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What are the council tax rates in Edinburgh, Scotland?

Was the "Poll Tax" really less fair than the "Rates system" or "Council tax"?

  • In the UK , a small proportion of all Local Government spending has always been raised locally . Originally, this was based on the "rentable value" of a house. That is , it didn't matter how much a particular home owner earned , or how many people lived there, the rate paid was based simply on the notional rentable value of the property. In the late 80's , Margaret Thatcher tried to introduce the idea that every adult in the community , at least notionally , should contribute towards the costs of their local services -- this was the Poll Tax. It was a flat rate contribution , notionally payable by all adults , but with discounts and exemptions for people on low income etc. A problem with this charge was that it meant that a lot of people who had previously contributed nothing towards local council spending , were suddenly expected to do so -- so there were riots . Justified , or the simple self interest of the selfish?

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    The poll tax was fair in my humble estimation, and it was designed so that all working adults would make a contribution and not just one bread winner in the household as it still now is. my rates prior to the poll tax was £400 per year, but the poll tax year they billed me at £180 per adult over 18. So I saved £40 that year based on my wife and self being the only adults in the house. So I should think that I am one of the few people that thought the poll tax was fair. However, when all the low life leftie trouble makers refused to pay anything at all, the local authorities forced everyone that would pay to pay even more in order to make up the shortfall. it was costing the local authorities too much to take non payers to court, and the prisons were even full then! So they wrote off the debt at the expense of the law abiding citizens on the following years council tax bill. It seems that you can't win either way in this world.

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Just to put the record straight.It was created to charge more from the poor to reduce the cost for the rich.eg.If I lived in a castle with one more adult I would pay less than a terraced house down the road who had 3 people living in it.

elo2joe

just different names, at the end of the day any government needs so much money off everyone to run. some just go different ways around doing it. one thing is for sure, my pockets never get filled by them.

PHIL D

As someone who paid under both systems I can say that the poll was fairer. The great flaw was that it was unenforceable. They tried to trace people through the Electoral Roll, so people stopped voting. Years later there was a campaign to get people to vote ( so that they could claim the outstanding tax ) Mrs. T wasn't perfect, this must have been the biggest misjudgement of her career

grandad

before the poll tax, we had rates to pay. houseowners paid it. council house tenants paid it in their rent. so the taxpayer was subsidising the rates for council tenants. the poll tax was aimed at everyone and the people who previously paid little or nothing. we pay now is a total rip off. i would prefer the poll tax to what we have now. mrs thatcher did not work out the poll tax all by herself. she had advisors etc who did that.

K

If you use a service you should as a principle expect to pay something for it. As you say there were reductions and a some exceptions based upon income and as you also point out, all of a sudden those who had been on a free ride didn't like having to pay something. Rather typical of the hippy left who would presumably not expect to get their beer or sandals for free. The example of two people in a castle paying less than three people down the road is not inconsistent with the principle that if more people use a service they pay more than if fewer do. I know that's not what the left want to hear but it happens to be correct. What they seem to believe is that if you live in a posh house then your services imperatively cost more...?? Just one small point, the previous system was based on a property's rateable value not rentable. And of course it meant that widows or widowers were forced to pay the same as they had when there were two people at the address. That sort of unfairness never troubled the critics of the poll tax. Funny that.

Paul

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