And next year it will probably get worse so brace yourself.
Yet, the services provided get worse and more limited every year. Source: Lewisham resident. I’ve taken to hauling stuff that’s been flytipped on my street to the dump myself, because reporting it results in nothing happening half the time. Oh, wait, they put a sign up….
Yeah Council Tax seems to be going up at pretty fast rate, mine is closer to £3k than £2k…..
Unfortunately, Council Tax only ever seems to be going up and not down, so it doesn’t look like it will get better ever.
Got our breakdown for the year yesterday. Explanation letter went something like “yes, we sympathise with so many people in the borough struggling with the cost of living, trying their best to make ends meet, living hand to mouth, but we’re going to put up their council tax by 5.7% anyway”.
Any transparency on where and how the money is being spent? I wouldn’t mind increases so much if I knew it was being spent properly, but I highly doubt that it is.
Sadiqs portion raise was more than double inflation rate this year. Totally unacceptable
The writing was on the wall when the tories started slashing funding for local councils while increasing their responsibilities.
In Hackney something like 40% of the council budget goes to donation to the poors, housing for the homeless, fighting for divesity and antiracism
Potholes are low prio on that list.
They seem to plan to plant more trees, so silver lining
Ours has gone up from 120 to 150 and that’s with the single occupant discount.
My friend’s is 260 per month.
While it is obviously annoying, and genuinely hard for many people, to have to pay more council tax, the fact is that is does not come close to covering all expenses that local authorities have, and a significant portion of their income comes from central government grants. Since 2010, Conservative government have cut this considerably.
> These grants were cut by 40% in real terms between 2009/10 and 2019/20, from £46.5bn to £28.0bn (2023/24 prices)
The things local councils *have* to spend money on – such as childrens’ and adults’ social care, statutory homelessness – have massively increased in cost and massively increased in burden, as an ageing population and central government policies have increased the number of people those services need to pay for.
Councils around the country are close to going bust (some have already, including Croydon) because of these things. Yes there is mismanagement, and yes its shit that the public realm has suffered – but ultimately, if we want these things to be better, we need to pay a lot more for them (whether out of council tax or from central government via other forms of tax, or potentially other or new forms of local taxation)
Council Tax is also pretty low by international standards, as a way of raising local income based on property values.
The highest amount of council tax *anyone* will pay in London next year is £4,826.94 for the highest band in Kingston. That will be for houses worth millions, potentially even tens of millions of pounds – the most they have to pay is £400 a month.
In the US, the equivalent property taxes are just a % of a property’s assessed value, and vary from state to state, city to city. In New York, its about 1%, so someone living in a $1m home would pay $10,000 a year – a rate 2.5x higher than their counterpart in Kingston (let alone what people are paying in cheaper London Boroughs).
Our system in crazily unprogressive meaning that billionaires owning huge mansions in London pay barely more than people renting a room in a flat in Camberwell. Having better property taxes would create better public services, and it would also have a dampening effect on house prices – demand would reduce and prices would follow if you knew that higher prices would mean significantly more monthly expenditure for a purchase.
I’m rlly scared for my future as a young person tbh. The only good jobs seem to be in London, but the housing prices are so high. I’ll probs have to leave the county, which I don’t really want to do.
Local councils need to be abolished. Why on earth do we franchise the management of local services based on arbitrary borders and postcodes? It’s a terrible way to manage central services and supply chains.
Wandsworth is the place to be
Haringey is usually in the top three most expensive. Been over £2000 for years.
You’ve got councils effective going bankrupt on an alarming rate, there is certainly a lot of wastage in councils but this is what years of cuts from central government has done, and that shortfall is being forced on to residents, all the while the essentials for a nice area are being cut and not maintained and subsequently sold off (and you can guess who benefits from those sell-offs too). Just got to hope that things change after the next election because it’s a grim future right now.
Do we still pay that extra bit that was brought in to pay for olympics for 5 years?
After the 5 years was over and the Olympics reason was gone, they decided to just keep charging the money anyway, and used the money for some other random London stuff.
