Why are the highest and 2nd highest council taxes in UK with Lib Dem councils

FlyingDonkeys

I am baffled to find out that the highest council tax is Kingston and the second highest in the country is Richmond. They are both Lib Dem councils! If they can't run their councils efficiently I hate to think what they would do in power. I'm really annoyed as I wanted to move there but these charges make it really difficult.

MX5huggy

I don't think you are correct. Spennymoor in Sedgefield Band D Tax is £1,635.06 Richmond is £1,543.76 and Kingston is £1,579.57 or £1,602.89 with the W&PCC addition. I can't imagine that living in Richmond or Kingston is the cheepest place!

PasturesNew

They are posh places, they keep the CT high to deter riff raff :P

Gorgeous_George

My guess is that marginal areas will have the lowest Council Tax. Where a seat is guaranteed there is no need to keep taxes low.

Successive governments will ensure a higher %age of local authority spending comes from central funds.

Anybody got the stats?

GG

Strapped

I generally run a mile from party-political debate. Esp from newbie posters. But I will say:

Use your vote. Or better still, stand for office. :T

Strapped

I found this link which lists most expensive is a labour council, followed by 3 conservative ones. Claims source is cipfastats but I'm too lazy to check, sorry!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1899390/Ten-most-expensive-areas-for-council-tax.html

Running_Horse

If you can't afford your council tax, you can't afford to live in Richmond or Kingston.

But feel free to begin a discussion in the relevant forum.

olly300

This should be move to the House Prices, Economy and Recession forum.

Part of the reasons are:
1. To vote for Lib Dems the area tends to have educated people who tend to be more wealthy.

2. The second largest party is the conservatives in Richmond and Kingston. (There are no labour councillors in Richmond. http://www.richmond.gov.uk/home/council_government_and_democracy/democratic_processes_and_events/who_are_my_councillors.htm)

3. The majority of the money the councils use comes from central government and is based on the salaries of people in the area. So not a lot of low or no wage earners in large horrible estates means the money received from central government is lower.

Edited to say the rents and house prices are not more expensive than living in lots of inner London boroughs however the real difference is that if you have children you will find that the number of children classed with special educational needs in their schools is lower.

GDB2222

There are lots of possible explanations. For example, because the Lib-Dems got voted in to sort out the financial mess left by one of the other parties.

In any case, I can't see what is wrong with high taxes, PROVIDED we get value for money for them. The problem is that most people in this country regard government spending as wasteful, which it may well be, but does not have to be.

Bone_Idle

I've lived in both areas within the last five years - I can't remember what happened in Kingston but certainly in Richmond there were regular swaps from Lib Dem to Conservatives and back again, so it's probably just the Lib Dem's turn! Each would regularly complain about the other side's financial mismanagement but that seems par for the course wherever you are in the country...

I would imagine that the wage bill in both councils is probably quite high, as the cost of living must be around the highest in the country despite being in outer London.

edgex

Council tax amount & efficiency have nothing to do with each other.