The students are just as liable for the council tax bill as your daughter, Council tax applies to properties and not individuals.

berating her and her friends over council tax is, frankly, something you shouldn’t be doing.

I don’t know where you get the idea I’m berating anyone – I haven’t even discussed it with her, just listened to what she mentioned. It struck me as unfair, but I kept quiet. My purpose in my OP was to check the information about CT, and to test the waters for a gentle suggestion at some later date.

The students are just as liable for the council tax bill as your daughter, Council tax applies to properties and not individuals.

This is something I don’t understand …

Take a look at Citizen’s Advice (link), notably the section on ‘Discounts.

This is something I don’t understand …

You don’t need to understand it, it’s wrong.

Students and council tax.

The council will just want their money and they will chase anyone who lived there and the landlord if need be.

One situation I can think that is fair for a student to pay is if you have a household of sharing professionals who are advertising for another to replace someone moving out but a student wants to move in. In that situation you would make it clear from the start that everything gets split.

In the past we have had all names listed but then discounts applied or not applied. This time the council just left off our student housemate as they said there was no point as he is exempt anyway.