Found an old South Ribble council tax bill for 1997 and discovered that since then inflation has increased by about 45% but council tax has increased by over 100%. A change from £650 to £1350. That means that the people of South Ribble are paying over £400 a year extra for council services in comparison with 1997 as the tax should be about £930 for band C.
Are services that much better. Seven years ago I asked South Ribble to remove a load of furniture and they sent a team who went into the house and did a great job, for a fee. I rang a couple of weeks ago to ask the same and they suggested I carried the stuff outside as their staff aren’t insured or get a skip. Might end up a hospital job, the settee is a bit heavy.
Labour promised fairness and progressive taxes yet Council tax is neither fair nor progressive and they have systematically increased it to keep the headline progressive income tax level low. Not to mention increasing National Insurance, not increasing tax thresholds and removing the 10p tax band.
Today the Coalition is about to start cutting our cloth to match our wealth so it’s unlikely that cuts in Council Tax will be high on their agenda. In Spain government workers have been given a 5% pay cut from June and loss of inflation proofing on pensions to prevent a Greece scenario. There is little use saying it wasn’t my fault I shouldn’t pay, if government workers here accepted a pay cut they could perhaps save jobs.