Chris,
I've just done the calculation. I make it 7.2% compound over the ten yrars.
"Real" inflation in that time is difficult to assess (the official figures are clearly poppycock). But if we assume say 3% and Council tax keep to that, the average tax would now be £924 rather than £1380, a difference of £456.

It's the usual big question: why?

Tony Gillingham, Hereford, England

and isn't council tax being frozen in Scotland? Difficult for Brown to increase taxes in England I would have thought if they are not being increased in his constituency.

mike, West Midlands, UK

To Ian from Brighton

If you understand the way business works then you will appreciate that if competition drives the profit down to wafer thin margins then service will suffer and we still have to pay the third party a profit out of our taxes. For evidence of how badly outsourcing can be in the public sector look at all the PPP initiates that have taken place. There has been plenty of publicity to show that they represent terrible value for money. Outsourcing is not a magic bullet for saving money, and most businesses outsource for reasons other than cost.
Council staff may not be incentivised to do things differently but this is not because they have final pensions salaries. Like your comment on competition this reason is too simplistic and has more to do with the organisations reward strategy.

AndyN, Reading,

I cant afford it.
I can see myself standing in the dock later in the year

Phill, The Wirral, England

To those of you who want to complain the answer is simple - stop paying it.

It is a tax that has risen at a rate that is comparable with house price inflation and bears no relation to the value for money that we get from our Councils.

I have moved out of my house and into a canal boat. Whilst you avoid the ridiculous council tax charges, you do pay a slightly smaller amount in mooring fees. However, you do also get away from the rampant housing market that looks set to dip and into a community of likeminded people that are usually very friendly, unlike some of my neighbours over the years.

To AndyN from Reading - You must surely realise that introducing one or more 3rd partys stimulates competition and hence drives down cost. Whilst I stronly believe in maintaining employment this has got to be preferential to spending money on coucil staff that are unincentivised to do things differently as they already have a secured final salary pension and defined benefits.

Ian, Brighton,

It was inevitable that for those who had worked hard to own their home would be robbed later when they became elderly, while those that did not bother have their council tax and rent paid for them, welcome to the injustice of socialism.

wayne, huntingdon, cambridgeshire

Rather flies in the face of the 2% inflation we are continoulsy told by Brown. 10% sounds a bit nearer the truth!

chris, woodbridge, suffolk

Tells you all you need to know about why our bills our increasing...

http://burningourmoney.blogspot.com/

Chris, London,

The spiral of Council Tax and Council Services (the former up the latter down) leads to a time will come when no services are provided but the tax remains. Keeping those who have 'managed' those services in a obsolete employment will mean mass redundancies, huge pension payouts and even higher Council Tax. Let us bite the bullet now. Final Salary pensions have to go or al least freeze at this point. Hereafter, if you want a pension from your job, buy one. After all, its only delayed income wirh the free from tax contributions as the incentive.

michael murphy, Brightlingsea, England

Government and local councils are elected to act in the interests of the electors, not themselves. They should understand that the revenues they receive are taxpayers monies, hard earned.

It's a disgrace that public sector employees, both local and national, continue to enjoy final salary pensions whilst the private sector has largely come to terms with the unaffordability of this benefit. To add insult to injury the tax payer has to finance these pensions that he or she is denied for such non-essential services as wheelie bin (correct colour and day) inspectors or PC management in all its glorious diversity. Year after year council tax rises exceed inflation because their managements will not employ, or are incapable of employing, the financial disciplines that are everyday in the private sector.

David, Oxford,

Sir Simon said :
there is a lot of scope to save money by doing things differently simply because there would have been ideological opposition to outsourcing

Really? This sounds like an ideological position to take.
Outsourcing requires a 3rd party profit overhead. It cannot be more cost effective than running an efficient service in-house. If there are savings to be made look to increasing efficiency not outsourcing - No wonder we get so little value from our tax.

AndyN, Reading,

I live in Spain and my council tax is 38 euros, twice a year. And what do we get for that? Bins emptied daily, swimming pool, meals on wheels, local police, etc. The work is done by local people employed directly by the town hall and there is a sense of collective responsibility,

Ashley Meredith, Granada, Spain

Just check the council jobs available in your local papers and see the salaries paid compared to the private sector! Realise 25% of your tax feeds their gold plated indexed linked pensions, and the government uses this form of tax to booster their own take by stealth. Consider they always make excessive increases well clear of any general election period so you forget about it when voting time arrives. It’s up to the people to say enough is enough, and vote for an alternative administration. Was to poll tax wrong now?

