Council Tax increase 2025

[Panamax]

Never mind the percentages, my Council Tax has come in at just under £5,000

It's paid out of income already taxed at 40% so I need an income of £8,300 just to pay the Council Tax.

In summary, that's £8,300 of income taxed at a 100% rate!

[s1962a]

Panamax said:

Never mind the percentages, my Council Tax has come in at just under £5,000

It's paid out of income already taxed at 40% so I need an income of £8,300 just to pay the Council Tax.

In summary, that's £8,300 of income taxed at a 100% rate!

I've got friends that live in wealthy London boroughs that have ridiculously low council taxes in comparison. Have a look at what Westminster residents pay

https://www.westminster.gov.uk/council-tax/council...

Band D is £973

It's almost like we have to pay for the bad financial decisions of our councils.

[The Leaper]

Just had our notice for 2025/26. Increase of 4.7%. Total for the year £3992.00.

Breakdown:

County Council. 75%
Police: 14%
Local Council: 9%
Parishes: 2%

We see a police car here maybe once a year, roads are swept twice a year, verges never attended to, otherwise cannot see why we pay as much as we do. The notice comes with a local council breakdown of spending. It's interesting that employment costs are not shown.

R.

[Sargeant Orange]

s1962a said:

Panamax said:

Never mind the percentages, my Council Tax has come in at just under £5,000

It's paid out of income already taxed at 40% so I need an income of £8,300 just to pay the Council Tax.

In summary, that's £8,300 of income taxed at a 100% rate!

I've got friends that live in wealthy London boroughs that have ridiculously low council taxes in comparison. Have a look at what Westminster residents pay

https://www.westminster.gov.uk/council-tax/council...

Band D is £973

It's almost like we have to pay for the bad financial decisions of our councils.

Westminster always gets dragged into this argument. Check out the amount they receive in business rate and car parking income - they hardly need to raise any Council tax at all.

[Drumroll]

Panamax said:

Never mind the percentages, my Council Tax has come in at just under £5,000

It's paid out of income already taxed at 40% so I need an income of £8,300 just to pay the Council Tax.

In summary, that's £8,300 of income taxed at a 100% rate!

What do you expect, you live in a big house (by comparison to most)

[markh1973]

nuyorican said:

ChocolateFrog said:

Only around 60% of households pay the full CT. I bet it's way less in some areas.

So is this why no one complains about it? Nearly half the population don't have to pay?

Seems all very mysterious. I want to get to the bottom of it, if there's a way to not have to pay, or pay less, I want to know.

How are you getting from only 60% paying full CT to "nearly half...don't have to pay".

That isn't what that stat is telling you - a large chunk of that 40% not paying full rate will be those living alone (so you should be one of them),

[borcy]

I think ours was a 3% increase, which isn't too bad.

[MDMA .]

Drumroll said:

Panamax said:

Never mind the percentages, my Council Tax has come in at just under £5,000

It's paid out of income already taxed at 40% so I need an income of £8,300 just to pay the Council Tax.

In summary, that's £8,300 of income taxed at a 100% rate!

What do you expect, you live in a big house (by comparison to most)

What has living in a big house got to do with it? You don’t get a better service from the Council if you pay a higher rate. All your bills are higher to match. If anything, paying the higher rate should get you a better service.
Just because someone has done well, why should they be expected to carry on paying more?

[Drumroll]

MDMA . said:

Drumroll said:

Panamax said:

Never mind the percentages, my Council Tax has come in at just under £5,000

It's paid out of income already taxed at 40% so I need an income of £8,300 just to pay the Council Tax.

In summary, that's £8,300 of income taxed at a 100% rate!

What do you expect, you live in a big house (by comparison to most)

What has living in a big house got to do with it? You don’t get a better service from the Council if you pay a higher rate. All your bills are higher to match. If anything, paying the higher rate should get you a better service.
Just because someone has done well, why should they be expected to carry on paying more?

True you don't get a better service. But if you earn more, why shouldn't you contribute more?

[Square Leg]

Drumroll said:

MDMA . said:

Drumroll said:

Panamax said:

Never mind the percentages, my Council Tax has come in at just under £5,000

It's paid out of income already taxed at 40% so I need an income of £8,300 just to pay the Council Tax.

In summary, that's £8,300 of income taxed at a 100% rate!

What do you expect, you live in a big house (by comparison to most)

What has living in a big house got to do with it? You don’t get a better service from the Council if you pay a higher rate. All your bills are higher to match. If anything, paying the higher rate should get you a better service.
Just because someone has done well, why should they be expected to carry on paying more?

