There must be other ways of raising this money for councils ,other than forcing people into debt trying to raise it. O A Ps ,should not be expected to pay this dreadful tax , most ordinary people working struggle with it. as for saying its only risinng a few percent , thats not the problem its far to high to start with. please labour govt help the OAPS with this tax

frank brett, Retford, notts uk

The annual above inflation Council tax rise occurs because of the disunity of the average british population. The fact is that most young adults remain dependent on their parents and so do not have to pay this insidius tax. This is a major factor which leads to their disinterest and lack of willingness to tackle this seperatist Government

Labour now employ nearly 70% of the working population and this has led to a communistic state and frame of mindset. "Dont rock the Boat" .

Couple the above with the lack of foresight or interest in this matter by the opposition and this explains why the Labour Government feel they can impose crippling taxes as a matter of course.

When the plight of the elderly is of so little importance to the Tory or Liberal Parties we can expect this iniquitius tax to rise year on year

Ronald Mc Cartan, Dagenham, Essex England

inflation goes up shame about annual pay rises 10 years these have gone up weve probably caught up 3 years

dave, leeds,

Abolish Council Tax, what a waste of tax payers money. We pay more and more every year and yet we don't feel the benefit. Start taxing businesses as well, share the burden. If needs be bring in local congestion charging to counter-act the loss of the 'C' Tax. Take money by other means and for all our sakes stop taxing pensioners out of their homes. Something needs to be done and i defy any potential new party in government not to sort out this tax, if any of them don't they risk making voters more apethetic.

M. Pauk, Worksop, UK

It's totally unfair that the cost of the local community falls solely on householders, and in particular the proposed increases based on change in property values over which we have no control. A system similar to the Poll tax in which all earners pay is the only fair way, so that the costs are evenly spread.

A. Taylor, Nottingham, UK

These 10 years of above inflation increases in Council Tax represents an erosion of income for pensioners and those on low and fixesd incomes. This is made worse by the fact that the Labour Party manifesto for 1992 promised explicitly to "abolish Council Tax".

J. Stone, STROUD, UK

Bring back the poll tax. Why should I pay more council tax than someone else just because I earn more - all gas / electricity / telephone bills are based on usage, not on income or size of house. We should pay for council services (whatever they are) on the same basis. It costs less to empty my dustbin than that of a neighbour with 6 people living in a smaller house than mine - why should I pay more tax?

tony dummelow, birmingham,

My view is that local councils should submit figures to house holders showing them how they have spent exisitng funds. They also need to show householders the reason for the increase and justify it.

House holders should be able to vote if they agree with the proposed spends. It's their money for the services that local government is providing.

Noshaba Sainsbury, London, United Kingdom

Councils should be forced to show accurate accounts on their spending and justify where & why more money is needed. Is it for council pay rises? In my job I regularly meet with local authorities across the north west of England and it's staggering how many people are in offices doing very little.

Rob, Warrington, Cheshire

Up 90% in ten years! THANKS TONY !!! Time for a TAX REVOLT!

Ron Bromley, San Marcos, CA USA

The rise in Council Taxes is hitting the Private Schools sector very hard.The constant rises in these taxes leads to ever rising school fees and disgruntled customers.Lets hope Gordon Brown will sve us all from this dilemma!

Peers Carter, Gravesend, Kent

All councils should do 'value engineering; style exercise on what they provide and more importantly what staffing levels they have at council offices.

A prime example being East Lindsey District Council. Their Planning Department was called 'Planning and Economic Development' and was staffed accordingly. Did they do their job? It is now called 'Planning and Regneration department' and again staffed to the hilt. If they are 'regenerating' then is because their economic development did not work.

Council tax payers are burdened with the cost of POOR management.

Steve Scott, Boston, Lincs

As long as people continue to blame central government for council spending there will never be any pressure on councils to reduce spending. In my area the council could double spending every year and would still be elected. Make council spending an election issue!!. Also as funding seems to be shifting from mainly income tax, to council tax, it is about time that council tax was charged in proportion to the value of houses instead of being capped. In fact I would ditch council tax and replace it with a floorspace charge like commercial rates. We could then go one step further and charge for land usage, with different bands depending on usage. ie. building (x floors) , farmland, publicly accessible or private etc. In the Uk we have about an acre each if it were handed out equally, so I would only charge for undeveloped land ownership in excess of an acre, to keep administration costs down.

Tony Wilson, UK,

Council tax is rising because New Labour employed around 1 million extra people in non-jobs in local government since they came to power. Such posts as 'outreach facilitators' and 'diversity co-ordinators' add nothing at all but of course they will all vote Labour, which is the real purpose of their jobs. Council tax only covers around a quarter of the real cost of local government so while the government blames the local councils it is actually they themselves who are to blame. They will have to raise taxes of course and rumour has it they will try the Northern Ireland model (a property tax of 1% of total property value) but won't dare do this until after the next General Election. When that happens I am definitely emigrating.

