Rates changes .. rip-off or overdue

badabing

We are being shafted yet again. No comparison can be made with england etc. because here we are faced by higher costs ie fuel, we have a lower standard of living and lower level of wages Why should we get screwed over because of various governments lack of investment. Its not our fault that the majority of water never reaches the tap but leaks away.

butterflymum

Regardless of whether or not it is a rip-off or overdue, it is about to become reality. Pity then that there are so many discrepancies in values etc (in my own semi-rural road of about 8 similar houses, the figures vary considerably and inaccuracies in whether or not properties have a garage or oil heating are there for all to see...and this is only 8 houses!).

wotnoshoeseh

The whole thing reeks of our incompetent civil service taking the easy way out and not looking at the houses to see if there are any individualities and differences between houses. I have read in past threads how people have checked their rates online and noticed that larger houses in their streets have been given a lower value and will therefore subsequently pay less for their rates. Funny thing is I never read anyone's post stating the reverse; wonder why that is?:rolleyes:
The same thing will happen with the water rates as our civil servants take the easy option out and place an average blanket charge on each house in a street irrespective of no. of people living in it, square footage, no. of WC's or whatever.
If you want a water meter you will probably have to fork out for it yourself, too.

marcais

badabing wrote:

We are being shafted yet again. No comparison can be made with england etc. because here we are faced by higher costs ie fuel, we have a lower standard of living and lower level of wages Why should we get screwed over because of various governments lack of investment. Its not our fault that the majority of water never reaches the tap but leaks away.

Of course a comparison can be made with England. The rates pays for services provided for by the council, The cost of these cervices is comparable to the cost of the same services in England and so we should be paying a comparable amount for these services.

The fact that we pay more for fuel, insurance, or any other goods is completely irrelevant to any discussion about rates. If you have a problem with that then take it up with the companies that provide these services. It's not up to the council to lower rates because a loaf of bread costs more in Tesco in Knocknagoney than it does in Tesco in Hounslow.

I don't completely agree with the system that they are putting in place, but people here have been paying waaaay under the odds for the services the council provides for decades now. Given the pathetically childish behaviour of our politicians, I can understand why the UK gov't has decided that they are going to stop subsidising us, so that means we now have to start paying our own way.

darrenfinlayson

generally speaking though, the government is good at being very inefficient with our money

wifeforlife

wotnoshoeseh wrote:

The whole thing reeks of our incompetent civil service taking the easy way out and not looking at the houses to see if there are any individualities and differences between houses.

The same thing will happen with the water rates as our civil servants take the easy option out and place an average blanket charge on each house in a street irrespective of no. of people living in it, square footage, no. of WC's or whatever.



I dont think it's fair to generalise civil servants as incompetant. Remember we have to pay rates too.

The way I see it is we have to start paying for ourselves in this country (northern ireland) as much as I hate to say it, I agree that we do get compared to the mainland but we are being heavily subsidised also.

Our level of wages definately do not meet the same as the mainland, taking for example civil servants in the mainland, I know that I earn considerably less than them but am now expected to meet the same living costs as them (12550k per annum with 4 yrs service, I'm not afraid to tell you what I earn, crap!!!). If we are to match the level of living in the mainland it has to be the same with everything, plus we should be allowed then to have more competition with utility bills also haha NIE!

Cath

marcais

What does someone doing the same job as you for the civil service in England get?

maccaz

I'm an AA in the civil service and earn £11209 per annum (minimum wage). In Wales the same AA earns £14250?????

Not sure what wotnoshoeseh meant by 'incompetent civil service', I can assure him at my level I work very hard.

The problem I find hard to swallow, is our 'elected' government are sitting back and letting all this happen and costing the rates / tax payers £40 million plus a year for doing nothing.
They are now getting involved and saying 'what an unfair system', 'rates bills should be capped', etc, etc,. Too late I'd say.

Maybe when the next election comes up, it should be remembered what they did for us when we needed them!

darrenfinlayson

debenhams and laura ashley are two other places that have a higher hourly pay rate on the mainland than NI, when questioned it was because the folk on the mainland have a 'higher cost of living' apparently

marcais

I know lots of places have a London weighting allowance and an Outer London weighting allowance.

Having said that, I know for a fact that where I work there is a huge difference in pay for people doing the same job. It's been a particular bone of contention here that people joining on a particular grade will often get more than people at that grade who have been with the company for years.

I would have thought that possibly even different departments in the civil service in NI have different pay scales. For example DoE pays different rates than DEFRA (or whatever the various departments are called over here), but I don't know if it's true or not.

Anyway, that's all a bit of a tangent. My point is that rates should be higher here than they have been in the past, but that the new way they calculate rates is not the fairest system they could have chosen.