True you don't get a better service. But if you earn more, why shouldn't you contribute more?

You’ve already contributed more by way of tax, and as above, paid more CT from already taxed income.
Why should you have to pay *any* more for the same service just because you earn more?

Some weeks, I don’t have to put my bin out to be emptied as it’s not full - the neighbours bin is always out.
I should get a refund for the part of refuse collection I don’t use. Probably.

[Slow.Patrol]

38% gets spent on vulnerable adults
21% on children and safeguarding

Wiltshire

[TeaNoSugar]

Take a look at some other councils. Kirklees (West Yorks) spends about 85% of its entire annual budget just on social services!! How on earth do other departments even function when social services are using up virtually all the funds!

Edit: a quick google bring this up - 82.5%?






Just to add the only reason for picking Kirklees is that there was a council chief on BBC Look North late last year who was trying to highlight the scale of the issue.

Edited by TeaNoSugar on Thursday 13th March 19:06

[Mojooo]

LimaDelta said:

Up 5% to £3,518.75, band F, County Durham. Almost three grand to have our bins collected (I don't mind the £600 for emergency services).

Wait til you get dementia - you will get your money back pretty quickly.

[Drumroll]

Square Leg said:

Drumroll said:

MDMA . said:

Drumroll said:

Panamax said:

Never mind the percentages, my Council Tax has come in at just under £5,000

It's paid out of income already taxed at 40% so I need an income of £8,300 just to pay the Council Tax.

In summary, that's £8,300 of income taxed at a 100% rate!

What do you expect, you live in a big house (by comparison to most)

What has living in a big house got to do with it? You don’t get a better service from the Council if you pay a higher rate. All your bills are higher to match. If anything, paying the higher rate should get you a better service.
Just because someone has done well, why should they be expected to carry on paying more?

True you don't get a better service. But if you earn more, why shouldn't you contribute more?

You’ve already contributed more by way of tax, and as above, paid more CT from already taxed income.
Why should you have to pay *any* more for the same service just because you earn more?

Some weeks, I don’t have to put my bin out to be emptied as it’s not full - the neighbours bin is always out.
I should get a refund for the part of refuse collection I don’t use. Probably.

My own take is that Councils shouldn't be responsible for Social Care, that should be part of the NHS and paid out of general taxation. So we would all pay more tax but would see councils taxes fall.

But I firmly believe if you earn more you should pay more.

[QuartzDad]

Mojooo said:

Wait til you get dementia - you will get your money back pretty quickly.

My mum has paid £200k for her care home so far and is buying an annuity for £350,000. She’ll need to outlive Methuselah to get her council tax back.

[poo at Paul's]

Drumroll said:

MDMA . said:

Drumroll said:

Panamax said:

Never mind the percentages, my Council Tax has come in at just under £5,000

It's paid out of income already taxed at 40% so I need an income of £8,300 just to pay the Council Tax.

In summary, that's £8,300 of income taxed at a 100% rate!

What do you expect, you live in a big house (by comparison to most)

What has living in a big house got to do with it? You don’t get a better service from the Council if you pay a higher rate. All your bills are higher to match. If anything, paying the higher rate should get you a better service.
Just because someone has done well, why should they be expected to carry on paying more?

True you don't get a better service. But if you earn more, why shouldn't you contribute more?

Do you pay more for your baked beans and milk than some unemployed bloke? If not, why not?

[Saleen836]

West Wiltshire here, notice that the police are shutting some stations and merging others for cost cutting, new CT bill arrives and the police section has increased by 5.2%, not seen an officer on foot patrol in a long time and last time I saw a patrol car was almost 2 weeks ago when therer was a fire next door to me

[ATG]

poo at Paul's said:

Do you pay more for your baked beans and milk than some unemployed bloke? If not, why not?

Council tax is not about buying services for your own use. The clue is in the name. It's a tax.

[Roderick Spode]

Saleen836 said:

...new CT bill arrives and the police section has increased by 5.2%...

I completely misread this as "the police station has increased by 5.2% and thought that's mightily efficient and precise building work.

[TheBinarySheep]

Drumroll said:

True you don't get a better service. But if you earn more, why shouldn't you contribute more?

but council tax isn't based on your income. two households, same income, one buys a big house, the other spends on better holidays, the one with the bigger house is penalised for buying a bigger house.