Quite staggeringly it is reported this morning that:
Theresa May is reportedly set to lift a government ban on large council tax rises in an attempt to plug a hole in social care funding.
Let me be clear why this is staggering. First, council tax is one of the most regressive taxes we have. It is, effectively, capped for the well off because of the banding structure. That same structure guarantees low income households pay disproportionately high sums of this tax.
Second, unsurprisingly areas with greatest need have amongst the lowest overall council tax yields. In that case if ever a tax was unable to tackle problems in social care funding council tax is it.
Third, council tax creates a post code lottery. This is the last thing that is needed in social care where the greatest need is a consistent safety net.
I would love to describe this suggestion as inept but I am not sure I can. Anyone who knows anything about this tax would realise in seconds how inappropriate this suggestion is. It cannot be ineptness than. It must instead be deliberate. I suggest that is also for three reasons.
First, the attitude is 'make the poor pay'.
Second the attitude is 'let's not redistribute to achieve this'.
Third it's 'well we're very sorry, but people did not vote to pay more so your problem can't be blamed on us: you and your friends should have got out to vote'.
This is cynical, calculating malevolence to guarantee nothing really happens.
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Poll tax moment?
Could be
I hope so and, I think so. I’ve been a member of a dementia forum for 5 years and the mood is changing. The middle classes are being affected by this stuff and are getting angry – at last.
Especially as the care crisis was caused by underfunding of local government, and capping of local taxation rises.
So, no doubt, we shall see the referendum lock moved higher up the chain, and further drops in grants to local government “because they can now raise more locally”
AND local government will get the blame!
My personal opinion is that it is yet another attempt at gerrymandering votes.
Deprived areas, poor services, high local tax benefit claimants…ripe for “it’s your leftie council wot dun it”
Indeed. It seems to have splipped under the radar (I only found out at recent local LP meeting) that by 2020 local authorities will have to fund all their expenditure locally – no direct grant out of general taxation.
Agreed: dire and completely redistributional
Do you have that data more widely?
And I promise you I do take time off from work
But asking me to not blog is like asking me not to breathe
Richard –
Be very wary of this “Worried David” character. I’ve noted that every single posting he makes on this blog – every one – has a common characteristic. I noted the structure of his paragraphs was distinctive, so much so that I thought I’d look for some kind of cipher. It took me about 5 seconds to spot, but only because I was looking (I get how busy you are so how easy it is for things like this to slip through).
Read the first letter of each sentence. When strung together, you’ll note that every post this pathetic little keyboard warrior has ever made hides the same extremely offensive message. It’s obvious that “Worried David” is neither a serious contributor or friend of this blog. Or friend of reasoned discourse in any form.
To “Worried David” him/her/itself… I can’t be bothered composing a clever acrostic or the likes, so I won’t hide my own message to you. It’s simply this – grow up, you ridiculous, tiny minded troll.
I wondered what this was and had not found it
How very sad is my reaction
Now on the automatically blocked list and I will look for this again
Many thanks
They could always cut the ‘defense’ budget given it just goes on pestering other countries and then to show how decent the uk is we then spend among the most on international aid (the USA being simular on foreign policy and defence spending). I’m not one for tax increases by default but I would say corporation tax is the one there is more scope to increase given the others are high by international standards.
We’re spending hundreds of billons on new nuclear missiles, and their launchers, which will probably never be used.
And another £42 billion on a rail network to enable London to move up north.
£120 million each on an aircraft to equip a carrier. Possibly the only country which has carrier-borne aircraft costing more than the carrier!
And we can always find more hundreds of billions to subsidise the conservatives donor/s.
This move puts the Tories lower that infected yeast on the humanity scale in my view. I know that’s a bit strong but there you go – sometimes you have to reap what you sow and the Tories deserve to reap the blowback from this big time.
Unforgiveable.
To a degree, I have to agree with this article. It seems unjust that a friend of mine that lives in an Alms House pays about £700 a year in council tax and a client of mine who lives in a huge mansion pays about £3,000.
The article misses the point, or rather The Tories miss the point in trying to be helpful to society. Most people have had a job and paid NHI and tax, their contributions ultimately should help them in their time of need and dotage and in a civilised society that is correct. But, this potential increase will mainly benefit those who contributed zero or very little in their lives to the state. Whilst those that did the right thing and need care in later life will have their modest savings and assets decimated.
Council tax needs overhauling. I don’t know the right answer, but as ever with politicians, the poor get poorer and the rich get richer!!!!
The answer is Land Value Taxation in the long term
And four more council tax bands now
Please read this superb article by Tom Crewe: “The Strange Death of Municipal England”, which supports everything Richard says. It caused my 36 year old son to nearly weep with rage. Here are two extracts:
“By 2014, nearly 90 per cent of English councils were unable to offer any support for people with ‘low to moderate’ care needs (which includes those unable to undertake ‘personal care tasks’, ‘work or educational roles’ or ‘social and family roles’). Around two million older people now rely solely on support from family and friends. In September, the King’s Fund concluded that ‘access to care depends increasingly on what people can afford — and where they live — rather than on what they need. This favours the relatively well-off and well-informed at the expense of the poorest people, who are reliant on an increasingly threadbare … safety net.’ There is no let-up in sight: councils have a further billion pounds of cuts planned for the current year, with more to come until, in 2019, the gap between needs and resources will reach an estimated £2.8 billion, and spending on adult social care will fall below 1 per cent of GDP. One consequence is that the NHS can no longer safely discharge patients into the community, leading to a shortage of hospital beds.”
“…..The richer an area, the less the council relies on government grants, and the less it is affected by cuts. Knowsley and Liverpool are two of the most deprived areas of the country: council spend per head in these areas has been reduced by £400 and £390 respectively. In Wokingham and Elmbridge, two of the wealthiest parts of the country, the corresponding totals are £2.29 and £8.14.”
Truly we are governed by monsters who are determined to make the UK a failing state!
Thanks
Central government is relying upon the perception that local councils are inefficient and overly bureaucratic – if councils are having to raise more money, by increasing council tax bills, it is their fault (and nothing to do with the government).
This feeds directly back into the link between social care and the NHS. One can almost see local councils being lined up to take the blame if the NHS (continues) to falter – if local councils had been efficient and properly managed then people needing social care would have received that care from them, the failure of local councils has resulted in intervention being needed by our hard pressed NHS. You get the picture.
My fear is that provision of care to people who need it will take second place to the political blame game with local government being a convenient scapegoat for central government.
This problem has been looming for decades and no party has been responsible enough to put the electorate to a clear choice: low taxes or good services.
And the extra funding is via an increase in regressive council tax.
I am really surprised at the lack of protest about this NEW TAX. We British are the most taxed people in the world. Can we all wake and protest?
We are not the most taxed people in the world
But so what if we were if we got the services we need and want and which are best supplied by the state?