What are you all up to

We have Wessex Water, our bill is just below the national average of £34 pm, it's £32 on a meter at present.

Oh, I wish!  £53 p/m for us - metered 😧

Good grief.... we are paying around £73 a month for water and 'drainage' - but we only pay 9 months - then we get 3 months off! - that still works out at about £55 a month over 12 months.  We're not on a meter, but perhaps this is something that we should look at.

David

10 months, fortunately. We don’t pay anything March or April.😀 Although they fitted a meter a few weeks ago, we don’t get charged on it. It’s purely part of their leak checking programme. They did about 50% of the road, the others were already on meters. The letter they sent did say we could opt to go on it if we want. Our water bill is £52 a month for 8 months, then 4 off.

Definitely, David. Your payments are about the same as ours if you take into account our Govt subsidy.

A local income tax would be fairer than a charge based on a calculated house value back in 1993 (was it 1993?)

People choose to spend their income in different ways, some save a lot, others spend it on frequent holidays, the latest phone or a huge TV, and some,  like us, chose to build or  buy  a larger home.  When we moved here in 1988 there were 5 of us.....the 2 of us, our son and daughter, and OH's Mum, we had 4 bedrooms and MIL had her "granny flat" with lounge,  bedroom, kitchen and bathroom, so it is quite a large property, but we seem to manage to use most of it one way or the other.  

However, just  because the house is large does not mean that we use a lot of council services.  With only the 2 of us these days, we generate very little refuse, and our water use is modest, so we get poor value for money in that respect.  When the house is sold it will quite likely be to a family, so they will use more water etc, but I would think they would need to have a household income of at least twice or three times ours to buy here, so with a local income tax they would be paying much more than us.

The Community Charge, which replaced rates for a couple of years, was more  favourable for us as each adult paid a fixed amount, I paid for the 2 of us and MIL paid her own, so each adult using council services was contributing, but a local tax based on income would be much fairer IMO.  In most countries there is a local tax levied to pay for local services.

I do think it is unreasonable to expect a householder to pay a tax based purely on the value of their property without taking their income into account.

We do look now and again at what is on the market locally, but there are very few "all on one level" bungalows, and like you we do not fancy a small flat.  Most of the bungalows around here have loft conversions, so are quite large, with a price to match.  Anything smaller seems to have very small rooms, and poor storage, so we remain here.

"Ours is the only house on our little street now that doesn’t have details of what we paid for it, some 37 years ago"

Ours does appear in the public records, but as it was only the plot that we bought, it is listed as £25,000!

Land around here has increased in value massively since then, you would pay at least £200,000 for the plot these days.

"Wow, i knew Yorkshire was expensive, my sister lives near Malton, been advised our monthly will be £189 , do you live in a castle "

No Rufs - nothing like Just a modest 4bed / 4 bathroom detached house on a new(ish) development after we supposedly downsized when we moved here 8 years ago.  What galls me is that there are just the two of us, both retired and our demand on local services is limited as compared with many others around here whom we're effectively subsidising - but then many of us are in that position so there's no point getting uptight about it but the way that CT is calculated, based on property prices is totally unjust.

We're in credit at the moment, we're quite heavy users when our big garden needs water in the summer even though we store a lot of rain water. We don't waste water or worry too much about usage but a meter leaves us in control.

If deciding about a meter we could try it for a month and then reject it.

Our council tax is expensive so it's swings and roundabouts. 

Up early to get a delivery slot and sort neighbours out with theirs. It will be easier with just us in future! Hopefully trip to NT garden at 10am for first slot there!

Get a meter, we pay £14 per month for water, £17 for waste water 12 monthly payments and we are currently in credit on our water