Richard, Salford, England

Is it possible that this government will empty the prisons of murderers terrorists and rapists to make space for the many pensioners who will be committing the more heinous crime of civil disobedience because they are unable to pay?

RonR, Brentwood,, Essex.

It is glossly unfair to penalise the lowly paid with taxation that must be approaching the highest in Europe,whereas the M.Ps and Euro M.Ps are feathering their nests and have recently awarded themselves massive pension increases.I look forward to later this year to the backlash of the little man who will quite rightly say "Enough is enough"

Alan Wonfor, Carmarthen, U.K.

The problem we have here is that nobody holds the government responsible or accountable! If the government wants to charge any amount 'who are we to question them?!'!

Igor, Newcastle Upon Tyne,

As a pensioner with an income under £10,000 a year Council tax reduces me to despair. I also rent my house and rents go up. If I didn't have two wonderful children there would be no pleasure in my life at all. they buy me books and clothes.Perhaps this is the purpose of the tax that we give and die.Not me PM. I want to see the back of you.

daphne sayed, Horley, Surrey, UK

Productivity should be increasing and not decreasing! The public sector has a fundamental efficiency problem that is sucking the life out of the economy.

If there was more productivity and efficiency the government would see more revenue for more profitable businesses and employment.

Adam, Oxford, UK

It's a disgrace!!!! Households have to put up with crap from Councils i.e. recycling whereby regular waste bins are only collected once a fortnight which could lead to rat infestations are the like yet they get away with it time and time again!!

I bet the police have put in a good increase towards that figure as well but do we see them on our streets, no because they're too busy doing paperwork and not dealing with the everyday nightmares that people face in their own homes/neighbourhoods!!!!!

Amanda, Chorley, UK

Levels of taxation have now reached the point where they are crippling for many pensioners and ordinary hard working families. How demoralising to work hard to earn a living and then find that the government takes so much of it away that it is hard to make ends meet. The hard pressed tax payer is then further demoralised by seeing much of their tax money misspent and mismanaged. The time has come to challenge the idea that decent public services mean ever higher taxes. If the government managed our money better and stuck to providing essential services rather than intruding into every area of our lives, then I am sure this would be possible.

Andy brown, Derby, UK

I still don't know what Council Tax is spent on! I work overseas regularly but keep a flat in York as a home base, and whenever I return home I am astounded by how dirty the streets are. Litter and cigarette ends everywhere, and this is supposed to be a tourist town. Also, although I live in a group of about 70 flats, there are no recycling bins provided. I lived in Australia for several years in the nineties and each house was provided with several crates for various recyclable materials, which was picked up regularly by the council. Much more environmentally effective than expecting each household to drive to the collection point themselves as in the UK. It's about time the council and the government started providing adequate services for residents, rather than putting the onus on them and then charging them. I don't mind paying tax, but I expect adequate services to be provided.

Nick, York, UK

Am I living in a different world? in my world I have had 14 consecutive inflation busting rises in my Council Tax.
For the last two years even the capping limits have been broken due to huge rises in the Town precept, which this year the District Council are transferring non-discretionary services to Town and Parishes but are keeping the money whilst still putting up their precept by a maximum 5%. So affectively increasing the District by 18%, money laundering comes to mind.
Do politicians not realise this system is now totally defunct.
Councils are now just employment bureau's, not fit for purpose.

Brian Jaye, Sturminster Newton, Dorset,

Reading all this from the viewpoint of living in Spain, it is surprising to me that there have not been more protests earlier. Why cannot the Government hire independent accountants to go through the books of the local councils? I'm sure that most, if not all, of the rises are not really needed. The problem is that local councils, or the Government for that matter, actually have to balance the books. If there is a shortfall, raise the taxes!

Adrian Green, Jaén, Spain

Once again the lucky ones are reported. Stockport, near Manchester, since Council Tax came into force, has experienced rises of 10-11% every year.

We have been told on numerous occasions that these debilitating rises will be stopped following investigation by Central Government into the obvious squandering or misuse of the money already accumulated over the years but still nothing is done.

Why am I paying for schools I do not use - I have no children? Why do I not receive discounts for not utilising the fire brigade, police, ambulance services?

Forget children in poverty, our local government wants to force all its residents into poverty. I most certainly cannot remember a time when I have ever had more than a 5% pay rise and that was a very good year. (some years ago I hasten to add). However, the constant 10/11% rises in Council Tax which should pay to have our passageways gated to avoid anti-social and criminal behaviour is put on hold due to lack of money. What a farce!!!