I think we’re still paying that extra charge?
£300 a month for my partner. That’s 10% of their earnings on council tax. They would love it to be as low as £2,000. Every year they pay more for less services and it always increases by more than any pay increases. It’s really tricky to see how that’s sustainable.
Anyone aware of the reasons why Westminster council gets away with paying one of the lower end of the taxes? Aren’t people there relatively more affluent than other councils in which case they should pay a greater amount?
Currently paying £3,200 where I live. £320/month. Up by 6% since last year.
For context it’s a 2-bed flat.
POLL TAX by stealth 30 years later
People aren’t saying it loud enough but councils seem to prioritize the likes of community projects and net zero targets over core services
Mine is £2300 for a three bed mid. It’s a joke
The main issue is that councils are now often paying >50% on unavoidable, statutory costs like social care support and housing support. Most people don’t see these elements, so the public-facing stuff gets cut. Also there’s the TfL precept which other councils don’t have.
Local government finance is a disaster right now
Clamp down on council tax fees- should be abolish
Rural Dorset, bins collected every other week, no pavements, no street lights, no services within 7 miles of me and potholes you can lose a child in.
£3k council tax.
I live in Hampshire and pay a bit over £3200 a year
London councils had their central government funding cut by 63% in ten years by austerity. Now we have the cost of living crisis.
The government is effectively passing on tax increases to London council tax payers.
2207 in Havering for band D. I’ve got to be honest, but with both my kids schools massively underfunded and asking for handouts, libraries almost permanently closed , parks in a state (toilet facilities are disgusting or permanently locked, tennis courts have a new pay meter lock on the door), it really does not feel like good value
Wait… Mine is over 2000 a year and I’m not even in London.
Yup. Paying so much more than last year.
I wouldn’t mind if the money was managed properly.
The services for the vulnerable, the upkeep of the environment, bin collection are all messed up in our borough.
It’s seems the money is being spent on the council people themselves.
30 comments
And next year it will probably get worse so brace yourself.
Yet, the services provided get worse and more limited every year. Source: Lewisham resident. I’ve taken to hauling stuff that’s been flytipped on my street to the dump myself, because reporting it results in nothing happening half the time. Oh, wait, they put a sign up….
Yeah Council Tax seems to be going up at pretty fast rate, mine is closer to £3k than £2k…..
Unfortunately, Council Tax only ever seems to be going up and not down, so it doesn’t look like it will get better ever.
Got our breakdown for the year yesterday. Explanation letter went something like “yes, we sympathise with so many people in the borough struggling with the cost of living, trying their best to make ends meet, living hand to mouth, but we’re going to put up their council tax by 5.7% anyway”.
Any transparency on where and how the money is being spent? I wouldn’t mind increases so much if I knew it was being spent properly, but I highly doubt that it is.
Sadiqs portion raise was more than double inflation rate this year. Totally unacceptable
The writing was on the wall when the tories started slashing funding for local councils while increasing their responsibilities.
In Hackney something like 40% of the council budget goes to donation to the poors, housing for the homeless, fighting for divesity and antiracism
Potholes are low prio on that list.
They seem to plan to plant more trees, so silver lining
Ours has gone up from 120 to 150 and that’s with the single occupant discount.
My friend’s is 260 per month.
While it is obviously annoying, and genuinely hard for many people, to have to pay more council tax, the fact is that is does not come close to covering all expenses that local authorities have, and a significant portion of their income comes from central government grants. Since 2010, Conservative government have cut this considerably.
Look at the chart on this report: https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/local-government-funding-england
> These grants were cut by 40% in real terms between 2009/10 and 2019/20, from £46.5bn to £28.0bn (2023/24 prices)
The things local councils *have* to spend money on – such as childrens’ and adults’ social care, statutory homelessness – have massively increased in cost and massively increased in burden, as an ageing population and central government policies have increased the number of people those services need to pay for.
