Taxing our homes

AS WE have a vast building programme nationwide (even though we’re told this is still insufficient), I fail to see the justification for an increase of £100 per household on council tax.

In Maidstone, we have had at least five new housing estates completed over the past two years, with an increase of thousands of homes, each of which is Band D or above.

It is proposed that we need 18,000 houses in and around the town, so the increased revenue is enormous.

A rise of £100 per house amounts to £1.8 million extra, not taking into account that the new homes already bring in a minimum of £1,670 each.

ROSEMARY SAGE, Maidstone, Kent. WHAT a shock! Council tax to rise by 6 per cent. With inflation running at 3.1 per cent, wage rises about the

same if you are lucky and pensions pegged at 3 per cent, what gives local councils the moral right for a 6 per cent rise in council tax?

Surely they should only increase it by the inflation rate at the absolute maximum.

Unlike gas and electricity, you can’t shop around and change councils, so you have no choice but to pay the tax.

Yet we get less each year and have to pay more for no libraries, roads in a dreadful state and police who do not want to know unless you are a speeding motorist.

ROY JONES, Walsall, W. Mids.