bloody rates

[JNugent]

Unless he is dead and no longer needs a place to live... nothing.

[JNugent]

Your manifestation of English comprehension and your use of grammar/syntax are... odd.

[Jim Stewart ...]

I agree but people who have never been responsible for paying rates would never agree

[Jim Stewart ...]

not much compared to those down south

[Jim Stewart ...]

there you go a bargain by the sea

[Max Demian]

Like tenants whose landlord always paid the rates.

[Dave Plowman (News]

A legally elected one?

Who mentioned income tax? The better off tend to live in better houses. But then a good Tory never wants any form of equality in income - only on taxation.

[Dave Plowman (News]

The 'burden' on the better off was certainly lower. By increasing the burden on those least able to afford it.

[Dave Plowman (News]

Interesting. So that landlord didn't factor in the costs of rates along with other outgoings when deciding the rent?

[JNugent]

You knew what I meant.

Which party was in control when your relative got a higher bill than she might have been expecting?

You did - in terms.

And?

[JNugent]

That was, at one time, very common.

I am sure that at one (rented) house in which we lived from 1962 to

1966, my parents never received a rates or a water rates bill (the water rates would have been charged by the city council, which had wisely invested lots of money in the 1800s and 1900s on the construction of reservoirs and aqueducts in Wales - and consequently had much lower bills to pass on).

That was all included in the rent (which was something under £2.00 a week).

[Andrew]

Destroying ancient villages in the process. While water rates in Wales are now higher than in Manchester and other places where welsh water is piped to.

[Andrew]

Why ever not ?. Property owners made fortunes because of the astonishing (labour) govt sponsored housing boom of the noughties, all funded by non-existant funny money 'created' by the likes of RBS for all those

5,6,7,8 times liar loans. When the banks imploded in 2007/8 the *taxpayer* (including millions forced to rent) bailed them out. QED the taxpayer owns a significant slice of everyones house, no matter how big or little the loan is.

One day these taxpayers will have a right to get their money back and increasing stamp duty and council tax is the best way to do it, so that those who made the biggest tax-free fortunes hand some of it back.

Remember, the same argument is being bandied about right now about a 'windfall' tax on the oil companies (whilst forgetting that in 2020/21 those same oil companies reported the biggest losses in history when oil went below $30).

[Andrew]

So take your head out of the sand and ask yourself how this happened and where did the money come from to allow this ?.

Answer: The banks came close to liquidation in 2008 because they had simply created too much electronic 'money' (with no assets like gold to back them up). The banks were rescued by the government using taxpayers money. Those taxpayers include people who are now forced to rent because they are priced out. They need compensation and making property owners hand bank some of their windfall, excessive tax-free gains is 100% fair and increasing stamp duty and council tax is the way to do it.

[Andrew]

Awe shucks. You could buy a 3 bed detached house for under £20K in those days (*). Now you would need £450,000 to buy the very same house.

elderly people have £300 Billion lavished on them every year, half of that is the NHS budget and the moaning minnie brigade are the biggest cost to the NHS. The other half is the state pension.

If pensioners got a pension based on what their *actual* net contribution was over their lives (after discounting all the freebies like child benefit, education @ £65,000 PER child, free NHS etc) you would find that only the top 25% of taxpayers actually paid in enough to cover their state-funded retirement. The bottom 25% would get nothing and the rest between £10 and something a lot less than the current state pension.

Economics 101. Do the maths.

(*) IN 1992 Gordon Brown bought a 2-bed flat in Westminster from the estate of the late Baouncing Czech, Maxwell for the grand sum of £250,000. Now it is worth £1.5 Million. He has transferred ownership to his wife to avoid CGT.

[Andrew]

So was the house given to the government ?. Nope, the relatives grabbed all the tax-free profit.

[Andrew]

But I understand economics far better than you do.

[Dave Plowman (News]

I don't know.

If you think it only happened in say Labour run councils, you're wrong. In Scotland, that is.

The one example just about everyone quoted as a reason to change to a poll tax proved false. Typical Tory gaslighting. Those on limited income already got a rate rebate. So came as no surprise they ended up paying more than before.

[Max Demian]

There were lots of costs associated with owning property to rent. That didn't mean that the landlord automatically reduced the rent when Community Charge came in. Or refrained from increasing rent in times of low inflation, as "prices are always going up".

[JNugent]

What was stopping Welsh authorities from improving their water supplies?

Incidentally, you are right that the much less provident Manchester now benefits from Liverpool's investments, as do other places in the north-west.