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Wednesday, August 20
Council Tax Survey Isitfair
by
Christine
on Wed 20 Aug 2008 10:27 PM BST
Isitfair
Council Tax Reform
An independent nationwide non party political campaign
___________________________________________________________________________________
Survey of Isitfair Members Michael Boon
As many of you will know, we recently asked our membership to complete a short questionnaire concerning their beliefs with respect to certain aspects of the Council Tax system. This is a brief report on the findings from this survey. A fuller report will eventually be placed on the Isitfair website and will then also be available in hard copy format.
Overall, we received more than 500 usable responses. Although this is about half the number that are normally included in published national opinion polls, detailed analysis of these results has shown that the sample is both large enough and sufficiently representative of the Isitfair membership to be highly significant. The results may not, however, be representative of the population as a whole.
Respondents were asked, in effect, to give their “gut reactions” to five statements. Overall, the results are very clear. By a majority of just over 16 to 1 you said that your Council Tax bills were higher than your heating bills. This was, of course, just before the recent huge rises in gas and electricity prices really began to bite. However, since the government was also concerned about “fuel poverty” before these rises, it would appear that it really ought to be more concerned about “Council Tax poverty” – at least insofar as the Isitfair members are concerned! Unless Isitfair members tend to live in highly banded and well insulated houses, (or only heat a tiny fraction of their living space), this particular result should apply more widely – at least to those parts of the country where the Isitfair membership is highest, (which, as it turns out, are the places where Council Tax bills tend to be significantly higher for a given income, than they are elsewhere).
Your responses also gave a clear picture of your views on local versus national taxation. By a majority of more than 53 to 1 you agreed that local taxation should only be used to pay for things that are decided locally. You also agreed, by a majority of more than 11 to 1, that national taxation should only be used to pay for things that are decided nationally. Clearly, a small but significant minority of you think that national taxation should also be used to pay for things that are decided locally.
You also gave strong support, by a majority of over 19 to 1, to the view that eligibility for Council Tax Benefit should only depend upon incomes and that savings should be disregarded. This suggests that there is an undercurrent of opinion that wealth should not be taxed. However, your responses to the statement that “I would be perfectly happy to pay a tax based on the value of my property if only the bill were to be a lot smaller”, which you agreed with by a majority of nearly 2 to 1, would indicate that this view is not necessarily held all that strongly! This is an area that we will probably need to probe in more detail. So we may be asking you for further help in the future!
Isitfair is an independent nationwide campaign calling for the reform of the council tax system. Please visit our website www.isitfair.co.uk Join the forum, there is always someone who will be able to give advice on council tax problems.
Wednesday, July 16
Time for every Council to Consider the council tax payer
by
Christine
on Wed 16 Jul 2008 02:24 PM BST
Today The Wolverhampton Express and Star published this article http://www.expressandstar.com/2008/07/16/block-on-jobs-to-keep-council-tax-down/
It tells how the Council intend to put a 'freeze' on the employment of any staff, unless they are crucial to the running of the council.
In these hard times every council should be doing exactly the same. The council tax must not continue to be used for council empire building. Employ one person in a new post and before long there is a brand new department with assistants needing assistants.
This week I looked at the available jobs in my own local government area; there were hundreds. Surely these councils must realise that the low paid and the pensioners are already having great difficulty in making ends meet.
Council staff on strike for the next two days are calling for a 6% or 50p per hour rise; the councils, if forced by the Unions and Government to fund this, must do so from savings made by employing fewer staff.
Pity the poor people on the minimum wage, none of them working for the councils, having to fork out for these rises in salaries and pensions
c@isitfair.co.uk
www.isitfair.co.uk
Isitfair is a Nationwide Campaign Calling for the Reform of the Council Tax System
Sunday, July 13
Council tax payers cannot afford to fund Blears' suggestions
by
Christine
on Sun 13 Jul 2008 01:06 PM BST
The suggestion in a recent White Paper that Leaders of Councils and Cabinets should receive redundancy money of £60,000 on losing their seat is unacceptable, undeserved and unaffordable. They already receive overgenerous allowances and the option to receive the local government pension which is more than generous.
Although some councillors look on their council ‘job’ as full time employment many are also involved in business and together with allowances and expenses are on a nice little earner. I hope that their original thoughts on becoming a councillor were not ‘What is in it for me, and how much can I make out of this’. They must realise when they stand for election that being on the winning side could be short lived, and that they may not be in control for long. They were voted in on promises, rarely kept, of serving the public to the best of their ability, and not to be given a seat on the gravy train. How long before they too demand a ‘John Lewis’ list.
As the Government tells them how to spend well over 90% of their budget, and the council employs many thousands at huge expense to carry out the works of local government, including heads of department receiving extortionate salaries, I would have though that the salaries received by councillors during occupation of the county hall were ample reward.
It seems to me that this White Paper is trying to install another layer of Government by currying favour with the leaders of local government. How long before all councillors demand the same treatment?
