1.6 Billion For Councils

[Bobbisox1]

Can the government sustain these vast amounts of ‘hand outs’ ? Furthermore , how will they get it back?
Councils are saying they can’t maintain their budgets when there’s no car parking / cemetery fees coming in ( probably rightly so) but where’s these vast amounts coming from?
Genuinely curious

[emmie]

from Joe Public eventually.... can see when this is all over taxes going up, including NI contributions, VAT....

[emmie]

unless they print more money, quantitative easing, but this money will need to be paid back somehow.

[rockyracoon]

Wait for the next budget, then we'll find out. Tax will go up and I suspect, so will NI. It all has to be paid for one way or another.

[Bobbisox1]

Yes I agree with both of you, it’ll be like a huge sledgehammer coming down on us

[emmie]

councils are cutting back on many of their responsibilities going on the letter i and hundreds of thousands of others have received from out local council. I reckon that Council Tax will go up eventually to make up the shortfall..

[emmie]

such is life Bobbi, i don't currently care what we have to pay later on, this is causing many deaths and that is more important than a few pounds on our tax system

[Bobbisox1]

There’s no grass cutting here but refuse is still being emptied the same , not sure if anything what else they’re not doing , I know they raked it in on car parking fees and tolls

[emmie]

our Camden Council have said that many of their services won't be available, but to be honest i often wonder quite what they do with the money they collect, moan over.... see you later

[Bobbisox1]

Haha, you’re right , councils do whinge their budget is never enough don’t they ?

[Mozz71]

I guess Mrs May was lying about not having a Magical Money Tree.

[Old_Geezer]

Ah what they need is a magical PPE tree.

[Mozz71]

Or a Magical competent Health Secretary.

[naomi24]

People often think only about what affects them personally but Council Tax funds a vast array of services. The government is doing its best in the most difficult circumstances to keep the wheels turning but yes, it will all have to be paid for. We have to accept that - but wait for the complaints.

[Old_Geezer]

But it needs to be paid for fairly. Authorities seem to have a habit of picking on groups they seem to consider as cash cows.

[naomi24]

OG, that's true.... and personally I find some things, like car parking in some towns and cities way over-priced. However, if they didn't make extra money in those sorts of areas they would have to make up the shortfall elsewhere - probably by adding it to everyone's Council Tax bill - which of course would attract mountains of complaints. What would you suggest?

[bhg481]

OG - the trouble is to most people "fairly" means from anybody but them and "cash cows" are any group to which they belong.

[youngmafbog]

Well the Councils 'could' start culling over paid Council workers(Management) but I doubt that will happen.

So folks the whole bill for all of this will come to us tax payers.

Oh, and real austerity, not the half heated bit we have had for the last ten years.

More people will die of poverty then this virus has killed in the UK would be my bet. Hope I am wrong.

[Old_Geezer]

Council tax bill increase is ok, but strictly speaking it's unfair to penalise folk spent on property charginf them more than those who spent on something else; but that's the awful system we have in place. Ideally it should be higher income tax since that reflects what one got out of being part of society and thus indicates what one should contribute back to it.

No; cash cows is where it's blantantly obvious one is being targeted.

[ToraToraTora]

this is the reason for by "cure v disease" post the other day. What we are doing is not sustainable. The gov can use QE up to a point but in the end that causes inflation and we don't want that. This is not government money it's yours and mine and it'll be you and me that have to replace it.

[Electrochem]

I think the shortfall will come from the general public. Rises in Council Tax, NI and PAYE. I think councils need to look at how much is paid to Chief Executives and others in top positions. They also need to look at how much they pay out when staff are made redundant and just give statuary redundancy pay.