aren't getting any rent. Our council is Liberal Democrat, I think the council that wasted £1.2 billion on a solar farm was tory but the largest number of councils facing bankruptcy are labour. There are some councils not in debt that have balanced the books though but they seem like the minority.
The reason councils are putting up costs is because they are mostly servicing large debts and that is because the main government is not helping as much because they are servicing large debts too. We are becoming a poorer nation day by day and the main government is still borrowing and probably local councils will probably borrow more money because of their financial shortfall in addition to raising council tax.
I think one council has debt 88x its income, work out what your debt would be if you owed 88x your yearly income, it would probably be into the millions.
It’s just another increase of our monthly outgoings which is quite high in band e council tax. On the brighter side at least energy will be a little less, currently £300+ per month.
It's totally mad. I really do not know what the
council/government are thinking !. Where we live we get our bins emptied once a week that's it. We live in a village no street lights etc, I understand it pays for more than this kind of thing, but it's getting totally out of hand
Yeah charge more while service's are still being cut, just about sums this country up
Our council are bankrupt and now they want to cut our refuge collection to fortnightly 
Not happy. We've already had a hike this year. The Cost of Living has already affected us and one could argue that it's not value for money.
Bailing out councils who spend other peoples money, sometimes extravagantly on stupid money wasting ideas or personal would likes!
I appreciate that they include a supposed breakdown of were the money goes to, but I really don't think they supply the truth. I am fed up of bills rising but our actual services don't change or decline.
I wouldn't mind if we were getting something in return for it. We have nothing for it. Our council are now in talks about declaring themselves bankrupt because of overspending. So they are having to grab what they can from wherever they like. It seems the middle working class are always hit the hardest. 
Why can't the council's do what public companies do and reduce the amount of staff alot of them don't do anything in council offices and county hall's
stephenjgard I worked for a local authority for up to 33 years and it's true that there are many hiding in their jobs for most of their career.... particularly "managers". There are also a lot who work very hard and care but they burn out as they're doing the work of the wasters too. They wouldn't get away with it in the private industry.
They come to us for money they need but I have no money to give them so where do I go to find this money
Council grants from the Government have been cut to the bone yet they make such poor decisions too. Daft schemes left right & centre .. literally. I'd like to contribute by taking a few buckets of tarmac and fill some of those shocking pot holes everywhere.
I think it's disgusting.Michael Give has agreed for £100 on each household.I'm already under pressure financially as I'm on a low income.
If council individuals were held accountable for expenditure of public money I am sure the debts wouldn't be as high and the council tax wouldn't need to be increased.
The councils are bankrupt and without more help from the Government they have to get income from somewhere before even more services are cut. Essentially the current system is broken
They need to update the band system. The government need to help people more because everyone's wages etc will be to pay the household bills.
Well they dont spend well dog poop everywhere lights on streets are less most of them are on in afternoon when not needed cleaning is not done properly for 2 years there were no bin bags for recycled stuff then all of a sudden they started giving bin bags streets broken so don't know where are they spending
The south , north divide is shocking a 2 million pound house in parts of London only pay £900 council tax WTF. Tax them more and reduce ours £2700 for a 3 bed semi
caj13465 Better still bring back the rates system, it put much higher taxation on rich people's properties, was super efficient to collect as the tax is on the building itself and would motivate people to sell large single properties and builders to start building smaller homes again. A lot of our housing problems were caused by the abolishment of the rates system.
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