O/T Community Charge.

Its a political move to push their tax hike locally - its easy then for people to blame the incompetence of local government, etc, etc, blah, blah, rather than the cynical way the Tories are passing the buck.

 

Most local authorities have had funding by 50 percent since 2010. That’s why CT has increased.

 

the Tories brought it in a few years ago once they started slashing social funding . As for the police , a raise of 7.6% on my bill while at the same time our village police station has been shut down and sold off , soon to be a brand new Indian restaurant . It must be part of the conservative s economic/jobs miracle they keep banging on about .

 

I think would appear that the Local authorities are misleading charge payers with the claim that the Adult Social Care precept has gone up by 3%. Please compare this with your bill,for 2017/18. Last year the amount I paid in Oxfordshire for Adult Social Care was c. £76. This year I am Paying c. £126. That is an increase of over 60%. I have pointed this out to the leader of Oxfordshire CC but have yet to receive a reply.

However, after a period when the coalition government restricted Council Tax increases to 2% the last 2 Conservative administrations have kept income tax down by cutting support to local government but allowing then to put up council tax more , particularly for Adult Social Care where successive governments have failed to come up with a solution to this crisis. In addition to this those of you who have elderly parents in residential care are also paying a top up. Together with my brother and sister, we pay a top up of over £50 per week for our mother's care costs.

 

The Community charge was the "poll tax". Which was replaced by the council tax in 1992 by Ken Clark chancellor in John Major's government. At that time they kept those cost of The council tax down by putting up VAT to 15% and increasing dIrect government support to local authorities.

 

My house was put in Band D when Council Tax was introduced but a few years ago, after speaking to neighbours in similar houses in Band C, I went through the appeal process and got it reduced to Band C. Best thing was, it was automatically backdated and I picked up an extra couple of grand refund thanks to the Valuation Agency. No thanks to Leeds Council.
It's worth looking at - I think Money Saving Expert has advice on how to do it.

 

Be careful with this, you can get the whole street’s put up which I imagine wouldn’t make you very popular!

 

Yes, I have read of an example of that happening.

 

Certainly do your research, but still do it, unless you're happy being the mug in your street who's paying more than everybody else.