Energy efficient homes to apy less council tax?

[harryagain]

Roll on I say! Brilliant idea.

[polygonum]

You keep telling us that fuel costs will keep rising so everyone will want, indeed be forced, to super-insulate. Add a tax onto energy inefficiency and they will not be able afford neither sufficient energy nor to improve insulation.

Then add in how this could be assessed fairly?

Crackpot idea. No wonder you are hailing it.

[polygonum]

Did you read any of the comments?

"These 'green fascists' as you refer to them are not environmentalists. The UK-GBC is a charity (and it is charity calling it a charity) founded by a consortium of banks and building trades organisations in Britain."

"So the fuel poor homes would be taxed more. Makes a lot of sense. Pour it on the poor and the middle classes. Wonderful idea!

And how many homes are rented instead of purchased? Many - perhaps 1/2? And those renters, whilst not responsible for the energy ratings of their homes and in no position to pay for modifications, are nevertheless responsible for paying the council taxes. Yes, brilliant idea."

Obviously not reading beyond the headline...

[Brian Gaff]

Hmm, then you need energty efficient people to live in and use them, ie not with kids that never shut doors etc. Of course the conspiracy folk would treat the reevaluation of the house as a chance to make the cost get adjusted so everyone ends up paying morebefore the discount. Brian

[Andy Burns]

It's just another way to sell an EPC to people who aren't selling their house.

[tim.....]

Oh

so they've come with a scheme which no-one wants to take up because it is financially flawed and instead of standing back and asking, "why is no-one taking it up, how should we change it so that they will?"

it's "lets beat with a big stick into taking it"

tim

[Road_Hog]

You really do come up with some stupid ideas.

This is just a system to make people pay more tax, hidden by hind a screen of a few people paying less. And even those will end up paying more when they've increased the tax to take account of their discount.

I had an EPC done recently on a house that I'm selling, it was pathetic. The guy doing it marked the property down on the assumption that there wasn't sufficient loft insulation - but he didn't actually go in the loft, just made the assumption. And he also marked it down for not having cavity wall insulation, but again that was an assumption and not an actual inspection.

And of course, the treasury gets a VAT payment on every report, it's taxes all round.

Some people are so gullible, that they are easily convinced into paying more tax, under the guise of helping the environment.

[Dave Liquorice]

Quite give (reduction in council tax) with one hand take (high interest rates on the Green Deal loan) with the other.

HMG seem to be very good at generating these "poverty trap" schemes. Last financial year our *household* income went a few hundred quid above the NHS Tax Credit Exemption limit. We are both on 4 weekly prescriptions which we will now have to pay for at 13 x 2 x 7.85 = £204.10. The prescription pre-payment isn't any use as you have need at least 14 prescriptions/year and is based on each *individuals* prescription requirement *not* the households.

And the slightly higher earnings will reduce/eliminate Child/Working Tax Credits as well. Essentially I work more, earn more but see no overall increase in my standard of living, if anything it gets worse. No incentive to get out there and find work at all.

If they want this scheme to work or the Green Deal they need to show that people will have money in their pockets now. I'm not surprised that the Green Deal hasn't been taken up. Any, not guaranteed, savings are taken straight back by paying off the loan. Then there is the uncertainty of the effect a GD loan on a property will have on it's sale value.

[ARW]

Get a better illness or more illnesses? I woud have put:-) but it seemed inappropriate.

[polygonum]

Number of illnesses doesn't help.

The right illness does - or getting sufficiently older. Or relocating to Scotland/Wales.

[ARW]

What illness could be worse than relocating to Wales?

[Dave Liquorice]

B-)

Hers is "just" high blood pressure, mine is brain rot, aka Parkinsons. Other than those we are generally very healthy, could go years without needing a prescription.

[Andrew Gabriel]

If your employer has a flexible benefits scheme, look into that. This is the sort of thing where you can sacrifice some of your salary for some benefit, e.g. to increase your employer's pension contribution, provide a company car, etc.

The big issue with most of these energy efficiency measures is that the cost of getting someone to do it for you wipes out the benefits. If you can get a large program of DIY enery efficiency measures going, there's a real potential to save energy, instead of taxing people to create jobs which don't do anything to help this country's bottom line. However, since it's largely driven by the industries which hope to make a profit from energy saving lobbying the government, this sadly seems unlikely to happen.

[harryagain]

I lived there for 20 yrs. It was OK apart from the rain. Houses much cheaper.

They were far ahead of the English in the field of energy saving. Ten or fifteen years I would say.

[Bob Minchin]

Could you ask your GP for 8 week prescriptions? They are usually sympathetic if the situation is explained to them.

[Bill]

I can see the arguments against it, but I continue to believe that we should get a Council Tax rebate for not paving over the lawn, having trees etc.

I reckon 1% per tree, 0.5% for a hedge and so on.

A genuine green incentive, and it would save our family a fortune..

[stmarysview]

I get 3-month prescriptions.

Owain

[Andy Burns]

What's the justification to lower your council tax costs for something that doesn't lower the council's costs? A bit of a rebate on drainage rates for not contributing to rapid run-off ... maybe.

[Fredxx]

Sadly a company car is seen as more income when it comes to tax credits!

A company mobile phone is just about the only tax free perk I can think of?

[alan]

And what will really happen:

The energy survey can only be performed by a "registered" surveyor at a cost of £500 a visit.

The council will decide that the revaluation of your house puts up your council tax charge by 2 bands.

And then you get a 5% discount.