Did You Know..?

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Kathy

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The congestion charge in London has gone up from £5.00 to £8.00 today and they are in discussions to expand the area it covers very shortly! This seems a massive hike, and I wonder what effect it will have on businesses. To me £5.00 was alot but understandable and bearable..... but £8.00 hurts! h:)
 
Just another example of the government game called 'Bash the Driver', Kathy, along with speed cameras, radar guns, and ever-increasing Council taxes purporting to be for road improvements - which we now find out rarely ever get fully expended on their supposed aim. Where the unused millions go, Councils seem to be reluctant to volunteer to say.
 
Originally posted by krizon@Jul 4 2005, 02:49 PM
Just another example of the government game called 'Bash the Driver', Kathy, along with speed cameras, radar guns, and ever-increasing Council taxes purporting to be for road improvements - which we now find out rarely ever get fully expended on their supposed aim. Where the unused millions go, Councils seem to be reluctant to volunteer to say.
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Obviously a further stealth tax (and another licence to print money on the backs of the poor motorist again) but have a look how much the higher echelons / staff employees(not the manual worker) are paid in local authority employment then, and only then, you'll realise where your monies are going....

Their favourite answer being if we pay peanuts we get monkeys...............so they pay big monies but still get monkeys??? :rolleyes:
 
Brian - wasn't the northern council tax subsidising the south (relatively speaking) about 10 years ago? Not sure but certainly the impression I gained in both Hertfordshire and Wirral.

Jon - bit of crossed wires between government, councils and police authorities? My council tax bill comes accompanied by a financial statement.

Merlin - ditto.

Kathy - tried the Tube?
 
So does mine, archie, and bugger-all of the Government's allocation to the Council to build and repair roads gets spent each year. There is always an increase, which we are told in the enclosed leaflet specially detailing Police activities in the two Sussexes, is necessary to keep the Force providing more of the wonderful community service it already provides, etc., etc. I may have got some wires crossed, but the Council does a pretty good job of failing to declare details of its income from all of its sources, what was supposed to go to what project, and its outgoings to the programmes for which the funding was intended.
 
Originally posted by archie@Jul 4 2005, 07:52 PM
Brian - wasn't the northern council tax subsidising the south (relatively speaking) about 10 years ago?
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No. Though Mr. David Clelland, MP for Tyne Bridge, among others, used to claim that this was so. Now I believe that the tax system should operate in such a way as to redistribute wealth from the better off to the poorer in society, and that is the theory behind income tax, national insurance, value added tax, capital gains tax, inheritance tax and many more.

The council tax replaced the late and unlamented poll tax which in turn replaced the rates. The idea behind all of these local taxes was that they should be set to fund the services required and supplied in the area in which they were collected. Government made grants to each area to prevent politically damaging hikes in the amounts collected but also to exercise control over spending. A sort of "If you don't do it right, you'll get nothing from us" system.

In 2003 the government changed the system by what local government minster Nick Raynsford called "substantial redistribution toward areas of deprivation throughout the country". At the time some accused the government of undermining the economy of the south-east by consciously shifting substantial funds from south to north.

The minister said that councils in poor areas, such as Merseyside, would be compensated for raising substantially less in council tax than more affluent shires. At the time the largest gaining regions were the East and West Midlands, followed by the North-west, Yorkshire, the North-east, the South-west and, finally, the South-east.
 
Can I ask what exactly I get for my Council tax payment? Refuse collection I know. What else?
 
I still recollect the unlamented milk snatcher being accused of making the bias of the poll tax subsidy towards the (Tory) shires (this being when I was in Hertfordshire) making the current situation only a redressing of the balance.

PDJ - I'm fairly certain that your council tax bill has, by law, to include an expenditure statement/forecast. Presumably you threw it out in disgust. One of the things you pay for are those overpaid teachers. :P
 
Originally posted by archie@Jul 4 2005, 06:52 PM
Kathy - tried the Tube?
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Hi Archie, it's not for me but for my vehicles that run into London on a daily basis. We try and pass the cost onto our customers, but you can only imagine the response we get when we are trying to deliver their goods into Central London. Luckily, theres a facility where we can pay online, but if we forget it's something like a £50 fine. It's a nightmare trying to keep track of which vehicles have been into the Congestion Zone on a daily basis, and make sure we pay within in the alloted time.
 