I hope that the voters will be very vocal in their disagreement with this Governments ludicrous suggestion
Sunday, July 6
Councillors Allowances affect council tax
by
Christine
on Sun 06 Jul 2008 04:30 PM BST
Local authorities throughout the country appoint Independent Remuneration Panels (IRP) which meet periodically to consider Members’ Allowances. The Hampshire County Council Panel has been meeting recently and is due to report its findings to the County Council in November.
An announcement in the press inviting members of the public to submit their views in writing or to address the Panel, prompted me to apply on behalf of Isitfair, and so it was that on 26th June 2008, Janet Kelly, a stalwart supporter of Isitfair and I, found ourselves in the Portal Room, in the Castle Winchester facing three panellists and a representative of Hampshire County Council (not a councillor). Also attending was Rosemary Conway, another Isitfair member, making her own submission, and the press. The meeting was well covered in the local newspapers.
I have to say at this point that public response to the invitation was not good. You must remember this is your time, your chance to make your feelings clear. You may well think that on your own you may make little difference. But if everyone who is a council taxpayer were to respond to these well-advertised meetings, more, much more, notice would be taken.
Here follows our submission
We note, with approval, that the Leader and Cabinet of Hampshire County Council are not seeking increases in their allowances, and that the vast majority of county councillors are not seeking an increase in the basic allowance. Why then, ladies and gentlemen, are we here?
Do you want to increase allowances because you believe this will encourage a more diverse make up of the council? Frankly, we think that the electorate is more interested in the experience and ability of those councillors to produce value for money than in their age, gender, disability and ethnicity. And surely it is part of being a councillor that he or she is able to take on board the views and needs of all groups.
Younger members of the community should be forging careers which will not only give them financial reward but also the experience needed to one day be good councillors. In other words, allowances should NOT be regarded as an alternative means of income for those without paid employment, and can surely never be sufficient to guarantee a mortgage.
To summarise this point, we cannot realistically expect that the council should reflect every age group and minority group, nor would this necessarily be desirable. Any move toward regarding it as obligatory to have such a composition, we would see as dangerously politically correct, and motivated by this wish to justify raising allowances.
To turn to another point:
Councillors can, if they wish, join the Local Government Pension Scheme – and who can blame them if they do? - but this does mean that the value of the basic allowance rises to £13,000 or thereabouts. There may not be many in the Scheme as yet, but the opportunity is there. The significance of these pension rights can escalate somewhat when it is remembered that many of Hampshire’s councillors sit on more than one council or authority. For the record, half of Hampshire’s county councillors are “double hatters”.
And another:
A study of the cost of councillors over the last ten years suggests that it was the introduction of the cabinet format which provoked the most astonishing increases. Within the space of two years the cost rose from £388,174 (in the year ending March 2000) to £903,000 (in the year ending March 2002), a rise of 133%. In the year 2003/2004, Hampshire County Council’s council tax precept went up by an outrageous 15%. By the time we reach 2006/2007 the overall cost of members’ allowances had increased fivefold in ten years. Kept in line with inflation (RPI), in 2006/2007 the bill would have been £310,000 instead of the £1.243 million claimed.
Today, we trawled through Hantsweb looking for something that would tell us what the responsibilities of a councillor are. We found much about how they should behave, but very little on what they should do. What are the responsibilities of councillors, what are they expected to do for these allowances? The public should be made aware of those responsibilities. In terms of measuring productivity, why doesn’t Hampshire County Council publish a register of attendance at council meetings? This would show at a glance the percentage of meetings attended out of the number possible. It would quickly identify the hard workers and the slackers. What have they got to hide? The argument is sometimes made this would only show one side of their work – and not casework, but at least it is a measure. How can we judge how well (or not) they are doing the job they are paid for?
The Leader of Hampshire County Council tells us that allowances are already considered to be a salary by some councillors, this must not be accepted. It is not an entitlement, they should prove that they are worthy of receiving payment from hard pressed council tax payers, and just as easily as it is given, it can be taken away. By the way, Ken Thornber also thinks that there are too many councillors. We have to agree.
So, Hampshire County Council has already agreed that this year (2008/09) a rise in allowances, in line with public sector pay is acceptable. In the present economic climate, anything more would send out the wrong message to both the electorate and employees of the Councils. We submit that the same principle must apply for 2009/10 and in the future.
Thursday, June 19
Uncollected council tax tops £600 million
by
Christine
on Thu 19 Jun 2008 02:31 PM BST
Uncollected council tax 2008/2009
Once again the uncollected council tax is well over £600million.Slighty less than the year before, but pretty stagnant The worst collection rate in the country is Manchester 10.9 percent uncollected, followed closely by Salford standing at 10%, Salford is the constituency of Hazel Blears, the Communities Minister.
