Everything is going up except our income.

Whether council tax is fair or not depends on how 'fair' is defined. I think the 'fairest' taxes are related to income ie progressive.

Yes I have to agree Rigby46.

Fair to me means those with the most should help those with the least. and not begrudge it Norah

My DD2 works in the office of a local independent department store. An interesting job definitely not bottom of the heap, but minimum wage along with everyone else there who's not got manager in their job title. She tells me she'll be getting a £25 pm pay rise. A couple of years and she'll catch up with the lower managers who've not had a rise for years. Watch this space!

My DD works in a very well known coffee shop. Moondollars.

Her store manager has been on maternity leave for almost a year now and my DD is doing her job. My DD however is (only) a shift manager and has not been paid a penny more for doing the store managers job which carries a huge amount of extra responsibility.

It makes me mad.

Precisely Rigby46 income tax is fair, the council tax scheme can be unfair (property rich and cash poor). However, comparing one boroughs council taxes to another is off, the costs are higher if one chooses to live in some area. That's the whole point.

Supermarkets, and petrol stations, will use any excuse to put their prices up. Just greed imo. My son had a part time job, while he was looking for a proper job, at a food warehouse. They delivered tins of food etc to the supermarkets and he said that 'own brands' are the same brand which ever shop you go to. All they do is have a different label put on them. For everyday ordinary things like tins of beans, toilet rolls, kitchen towels, washing powder and conditioner, tea or coffee, milk and bread try using b & m, so much cheaper.

You are so wrong though Norah. A fair tax should be where we all (rich and poor) pay according to how much we have. How can it be fair that someone living in (and earning enough to live in)a million pound house in Kensington pays less in CT than someone living in a £150,000 house in say Newcastle?

That's like a cleaner on minimum wage paying more income tax than Mr Amazon.... Oooops my mistake they probably do!

Our council tax is collected by the borough council. I resent the fact that people in our little town pay more tax per month than those in the big town of the borough council, which is trying to take credit for and pretend that things in our town belong to them. My tax is going towards a huge building complex for this big town and hardly anything is spent in our town. We have lost our police station, our fire station, our one hotel, and our refuse collection depot. They on the other hand are building ten screen cinemas, a bowling ally, a central police station/ambulance station/fire station. We nearly lost our library too which would have gone the same way except that people in our town were up in arms and we managed to fight them off. We are used as their cash cow.

I think Scottish and welsh butter was £1.30 a pack in M&S last time I looked and it is good but I prefer Le President salted which has now gone up to £1.75 a pack in Sainsbugs.

I thought that CT was worked out across the Borough and not by individual towns Yorkshiregel ? It certainly is where I live.

Or do you mean tax in general?

I don't think that's fair at all. Some people have low income or earnings. It would be unfair to me to see their taxes rise further. I do believe income tax is more fair (on earnings).

BREXIT has not happened yet so how can it be the reason for prices to go up? In any case our exports are doing very well thank you and there are lots of businesses waiting to come here once Mrs May triggers Article 50. If people would only get behind the country and stop moaning about what might (will never) happen then we would be in a much better place. All this doubt and whinging will damage this country more. People need to be backing the country not putting it down.

Not where I live gillybob. We pay a lot more. Because we live in a nice area, we have been here for over 30 years, we are deemed 'well off', which we aren't, we are both retired. Yes we have paid off our mortgage but we didn't go on expensive holidays, smoke or drink and we have earned every penny we spent. We would come in to the category that the Government is trying to persuade to down-size. No way! Why should we? We need somewhere for our family to sleep when they visit, why should they have to pay to go to Premier Inn or somewhere? We already pay more for our council tax because of the banding system anyway.

We almost agree on something Norah (why the change?)

Those with the most pay the most. Fair and civilized.

IMO the banding system is in desperate need of updating. But that's another thing entirely. Where I live (one of the poorest boroughs in the country) every town/village etc is banded the same. Bands A-F (although I doubt whether there will be anyone in a band F).

gillybob may I ask what sort of tax would make you happy? I would really prefer a bit more income tax and council taxes assessed on more of a per person basis, rather than by property value. A person may not have the income to pay on property. How would you accomplish taxes?

Interesting, nobody would dream to talk about taxes or money, deeming it rude, in real life.

Someone living beyond their means in a huge expensive house can always move down to something smaller/cheaper but it can never work the other way around. Therefore I suppose those in smaller cheaper properties should pay less and those in bigger more expensive ones pay more. I live in a 2 bedroom, 3 storey terrace (they call them town houses ) and I could always move into a smaller terrace or a flat.

We may not have left the EU yet, but the fall in the value of the pound was instant, and this has obviously led to price rises for imports.

I paid as much Council Tax in North Wales in a year as I did per month in Dover Kent. My house in Wales was a four bed end terrace - my house in Dover was a two bed mid terrace! I have to say that the Council services were no better in Dover than in Wales, in fact the bin collection service was not as good. I live in Telford now and the Council Tax is less than Kent but for the same level of services. I'd be in favour of a local income tax but only if it was set at the same level throughout the whole of the UK on a % of total household income. I have always shopped carefully and am quite happy to buy reduced price items and such (provided they are fit to eat of course) so I don't think prices have gone up really - some foodstuffs that are packaged are getting smaller though, especially cereals.

How would you level the local spending for the police and fire depts (by way of example)? Per person? OR?

I've just done my weekly shop at tesco online taking off delivery charge and adding a £10 off voucher the price it's worked out at £132.00 so yes prices have definitely gone up!!

Extract:

* council have set an average increase of 1.2% for 2016/17. The Government has also introduced the Adult Social Care Precept which is equivalent to a 2% increase in Council Tax and is shown separately and ring fenced to be spent
on Adult Social Care. However, due to these increases and increases in precepts from Police, Fire and Parish and Town Councils, average bills have increased by 3.37%. The actual increase for each tax payer will depend on which parish they
are in. Increases for 2016/17 vary between 2.58% and 6.10%. The amount of your Council Tax bill will depend on which parish your home is in and which valuation band it is in. The exact amount is shown on your Council Tax bill, however, 63% of homes in * are in the 2 lowest bands which will mean average total bills of £1,028.08 for Band A and £1,199.43 for Band B.

I can't see whats rude about it at all Norah It tends only to be those with a lot of money who don't like to disclose it.

Fair tax income tax based on earnings/pensions/savings

Council tax re-banded taking into account the huge rise in value in some areas and the stagnation or drop in others. if someone wants to stay in a million pound house that they can't afford to pay the CT on, then they can pay on account and clear the back payments when they either sell or die. There you go. You asked. I delivered.

.... I can almost feel the spring being wound up.

Gilly a million pounds won't buy a house in K&C. I just lifted this off Rightmove:

Last year most property sales in Kensington And Chelsea involved flats which sold for on average £1,379,917. Terraced properties sold for an average price of £4,213,152, while semi-detached properties fetched £6,692,278.

A house worth tens of millions, not uncommon to see large houses for £35,000,000, will only pay £2085.60 in CT, that being the top band of H in K&C.

The very wealthy might not use the local council swimming pool, or library but they do benefit from council services in others ways, maintained roads & swept pavements, street lighting, bin collection, parks, etc.