Councils around the country are close to going bust (some have already, including Croydon) because of these things. Yes there is mismanagement, and yes its shit that the public realm has suffered – but ultimately, if we want these things to be better, we need to pay a lot more for them (whether out of council tax or from central government via other forms of tax, or potentially other or new forms of local taxation)
Council Tax is also pretty low by international standards, as a way of raising local income based on property values.
The highest amount of council tax *anyone* will pay in London next year is £4,826.94 for the highest band in Kingston. That will be for houses worth millions, potentially even tens of millions of pounds – the most they have to pay is £400 a month.
In the US, the equivalent property taxes are just a % of a property’s assessed value, and vary from state to state, city to city. In New York, its about 1%, so someone living in a $1m home would pay $10,000 a year – a rate 2.5x higher than their counterpart in Kingston (let alone what people are paying in cheaper London Boroughs).
Our system in crazily unprogressive meaning that billionaires owning huge mansions in London pay barely more than people renting a room in a flat in Camberwell. Having better property taxes would create better public services, and it would also have a dampening effect on house prices – demand would reduce and prices would follow if you knew that higher prices would mean significantly more monthly expenditure for a purchase.
I’m rlly scared for my future as a young person tbh. The only good jobs seem to be in London, but the housing prices are so high. I’ll probs have to leave the county, which I don’t really want to do.
Local councils need to be abolished. Why on earth do we franchise the management of local services based on arbitrary borders and postcodes? It’s a terrible way to manage central services and supply chains.
Wandsworth is the place to be
Haringey is usually in the top three most expensive. Been over £2000 for years.
You’ve got councils effective going bankrupt on an alarming rate, there is certainly a lot of wastage in councils but this is what years of cuts from central government has done, and that shortfall is being forced on to residents, all the while the essentials for a nice area are being cut and not maintained and subsequently sold off (and you can guess who benefits from those sell-offs too). Just got to hope that things change after the next election because it’s a grim future right now.
Do we still pay that extra bit that was brought in to pay for olympics for 5 years?
After the 5 years was over and the Olympics reason was gone, they decided to just keep charging the money anyway, and used the money for some other random London stuff.
I think we’re still paying that extra charge?
£300 a month for my partner. That’s 10% of their earnings on council tax. They would love it to be as low as £2,000. Every year they pay more for less services and it always increases by more than any pay increases. It’s really tricky to see how that’s sustainable.
Anyone aware of the reasons why Westminster council gets away with paying one of the lower end of the taxes? Aren’t people there relatively more affluent than other councils in which case they should pay a greater amount?
Currently paying £3,200 where I live. £320/month. Up by 6% since last year.
For context it’s a 2-bed flat.
POLL TAX by stealth 30 years later
People aren’t saying it loud enough but councils seem to prioritize the likes of community projects and net zero targets over core services
Mine is £2300 for a three bed mid. It’s a joke
The main issue is that councils are now often paying >50% on unavoidable, statutory costs like social care support and housing support. Most people don’t see these elements, so the public-facing stuff gets cut. Also there’s the TfL precept which other councils don’t have.
Local government finance is a disaster right now
Clamp down on council tax fees- should be abolish
Rural Dorset, bins collected every other week, no pavements, no street lights, no services within 7 miles of me and potholes you can lose a child in.
£3k council tax.
I live in Hampshire and pay a bit over £3200 a year
London councils had their central government funding cut by 63% in ten years by austerity. Now we have the cost of living crisis.
The government is effectively passing on tax increases to London council tax payers.
https://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/our-key-themes/local-government-finance/london%E2%80%99s-local-services-investing-future/decade-austerity
2207 in Havering for band D. I’ve got to be honest, but with both my kids schools massively underfunded and asking for handouts, libraries almost permanently closed , parks in a state (toilet facilities are disgusting or permanently locked, tennis courts have a new pay meter lock on the door), it really does not feel like good value
Wait… Mine is over 2000 a year and I’m not even in London.
Yup. Paying so much more than last year.
I wouldn’t mind if the money was managed properly.
The services for the vulnerable, the upkeep of the environment, bin collection are all messed up in our borough.
It’s seems the money is being spent on the council people themselves.