Michael, Sheffield,

I am on a small fixed - (not increasing) income. I can shop around for gas, electricity and have metered water. Over the last 10 years my council tax has risen from £1200 to £2000. And yet this wretched government think its perfectly acceptable for council tax to rise by 5% per annum; it's just another totally unfair stealth tax and if it continues like this I, and many others, will be unable to pay in years to come. However, unlike muggers, serial burglars, car thieves etc. we won't be given the opportunity of community service but will be sent to prison. (just look at how many pensioners have been sent down for being unable to pay) This dictatorship of a government of ours has made it quite clear that they will continue to extract as much as possible from us by way of council tax and heaven help anybody if they don't pay. It's shameful!

Derek, Bristol,

The Labour government takes money from local councils by year on year repeatedly reducing funding so that the local councils have to increase council tax, but many people only see the situation as being created by the councils themselves. This way, the government not only gets to raise taxes indirectly, but by causing the situation to be particularly bad for Tory councils it is possible simultaneously for Labour to damage Tory support.

John Stench, Sheffield, UK

100% increase since 1997 is a total scandal, about which I'm suprised there is not more of an outcry. My services certainly haven't improved by 100%. Where has this money been spent. The private sector haven't got guaranteed pensions anymore, so why should the public sector?

J Jones, London,

The reason that a number of services are being cut yet the council tax is going up and up is due to the massive influx of foreigners, mainly EU immigrants and so called asylum seekers who are allowed into this country and receive housing, social security and a host of other benefits supplied and paid for by local councils, ie the council tax payer. The vast majority of these foreigners are contributing nothing for the services provided but fully use everything on offer to them. They have reaped the benefits from the land of milk & honey & its the council tax payer whose footing the bill. Its time people made their frustration & objections heard and politicians held to account. We cannot carry on paying these exorbitant taxes for fewer services which we have less & less access to. Any rise should be the same as the government imposed pay rises of 1.9% and services should be maintained at the expense of not allowing foreigners to milk & abuse the system

michael pickles, bournemouth, england

Where an earth do these people think the average "joe bloggs" is going to find this "extra" monet from? We are continously told not to exceed the inflation rate when we shout "we need a pay-rise"! but no we are told to put- up or shut-up. I think it's high time the british people start to ask question and to start saying "no" . For too long they have counted on the british people to say nothing, for too long the nation has moaned and done nothing to change this attitude from these elected policitians, and let us not forget thats exactly what they are - elected by US the people. They are only have their jobs because we have given them the right to represent us in looking after our interest, our welfare, and our wellbeing. If they go ahead and raise the council-tax, then I strongly ask the people of britian to vote with their feet and their voices! march the streets, SHOUT "no-more" If we do not fight back this will continue to be another policy that they assume they can just do.

sally kittredge, Rainham, ENGLAND

Most of the increases will be in wages and pensions cutting services that they have already cut will put more people on the unemployment list, cost a lot in redunancy payments. Local Government increases should be limited to the rate of inflation and that should be made law.

Peter, Hastings, UK

The answer to Colin of Bournemouth's question is that approaching 30% of Council Tax is consumed providing final salary gold plated pensions. With increasing longevity this percentage is rising inexorably.

Alan Tayler, Wivelsfield, England

The services get cut, but the price for it goes up ..... why?

Colin, Bournemouth, UK

The endless pressure for more and better services, better pay and pensions and stringent limits on the support grants from governmnent mean that council taxes will rise at a minimum of 5% per year indefinitely - despite quite a lot of cuts in discretionary areas. This will eventually force a major reform to the system as real issues of ability to pay will result in considerable social difficulties among the asset rich poor. Not to mention closure of public facilities. Don't expect any reforms in the service provisions themselves, though. The vested interests are just too well entrenched. The best that can be hoped for is a partial change to a local income tax on top of the existing council tax system. Perhaps 3p in the £ for local purposes, and a freeze on the council tax for a decade. That would help the impoverished pensioners and provide more funds.

Colin , Shrewsbury,