Originally posted by PDJ@Jul 4 2005, 09:02 PM
Can I ask what exactly I get for my Council tax payment? Refuse collection I know. What else?
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Road repairs, street cleaning, rubbish removal (weekly refuse) schools, community halls, a large percentage to wages of council employees which is diverse as you can imagine, I think the head C/E of CARDIFF county council is on 100.000 p/a then all the assistants and managers secretary's, then teachers, social services, aged people, children with problems! mental health, swimming pools, theatres, awards to projects i.e. ymca etc etc councillors wages, then the Welsh office employees.......plus others that I have possibly missed........
Plus a substantial amount of monies given from central government based yearly on the current years budget plus inflation april to april..........
 
I think that people are forgetting that there is an environmetal side to the congestion charge. There was another thread on here recently where someone was asking about LPG fuelled vehicles. Many people are unaware that alternative fuel vehicles, eg those using gas, electric, fuel cells and bi/dual fuel are exempt from paying the charge.
 
Brian- Your money was well spent. That stretch of road between Morpeth and Ashington was a pleasure to drive along last week. Had I known that you had footed the bill I would have enjoyed it even more.
By the way, I have two bottles of champagne belonging to you that are going mouldy. When are we likely to consume them?
 
As a thought - I would be very interested to know how much people in different parts of the country actually pay in council tax (largely because I reckon I pay far too much and get feck all for it :lol: ).

I come under Glasgow City Council - Band B - £1900 p/a

If I lived across the road, I would be in North Lanarkshire and would only pay £1300 for the same band.
 
Originally posted by DIVER@Jul 5 2005, 08:55 AM
By the way, I have two bottles of champagne belonging to you that are going mouldy. When are we likely to consume them?
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Like us, they will improve with age. As you know, very sadly and through bad diary liaison I shall miss the gathering in August so we'll have to think of something else. Just don't let the two bottles anywhere near big Howard.

I'm glad that I was able to ease your passage.
 
Originally posted by PDJ@Jul 4 2005, 10:02 PM
Can I ask what exactly I get for my Council tax payment? Refuse collection I know. What else?
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That was one thing that really got on my wick whilst living in the UK - where I lived, I truly did get virtually nothing. Police? You're having a laugh - in the village where I lived, a police car was seen less often than Santa Claus & his bloody sleigh. If you had a break-in the police wouldn't turn up as they were "too busy". Our roads throughout the village were in a disgraceful state, full of pot holes; West Berkshire District Council also decided that we were not eligible to have our roads gritted in the winter, which naturally led to the dustbin men not collecting our rubbish if they believed the road conditions to be hazardous. Public transport consisted of one bus on a Thursday that took nearly two hours to get you to Newbury (a 20 minute drive away).

Now I pay no council tax/poll tax/rates as there are no such taxes out here.
 
Originally posted by Shadow Leader@Jul 5 2005, 11:25 AM
Now I pay no council tax/poll tax/rates as there are no such taxes out here.
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I won't mention again that the British government helps fund the country. I wonder where they get the money from? :D
 
I realise that the British government helps fund the country Brian!! I do, however, pay roughly 40% PAYE so I'd like to think that helps, too.
 
Originally posted by BrianH@Jul 5 2005, 12:59 PM
I hope those who deride our tax system have spotted that you pay 40%
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So do I, Brian!! :lol:

Seriously though, given the undoubted benefits of life out here, I don't think that it is unfair to expect to pay a higer rate of PAYE. Ok, yes, I swear about it a lot, particularly when working overtime, as I am knackering myself out for a lot of my extra wages to go to the taxman. I do think it is a system that works well though - especially when you look at all of my personal expenditure; there are no council taxes for example, petrol/road tax is far, far cheaper, hell, just living (except the high cost of renting) is far cheaper out here.
 
Originally posted by BrianH@Jul 5 2005, 10:59 AM
I hope those who deride our tax system have spotted that you pay 40%
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And on my back of a fag packet calculations - I pay 44% tax through income tax, council tax and VAT. If I were to include the tax I pay on the fags within the packet, that figure comes up to a whopping 50%.
 
The key then is to get a job which requires the least amount of effort for the most pay....that is why i work on the Railway.
 
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