Council Tax - now Sky-way Robbery

spaman · 29-10-2006, 07:46 AM

People who live in areas with good schools, clean streets and low crime rates face huge increases in their council tax bills. Click

Quote:

The new system of calculating bills in England is based on a scheme being tested in Northern Ireland. The present banding system would be scrapped and replaced by an annual bill levied at 0.78 per cent of the value of each property, which would push up the average bill in England from £1,056 to £1,492 under present calculations.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Caroline Spelman

“There is growing alarm about the Labour Government’s use of Big Brother computers to hike taxes.

“First, they want to log and record every feature of your home, from double glazing to number of bedrooms. Next, they want clipboard-wielding bureaucrats to have the right to inspect your home.

“Now, Labour intends to tax you not just for every home improvement, but also the neighbourhood you live in.

“This is the hallmark of an oppressive and greedy government, finding ever more stealthy ways to tax working families and pensioners and trampling over privacy when it suits them.”

These suppressive measures could be ready shortly after December.... but doesn't this really sum up labour - THIEVING INTRUSIVE B******

They have taken tax and spend to new levels

:twisted:

Biscuitman · 29-10-2006, 09:31 AM

In my home town there is a valley with a housing estate on each side. One is a pleasant enough, At least it was last time I was up there 15 years ago), council estate and the other a white collar suburb.

Under these plans, the council eatste residents would pay extra because their view is of a nice esate and the posh folk would pay less because their view is of a council estate and a dripping factory.

Quote:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.../29/ntax29.xml

Council tax to soar 300% for homes in nice areas
By Patrick Hennessy, Adam Lusher and Tom Harper, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:09am BST 29/10/2006

People who live in areas with good schools, clean streets and low crime rates face huge increases in their council tax bills.

Home owners and tenants will be charged hundreds, and possibly thousands, of pounds extra if they live in a "locality" deemed by ministers and officials to be more desirable than others. The rises could be as great as four times, sending some bills spiralling from £1,000 to £4,000.

Sophisticated computer equipment will be used in the forthcoming revaluation of all 21 million homes in England, and will allow a precise value to be put on each home, not only by its size and features but also its location.

A system described as "intelligent proximity analysis" will allow valuation officials to differentiate between thousands of neighbourhoods and adjust bills accordingly.

The computer model will be able to classify each household on the basis of 287 "lifestyle variables".

For the first time, data provided by the national census, school exam results and crime statistics will be fed into the calculations. Householder income, cohabitation and, in what many MPs will regard as a highly contentious move, ethnicity will be taken into account. The information being used by the Government distinguishes between "farming communities", for example, and "multi-ethnic, crowded flats".

Ministers have divided the country into 10,000 "localities" for revaluation purposes, according to parliamentary answers obtained by the Conservatives.

Phil Woolas, the communities minister, has refused to provide a list of the "localities", which have been given numbers but not names and do not appear to reflect existing local authority boundaries. However, he has admitted that, in different areas, "the market for dwellings may be influenced by levels of crime and deprivation".

The new system of calculating bills in England is based on a scheme being tested in Northern Ireland. The present banding system would be scrapped and replaced by an annual bill levied at 0.78 per cent of the value of each property, which would push up the average bill in England from £1,056 to £1,492 under present calculations.

Households in more affluent areas would, however, face substantially higher increases under the more sophisticated "locality" system.

It has been estimated that if the Ulster system is applied to England, the worst hit households in the country would be in Kensington and Chelsea, where the average bill could go up by almost four times, from £1,222 to £5,872.

Other councils which would have rises of at least £1,000 in average bills include Westminster, Wandsworth, Camden, Hammersmith and Fulham, Richmond upon Thames, Islington, South Bucks, Windsor and Maidenhead, Mole Valley, St Albans, Winchester, Brentwood and Epping Forest.

Last year, The Sunday Telegraph revealed how living next door to a golf course, in a conservation area, having a nice view or a conservatory would leave householders open to higher bills.

The Government confirmed last week another set of revelations by this newspaper: that householders faced fines for refusing to co-operate with inspectors sent round to help value their homes.

Caroline Spelman, the shadow communities and local government secretary, denounced the plans as an "invasive system" that was the “hallmark of an oppressive and greedy government”.

She added: “There is growing alarm about the Labour Government’s use of Big Brother computers to hike taxes.

“First, they want to log and record every feature of your home, from double glazing to number of bedrooms. Next, they want clipboard-wielding bureaucrats to have the right to inspect your home.

“Now, Labour intends to tax you not just for every home improvement, but also the neighbourhood you live in.

“This is the hallmark of an oppressive and greedy government, finding ever more stealthy ways to tax working families and pensioners and trampling over privacy when it suits them.”

The Government will fully implement its revaluation programme after Sir Michael Lyons, who is conducting a review of local government financing for England, publishes his final report, which is expected some time in December.

He has indicated that he is highly likely to recommend a move away from the “banding” system to what he calls “more radical options, including “the use of detailed point valuations for properties”.

In Northern Ireland, where the “intelligent proximity analysis” model is being tested, householders say that they feel increasingly bewildered and angry.

Michael Kelly, 64, has been left perplexed, struggling to comprehend the estimate he received for his 2007-8 rates.

“I’m currently paying just over £1,000, but in 2007-8 my bill is going to go up to nearly £4,000,” said Mr Kelly. “I get by on a civil service pension of £100 a week – how am I supposed to afford it?”

