Questions over council tax

Presumably by now all households will have received their council tax demand.

The word demand is of significance here, implying a request made of right, insisting on immediate attention or obedience. If this is so, why according to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, have council tax arrears risen to £4.4billion nationwide as of March 31, 2021?

Contributory factors could well be that tax bands are set too high, excessively generous salaries and expenses allowances of council personnel especially in the upper echelons as reported in the Middy of August 1, 2019 or failure to ensure that any nonpayment is genuine.

This is conjecture. What is not disputable is the mounting debt of this tax. A searching review is required to determine why one of the G7‘s wealthiest economies presides over such an unsustainable situation.

In 2015 Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, questioned why councils needed billions of pounds of reserves, £21.4billion according to the DCLG. Surely the purpose of reserves is to provide emergency funding, so why can’t they be used now to alleviate the burden placed on taxpayers in these extraordinary times?

Many of those likely to be hardest hit will be pensioners reliant on the woefully inadequate two-tiered state pension, especially those born before April 6, 1951 and only entitled to the lowertier rate. Given the apparent condemnation of age-related discrimination regarding employment et al, this may well be seen as a glaring example of a, supposedly, unacceptable practice.

The Middy of December

13, 2018 published an article regarding the important role the local press play in providing their communities with trustworthy news. It is, surely, of equal importance that everyone affected responds and questions whether the operation of the current system, that places increasing numbers under financial duress, can continue. ROGER HEATH Western Road, Newick