Council tax bills to fall.

[Gary L]

Average council tax bills for homes in England will fall slightly this year, a survey suggests.
The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy found the average Band D household would pay £1,438.87 - down 35p on the 2010 level.

35p!
That should make a big difference to people finding it hard at the moment.

I expect 15p of it is reduced for the police cuts.
5p for the bin collections being reduced, and 15p for the big massive council service cuts.

Infact. if they weren't making such big massive cuts. then they probably would have had to double the council tax to pay for it all.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12686000

[v0id]

Bin collections haven't been reduced everywhere

[Gary L]

Originally Posted by v0id

Bin collections haven't been reduced everywhere

Probably not everywhere.

By the way. you've spelt losers wrong

[Taf]

I see England got away with no re-evaluation of properties....

Originally Posted by Gary L

35p!
That should make a big difference to people finding it hard at the moment.

I expect 15p of it is reduced for the police cuts.
5p for the bin collections being reduced, and 15p for the big massive council service cuts.

Infact. if they weren't making such big massive cuts. then they probably would have had to double the council tax to pay for it all.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12686000

It makes a bigger difference than you think. If bills were allowed to increase simply to cover inflation the average increase would be about £40. Any increase in council tax of less than £40 is in real terms a decrease in what you pay.

So if the actual figure falls, rather than rising by £40 or less, then the real terms cut in your council tax is even larger.

How quickly we forget the massive council tax increases of the late 90s and early noughties.

[alferret]

Originally Posted by Chris

It makes a bigger difference than you think. If bills were allowed to increase simply to cover inflation the average increase would be about £40. Any increase in council tax of less than £40 is in real terms a decrease in what you pay.

So if the actual figure falls, rather than rising by £40 or less, then the real terms cut in your council tax is even larger.

How quickly we forget the massive council tax increases of the late 90s and early noughties.

What Chris said

I hasnt gone up so therefore in real terms it like having a cut.

[bonzoe]

This is one of the things our area is above average............band D about £1550, not sure that services are above average though!

[Chrysalis]

someone might be along in a minute to tell us this tax cut will kick start the economy

[Ignitionnet]

Hah it couldn't hurt but it's hardly a game changer.

---------- Post added at 15:16 ---------- Previous post was at 15:15 ----------

Incidentally Gary many councils actually rely massively on central government grants for their funding and council tax doesn't make much odds to them. My own rather fortuitously being an exception to the rule.

[Chrysalis]

To be fair a 35p cut is more like a £5-10 cut as it doesnt take into account inflation. So I do see this as a welcome rare drop in living costs when everything else essential is going through the roof.