H McCormack, Stockport,

What a farce!!! 4%. In my home town of Stockport since the Council Tax was introduced, we have had, without fail, rises of 10-11% per year. I most certainly have never had a pay rise that good. Needless to say the services are fewer and far between but the tax keeps on rising.

H McCormack, Stockport,

It is time that council tax was aligned with the ability to pay!

Will all the UK's pensioners be in jail before the government realise this?

Jim Golightly, Prudhoe, England

If the council tax rises are over inflation, there must be a proper audit to explain why. It is not going to be down to final salary pensions, they only rise at inflation rate. Salaries are an issue, particularly in the upper echelon. It should be shown how far they increase above inflation. Trips abroad, associated with "twinning schemes" or for any other reason, are unjustifiable, as are any activities that take councillors out of their home area. Expenses should be closely supervised. Similarly, spending money bringing in visitors on twinning visits is a misuse of public funds. Using council money for any reason aside from those directly providing required services to the electorate is wrong and should be stopped.

Eric Pritchard, Clevedon, UK

The time has come to make a stand Nationally about the way in which decent citizens who have planned for their future are constantly expected to pay inflation-busting increases in rates. As law-abiding citizens we are easy targets for increase local taxation. It has got to be stopped - NOW.

John Beavis, Lee-on-the-Solent, Hampshire

There are clearly issues with whether Council tax is fair, but just as importantly we do not recieve a good enough return on our investment into Councils. Take for example the sheer quantity and lack of quality of publications that come through my door. These could be halved in number with no noticable effect on the quality of service. Councils have to start allocating more to front line services and less to the vast efforts to be politically correct inclusive.

Tom, Hobbs, London

My 1935 tiny farm worker's cottage, built entirely from reclaimed slum clearance materials, is Band E because we have a "beautiful view that people would pay thousands of pounds to see". This was the verdict of the Valuation Officer when I asked for reassessment.The plans for the house were readily available from the Estate Office but he wanted to nose around and measure every room. I declined. I value my Privacy. They can't put a market value on these cottages, as none have ever, or will ever, be sold.
I can't sell up and move elsewhere. The cottage was tied to my husband's job. Unlike Council Tenants, we never got the right to buy, and the low wages meant we would never have got a mortgage anyway.
We get the dustbin emptied once a week. That's it. No pavements or street lights here. The fortnightly library van was stopped years ago. two buses a day, none Sunday.
Under the old Rates System we got a rebate for the services we didn't receive. Why can't we have rebates now?

B.P.Russell, Windsor, England

Council tax represents over 10% of my entire monthly income and I am not eligible for any kind of help being a few pounds over the Minimum Income Guarantee. Contributing to a small occupational pension plus AVCs has meant that I am much worse off than someone who receives benefits. Many pensioners find the only way to manage is by not using heating in the winter, buying mark-down food at the supermarket and getting clothing from charity shops. The tax laws are iniquitous for pensioners who have tried to provide for themselves through a lifetime's working.

wanda hardman, ludlow, uk

I fully agree with previous comments and would add that here in Penhow we have had our local bus sevice heavily
curtailed together with losing our mobile library completely,
and having to travel to Newport (5miles) to access a library.

Bill Richards, Penhow Newport, Gwent

As usual this will spark the socialists into saying that local income tax is the only fair way. Rubbish. Those of us who work hard and earn our money are more likely to pay for our services ourselves.

Cut the services to a bare minimum, stop the final salary pension schemes for all government employees that are crippling their budgets, to bring them into line with the real world with the rest of us, and reduce the tax accordingly.

We will all have a few more pounds in our pockets to decide what we want to do with our hard earned cash.

Si, Reading,

These 10 years of above inflation rises in Council Tax represents an erosion of income for pensioners and those on low and fixed incomes. What makes it worse is that the Labour Party manifesto of 1992 specifically promised to abolish "Council Tax".

J. Stone, STROUD, UK

When? OH! When? will the powers that be see that the only way for people to pay any tax is if they have a taxable income. What next, inspectors coming in to value our furniture, plenty of antiques in some of our older citizens homes.

Anthony Box, Wretton, Norfolk

Isn't it time that the Government say 'Enough is enough' and scrap final salary pensions for local government employees and the like? But of course they won't, who would vote for them then?

Sue Davis, Sidmouth,

You say that the lowest rises are in the councils seeking election as usual. What clearer evidence is needed that they are corrupt.

I suggest that any overall tax increase should only take place if approved by a referendum of the electors.

Councils should also cease to act as agents of the government.

Brian Gilbert, Hampton, Middx