Further to the new government being elected and the bombshell budget. The VOA is now investigating properties to establish whether they can increase the banding for council tax. So if you think your band is safe, think again. As well as this councils have been given the go ahead to raise bills by 5% next year. A double raid on those who are often asset rich cash poor.
Whilst the latter is in some news sources, the former is a stealth exercise under the radar.
When I lived in London a few years ago it was clear that re-banding of properties was needed. The original banding levels was allocated in a rush, estate agents guessing house band levels street by street, with little rigour or consistency. Then over the next decades new properties were built and these were given current, not historic, valuations. The result was that a flat could be valued at the same as a large detached house. My own flat has the same banding as large house nearby that was easily worth double. Worse, the development I was on paid for the maintenance of the road, paid for the street lighting and cleaning of that road, had simple waste collection from large bins (much quicker than house by house collections) - so the cost to the local council was much lower per property for these new developments. A re-banding is long overdue.
There are also questions over whether elections due to take place in May will happen for authorities facing the axe in 2027.
A new local income tax under the control of metropolitan and county authorities, capped up to 4p in the pound.
This sounds like a re-badged return to poll tax.
Councils issuing municipal bonds to pay for capital investment,* supported by Municipal ISAs (MISAs) that allow UK pension funds to domestically finance councils’ investments in their own local economies.
That’s one way to fritter away our pension funds
Central government cannot trust local authorities to spend the money they currently have wisely. You want them to be trusted with national taxes too?!
Expect local services will suffer.
Ms Rayner’s speech.
"UK is the most centralised country in Europe, with too many decisions affecting too many people made by too few.
In micromanaging by central Government and short-term sticky-plaster politics, you’ve got a doom loop of real problems going unaddressed in Britain’s regions. And there’s huge potential that’s unrealised. Devolution will no longer be agreed by the whim of a minister in Whitehall. It will now be default in our constitution.
We are moving away from an ad-hoc system and towards a simpler and more ambitious framework for devolution.
We will make it clear which powers go with which type of authority.
We will bring new efficiency and accountability to local and regional government, and we will truly empower the local champions who understand their area, its identity, its strength and how to harness them.”
Labour want control of everything, shows their insecurity.
We seem to have moved on from the headline issue of council tax bands onto devolving powers down to regional levels. Certainly there is no evidence that “Westminster knows best” on all things fiscal, spending and tax raising. From many other threads I’d have thought the public opinion is that Westminster does not know best. And Raynor is correct that many other countries enjoy much greater local responsibility. Much, much greater.
The UK rating system seems to have gone mad since poll tax.
It used to be the same as here didn’t it? based on land valuation.
Many years ago Wollongong council in an act of bastardry (in my opinion) changed our rate calculation so that half was based on the land valuation and half was a the same fee for every property in the council area.
When they changed it they had to receive exactly the same total amount of income because there is a state government cap on council rates. So ratepayers in wealthy suburbs paid less rates and poorer suburbs paid more.