When I first wrote to Hazel Blears asking for a meeting to discuss council tax, I received a letter saying that neither she nor John Healey had anything to say to us about council tax, except that there was nothing wrong with it. Of course she would say that, wouldn’t she? If there is nothing wrong with the system, why do the people of Salford find it so difficult to pay their council tax bill? The bill is not high in comparison to other areas of the country. Rutland, a unitary authority with an average council tax bill of £1,547.68 managed to collect 99.78 per cent of council tax. Whereas Salford with an average council tax of £941.32 collected only 90%. Manchester is even worse with an average council tax of £739.66 and a collection rate of only 89.1%
Why? Are the collection councils less efficient? Are they more lenient? Some Metropolitan areas find they can collect over 98 per cent of the tax so that certainly does not apply to all.
Where are all these people not paying their council tax in Salford? Why are the prisons not full of non payers? Our members know from experience that if you don’t pay your council tax you go to prison. Many of them have done just that. So what is different in Salford? £7.418 millions of unpaid tax 2007/2008 and no one in prison. Why not? These questions need to be answered.
I have to ask Ms. Blears this question :- With an average council tax in Salford of £941.32 and £7.4 millions of uncollected tax, that is an equivalent of more than 7,800 households not paying their council tax either because they cannot afford to, or because they just won’t pay. How does she expect us, living in a small bungalow in Hampshire, to find more than £1,650?
I know that I have picked out the best and the worst, but much of the in-between in the Metropolitan, 95.7% and Unitary (I thought they were going to be cheaper and more efficient)96.7% is not much better. The Shire Counties are averaging a 98.19% collection rate. The worst collecting authority in the Shires is Blairs old constituency Sedgefield collecting 95.28%.
This year the demand for council tax topped £20billion: more than double the figure of £9.8billion in 1998.
What can you expect when the councils continue to swell employment numbers, thus higher salary bills and even more for the voracious appetite of the local government pension scheme. It has to stop. Government and local government must be slimmed down. At present I feel that they must have a department somewhare in Whitehall and in every County Hall and town hall across the country, filling their days thinking up new ways to spend our money.
Do we have double the services? No, just double the staff.
Monday, June 16
Council tax double wammy
by
Christine
on Mon 16 Jun 2008 10:13 PM BST
Council tax banding has been a thorn in the side of the the population since its inception. The question always niggles. Am I in the right band? Next doors house is bigger than ours, but it is in the same band. The questions go on and on.
One of our members, together with the rest of the people living in his close, have at last managed to convice the VOA that their houses were in the wrong band. They have all been banded down from G to F and received a nice little cheque backdated to when the houses were built. It has taken a long time but his persistence has paid off.
Of course it is quite possible that your house could be banded upwards when you apply to the valuation office. Perhaps when the estate agents drove past your house when assessment was taking place, they thought all the houses in the road were the same. Were they? So careful thought needs to be given. Exactly that happened in Lancashire, one person queried his banding, his was correctly banded, but they others were one band too low. He was not a popular man.
You cannot, when buying a house, rely on the banding given with the house details received from the estate agents. If any extensions or alterations have been made, then you may well find the council tax band will rise. One tip to see if this might happen is to check the property on the VOA web site www.voa.gok.uk If the property is marked , then revaluation will take place on the completion of the sale. Unfortuately it does not work the other way. If the house is falling down, the council tax won't.
Transfers between spouses on divorce or an Inheritance Tax transfer of a share are not relevent transactions and do not, therefore, trigger a review of the appropriate council tax banding.
The Government has said that they do not intend a revaluation during this term. What will happen in 2010 (or when ever the next election takes place)we cannot say. What we do say is that any Government that reforms council tax, and bases it on the ability to pay from income will become very popular. In most cases it is the biggest household bill and rises more, much more, than the rate of inflation year on year.
Wednesday, June 11
Council tax failings accepted by this Government
by
Christine
on Wed 11 Jun 2008 11:32 PM BST
The Government in blaming pensioner poverty on the rise of the council tax demands. Mr. O'brien forgot to add the usual Government get out that it is the councils fault. I suspect that he would be well aware of the furore the usual speil would cause. The Government must accept that it is through their efforts that the council tax has risen so spectacularly since 1997. More demand for councils to supply services and the fact that 94% of the councils grants have the sticky finger of this nanny Government within them.
The grant system in this country is laughable. How can it be fair when counties in some parts of the country receive just £111 per head of population and others £326 per head?
Council Tax has been used as a convenient pocket for this Government to hide unacceptable taxes that should be paid for centrally and hence by the whole of the population. Council Tax reform is long overdue. The council tax payers are not prepared to accept any more sops. Change it now.
Wednesday, May 28
And the culprit is.....Central Government
by
Christine
on Wed 28 May 2008 01:00 AM BST
There are thousands of us who would like to rant about council tax: a tax that is charged by local ... more »
Sunday, May 25
Wecome to my blog!
by
Christine Melsom
on Sun 25 May 2008 11:25 PM BST
Thanks for visiting my blog. Here, I shall be posting news, info, comments and thoughts about my campaign work in ... more »
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