The only explanation he can think of relates to the computer and its failure to appreciate the difference between him and his former neighbour in Myrtlefield Park, Belfast. Mr Kelly, a retired civil servant, bought his Victorian semi back in 1983 for less than £50,000.

But his next-door neighbour spent thousands of pounds on a new roof, kitchen, bathroom and plumbing system, selling the house last year for £550,000.

Mr Kelly is now less than delighted, because he thinks the sale allowed the computer-assisted officials to value every house on the street at more than half a million pounds.

“I would be lucky to get £300,000 for my house,” he said. “It’s in the same state it was in 1983. Now, because of this crazy system, I may have to sell up and leave. It is a disgrace.”

mkpdavies · 29-10-2006, 11:29 AM

No one is coming in my house to evaluate the work I have done to make it worth more.

No one.

I hope you guys will remember me when they put me in prison and fight for my release.

Anthony Butcher · 29-10-2006, 11:49 AM

What's most annoying is that the scheme isn't promoted on the basis that "we are desperate for cash to improve the local schools", it is simply because they want more money and have found a new way of getting it.

There is no core need for raising the taxes, which as you say makes this nothing less than theft by the people in power.

Biscuitman · 29-10-2006, 11:55 AM

Quote:

No one is coming in my house to evaluate the work I have done to make it worth more.

£1,000 fine and £200 a day.

brian pearson · 29-10-2006, 11:59 AM

So two neighbours with the same number of people living in the same size house, using the same local services could end up paying very different council tax bills. The householder who invests time and money into his property will pay more than his neighbour with a Cortina on bricks and a dead alsation in his overgrown grass.

Funny how most people now yearn after the poll tax. The fairest and least complicated way of funding local services. Of course that was defeated largley by the refusal to pay, and the odd riot ! Wonder how the government will react if all the people who I speak who say they will refuse to co-operate, carry it through ?

Biscuitman · 29-10-2006, 12:11 PM

The poll tax was fair.

I used to go out with a girl who lived at home with two siblings and her parents - there were five wages going into their house - yet they paid the same rates as the retired couple next door.

The only problem with the Poll Tax was that it allowed, mainly, Labour councils to jack up their tax take and the poll tax itself, not their excess spending/wastage that got the blame.

C_steam · 29-10-2006, 12:43 PM

Brilliant. we are now seeing the next stage, ghettoisation.

Biscuitman · 29-10-2006, 01:00 PM

I remeber Hartlepool telling me not to mention Council Tax if I spoke in their town as 40% didnt pay it.

Is that number right Marra?

brian pearson · 29-10-2006, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mkpdavies

No one is coming in my house to evaluate the work I have done to make it worth more.

No one.

I hope you guys will remember me when they put me in prison and fight for my release.

I'd love to fight for your release but I'll be too busy trying to get to next level tombraider or watching UK Gold in the next cell.
They can take their clipboards (probably have palm devices) and their digital cameras and shove em !

29-10-2006, 11:29 AM	#3 (permalink)
mkpdavies Uber Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Woking Posts: 30,604	No one is coming in my house to evaluate the work I have done to make it worth more. No one. I hope you guys will remember me when they put me in prison and fight for my release. __________________ http://brits4ronpaul.blogspot.com/ http://wokinglibertarians.blogspot.com/ http://lpuk.org My ignore list Labour, Blue Labour, Lib Dems

29-10-2006, 12:11 PM	#7 (permalink)
Biscuitman Uber Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Reading Posts: 3,485	The poll tax was fair. I used to go out with a girl who lived at home with two siblings and her parents - there were five wages going into their house - yet they paid the same rates as the retired couple next door. The only problem with the Poll Tax was that it allowed, mainly, Labour councils to jack up their tax take and the poll tax itself, not their excess spending/wastage that got the blame. __________________ IF THE EU WAS THE ANSWER, IT MUST HAVE BEEN A STUPID QUESTION!

29-10-2006, 01:00 PM	#9 (permalink)
Biscuitman Uber Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Reading Posts: 3,485	I remeber Hartlepool telling me not to mention Council Tax if I spoke in their town as 40% didnt pay it. Is that number right Marra? __________________ IF THE EU WAS THE ANSWER, IT MUST HAVE BEEN A STUPID QUESTION!

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29-10-2006, 11:49 AM	#4 (permalink)
Anthony Butcher Administrator Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Long Ashton, Bristol Posts: 9,681 Party: None	What's most annoying is that the scheme isn't promoted on the basis that "we are desperate for cash to improve the local schools", it is simply because they want more money and have found a new way of getting it. There is no core need for raising the taxes, which as you say makes this nothing less than theft by the people in power.

29-10-2006, 11:59 AM	#6 (permalink)
brian pearson Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: nottinghanshire Posts: 588	So two neighbours with the same number of people living in the same size house, using the same local services could end up paying very different council tax bills. The householder who invests time and money into his property will pay more than his neighbour with a Cortina on bricks and a dead alsation in his overgrown grass. Funny how most people now yearn after the poll tax. The fairest and least complicated way of funding local services. Of course that was defeated largley by the refusal to pay, and the odd riot ! Wonder how the government will react if all the people who I speak who say they will refuse to co-operate, carry it through ?

29-10-2006, 12:43 PM	#8 (permalink)
C_steam Super Moderator Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Anwhere far away from the cabalistas Posts: 7,431	Brilliant. we are now seeing the next stage, ghettoisation.