Further Details
What other options could be combined with Choose Your Band?
The TV license could be included on the council tax bill, keeping it visible, but providing a saving on administration.
A
government could opt to mandate that second homes and rental properties
move to the Location Bands scheme, which would remove tax
administration on a significant number of properties.
A
government would be wise to put all new build properties into the
Location Bands scheme to keep administration costs down. This could be a
choice left to each individual authority.
What restrictions would there be on switching bands?
For
properties that are not occupied by the owner, they would need the
occupier's agreement (as they still pay the bill) to change to a
different Classic Band
Once a property has moved to Locations Bands, it cannot move back to Classic Bands.
How would government revenues be affected?
Each
property that moves to Location Bands will improve the governments
financial position, due to the hysteresis built into the band cash
adjustments.
As the economy grows the income from Location Bands
will improve with location values, and will gradually allow other taxes
to be phased out.
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A Breakthrough in "Affordable Housing"
Complex and restrictive shared-ownership 'affordable housing' schemes have significant problems:
- opaque leasehold contracts leaving most buyers in the dark as to what is involved when they sell
- complex three-way ownership (occupier, bank and registered social landlord), resulting in high legal fees and the shyness from banks to provide mortgages.
- very few mortgage options, leading to uncompetitive rates
Choose Your Band resolves these problems by allowing the rented 'share' of the shared ownership to be replaced with a cash lump sum to buy that share outright from the vendor/developer.
It is the same tenure as private housing - it is private housing. The buyers get a full choice of mortgage providers; ability to market the house themselves; competitive legal fees.
Choose Your Band allows home ownership for all, not just the lucky few.
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