Valuation bands are too high across the country but in particular the council tax that homeowners over the age of [say] 60-65 are required to find is a disgrace and impoverishes them to the point of destitution.
In the very near future [a couple of years or more now] there will be a large number of this age group wanting to move/downsize and live in a semblence of respectful retirement however the regular bills they will face paying will provide such a stressful existence many will just die,frightened,scared and poor.
Whoever forms the next government has to get a grip on this and bring revolutionary thinking to this massive and real problem.I would be very interested to know what David C has to say on this and his ability to deal with it from a moral and humane viewpoint.

Excellent idea, on one condition: only council tax payers get to vote.

(That is to say, nobody whose tax is paid for them by the Social)

Something else to consider is that Central Government will normally require more statutory duties to be performed for less money each year.

Is it because most local Councillors are Conservative that you are trying to hide the fact that they are not capable of actually running the organisations they are so keen to grab power in?

Thanks Alan

If you don’t do as we say, we will withold our Funding from you.

The Council will then need to go to the electorate with a far higher increase in Council tax to raise more revenue to cover the Governments share/grant which is being witheld, and thus become unpopular and get voted out.

In any other situation this would be blackmail.

In addition if the Council were to raise its own funds by increasing Council tax above the suggested Governments limit, it would get Find by the Government.

They call it Democracy, you probably have a better word for it.

Which will be futile unless you restrict the right to vote in the referendum to those who actually pay the council tax.

Why would anybody invest in shares, the profits on which are heavily taxed and then pay CGT when he sells if he can make tax free capital gains through home-ownership? Well, the answer is they don’t, which is why we have house price bubbles and chronic under-saving and under-investment in the UK.

Robert, if three adults share a house and next door one adult lives alone, do the three adults ‘use’ three times as much streetlighting? Does their bin need to be emptied three times a week? Don’t they pay three times as much income tax and VAT as the single person?

Remember always that council tax only covers about a quarter of council spending, the bulk is out of redistributed income tax etc. If we have, allegedly a housing shortgage in this country and apparently no new houses may be built, then isn’t it better if people use available houses more efficiently?

It seems typical of today’s council that I, a small business owner, get a mailing with business tips from the commercial branch of Wealden District Council.

Now I didn’t canvass their opinion when I started here, nor when I expanded, or even when I bought the company.

Why do they think I need this guff – especially when Business Link do exactly the same, for free, or I can join one (or all) of the many business clubs locally.

Councils – and many other public bodies – need to rein in and remember what their core purpose is, excel at that first then maybe look at expanding.

As I also live within the council’s border I know they can improve in so many areas, but does anything look like changing?