Rates and water charges - just curious.....

Colin_Kee

I'm not sure if anyone has put made this point before but why the heck does house value have anything at all to do with rates. Surely 2 pensioners living in a £600,000 house they bought 40 years ago will use the same "or chances are less) public services etc than a family of 4/5 living in a £300,000 house a few streets away. Chances are they'll produce less rubbish, use less water, will use the same sewage system, use the same street lights, footpaths, etc.. etc.. this is a completely unfair way of taxation.. All these taxes / rates should be abolished.. if ALL water into houses was metered, you'd pay for what you use, I'd be OK with that, it's fair. As for rates to pay for public services, there should be set rates for set services. i.e a set sewage rate, a set rubbish collection charge, etc.. etc.. then you pay for what you get..

Just another example,, take a house out in the country, they'll probably have a septic tank & soak away, they dont use a council supplied sewage system & they certainly don't get council money to install their septic tank so why should they pay a Water & Sewage tax.. surely they should only pay for the water they use..

Point is this rates system is completely unfair.. It doesn't seem anyone has really thought about it in a fair way,,, Typical Civil Servants

agal

Colin_Kee wrote:

Just another example,, take a house out in the country, they'll probably have a septic tank & soak away, they dont use a council supplied sewage system & they certainly don't get council money to install their septic tank so why should they pay a Water & Sewage tax.. surely they should only pay for the water they use..

P

That's exactly how the system is going to work - if you have a septic tank you don't pay sewerage charges.

leftieM

Colin_Kee wrote:

Surely 2 pensioners living in a £600,000 house they bought 40 years ago will use the same "or chances are less) public services etc than a family of 4/5 living in a £300,000 house a few streets away. Chances are they'll produce less rubbish, use less water, will use the same sewage system, use the same street lights, footpaths, etc.. etc.. this is a completely unfair way of taxation..

Those 'two pensioners' are my in-laws and they are wanton in their waste production. So it really depends on individual cases. However, in the case of public services and paying for them I believe it should be from each according to his ability to pay, to each according to his need, as someone once said.

mcclim

agal wrote:

That's exactly how the system is going to work - if you have a septic tank you don't pay sewerage charges.

It will be interesting to see how much we will be charged for the emptying of a septic tank ?

agal

mcclim wrote:

It will be interesting to see how much we will be charged for the emptying of a septic tank ?

Indeed, mcclim, I have been wondering the same thing myself. I can only assume it will be "equivalent" to the sewerage charge which in my case should be in the £200-250 region. Up to now I have always had my tank emptied annually but at £200+ a time I can see that interval stretching to 4 or 5 years. Won't there be public health implications if large numbers of people stop getting their tanks emptied until they overflow? _pale_

IvanOpinion

agal wrote:

Indeed, mcclim, I have been wondering the same thing myself. I can only assume it will be "equivalent" to the sewerage charge which in my case should be in the £200-250 region. Up to now I have always had my tank emptied annually but at £200+ a time I can see that interval stretching to 4 or 5 years. Won't there be public health implications if large numbers of people stop getting their tanks emptied until they overflow? _pale_

Hopefully only for the people with such tanks

Ivan

agal

IvanOpinion wrote:

Hopefully only for the people with such tanks

Ivan

I was thinking along the lines of effluent finding its way into the water-courses.
A further thought occurs to me - septic tanks are mostly in rural locations....there are lots of farmers with slurry tankers in rural locations....farmers could earn extra money by emptying septic tanks for less money than the Water Company and then spread the slurry on their fields. Now that really would be a potentially serious public health problem.

IvanOpinion

Guys .. do you mind .. I am trying to eat lunch here

ivan

mcclim

agal wrote:

I was thinking along the lines of effluent finding its way into the water-courses.
A further thought occurs to me - septic tanks are mostly in rural locations....there are lots of farmers with slurry tankers in rural locations....farmers could earn extra money by emptying septic tanks for less money than the Water Company and then spread the slurry on their fields. Now that really would be a potentially serious public health problem.

Just talked to the waterservice about this, "supposedly" it will be down to the Square footage of your tank! again proving that they have not thought about this!!! So they will get us for the sewage rather they have a yearly charge or not...

Colin_Kee

agal wrote:

I was thinking along the lines of effluent finding its way into the water-courses.
A further thought occurs to me - septic tanks are mostly in rural locations....there are lots of farmers with slurry tankers in rural locations....farmers could earn extra money by emptying septic tanks for less money than the Water Company and then spread the slurry on their fields. Now that really would be a potentially serious public health problem.

Agal. this already does happen. I've witnessed it first hand. it wasn't spread on the land but injected into the ground using slurry injectors. From a pollutant point of view I don't know if the human stuff is any worse a pollutant hazzard than cow, sheep or pig stuff.. Obviously sounds a lot grosser but just think of it as fertiliser... Wander if it could be classed as "Organic", Suppose it depends on whether anybody in the house was on medication... "Sorry Ivan I'll stop now"