Tax cuts for the rich, hurrah!

[Bod ...]

Yep, we scrimped and scraped for three years to get a deposit together, bought a wreck of a house, had EVERYTHING apart from the bed second or third hand and lived in the upstairs only for a year while we worked on it. Rewired, replumbed, new kitchen, new bathroom, new windows, central heating installed, changed most of the floors due to woodworm/damp/rot, replastered etc etc. Virtually everyone we knew that bought a house did that. I seriously doubt any youngsters do that these days.

Some will and do.

 

[ajohn]

According to a Sikh/Hindu Indian newspaper.

Are you sure? Seems to be an odd coupling to me.
Sikhs, followers of the Sikh religion, centered in Punjab State, in northwestern India. Sikhism is an ethical monotheism fusing elements of Hinduism and Islam. It was founded by Nanak (1469-1539), a mystic who believed that God transcends religious distinctions.

I worked in an office that had one Sikh and one Hindu. At the time something had flared up and Sihks were killing Hindu That according to a Hindu. Nothing in our news at all so pass and I just stopped out of it. I could have asked the Sihk for his view. Things do flare up from time to time in India and I recollect recent mentions on AlJ. Not war like ones though.

Social media - it will have an impact on society. That needn't be a good one.

 

[Diver Fred]

Yep, we scrimped and scraped for three years to get a deposit together, bought a wreck of a house, had EVERYTHING apart from the bed second or third hand and lived in the upstairs only for a year while we worked on it. Rewired, replumbed, new kitchen, new bathroom, new windows, central heating installed, changed most of the floors due to woodworm/damp/rot, replastered etc etc. Virtually everyone we knew that bought a house did that. I seriously doubt any youngsters do that these days.

When I bought my first house I had limit my social 'activities' to one night a week; annoying as I then had a warmer location to persue those activities than the back seat of the vehicle.

 

[Pat ex]

Are you sure? Seems to be an odd coupling to me.

It's an Indian newspaper. A lot of the fake news originated from India. 80% of India is Hindu, and according to some, Sikhism originated from Hindu.
There are ongoing spats between Pakistan (mainly Muslim) and India (mainly Hindu).

The Tribune in India, which is where gone obtained his information has the subtitle of "the voice of the people". It's mainly a newspaper of the north of India. About 95% of Punjab is Sikh/Hindu Only about 2% is Muslim.
The owner of the Tribune is a US Texan media company.

 

[IT Minion]

Mottie's right, there has never been such a thing as affordable housing. It took a hard working couple pulling together and willing to make sacrifices to be able to afford to buy a house.

Indeed, except it is well known that it's more expensive now and harder to do.

We'll, apart from right to buy, that was a massive handout to that generation.

 

[ajohn]

Mottie's right, there has never been such a thing as affordable housing. It took a hard working couple pulling together and willing to make sacrifices to be able to afford to buy a house.

True to some extent but. My mother never worked while we were growing up. Neither did the wives of neighbours. Husbands incomes varied but not what anyone would regard as high. A single solitary teacher was probably the highest earner who also gave piano lessons, He could run a used car. It took a lot of years for car ownership to be common also believe it or not land lines - party lines. Also colour TV's All had problems saving the deposit and also having to pay rent.

First change was also count 1/2 of another income. Later all of it. There has been various changes to reduce the cost of buying. Stamp duty for instance. Landlords are reckoned to have been profiting from that more so than buyers. What ever is done prices just keep increasing even though timber frame with a brick skin go up one hell of a lot quicker than houses used to take to build.

The question really is has their been a distortion in house prices compared with salaries? I think there has been. Also increased rental costs. More people live in rental poverty - their rent is too high a proportion of their income. Seems it's fairly common in under 30's currently. Deposits are interesting as well. Amount has a bearing on interest rates. I probably live in an extreme example. House worth ~7 times what it was when we bought it. Would mine and my wife's salary track that over 30 odd years or so. Afraid I don't think so. Maybe as I had a near 50% salary increase part way through due to a promotion. My wife didn't. That is likely to be more typical.

The other factor that is bound to figure in it all is buy to rent even mortgages for that particular purpose. Most of the time they have offered a pretty good return.

Then emergency base rates.

 

[fillyboy]

Indeed, except it is well known that it's more expensive now and harder to do.

We'll, apart from right to buy, that was a massive handout to that generation.

Why 'that' generation?, right to buy still exists, and section 106.

 

[IT Minion]

Why 'that' generation?, right to buy still exists, and section 106.

Except there are no council houses anymore as they were all sold off or moved into housing associations to avoid it. Plus the benefit was ramped up and then down over time. The benefits now are tiny fraction of the previous ones.

Although the Right to Buy tends to be presented as a seamless, integrated policy in reality it involved two separate key elements. The first – giving tenants the right to purchase remained unchanged in the years after 1980. The second involved determining the price for each individual property purchase - including potential levels of discount and any ceiling placed on this. High discounts without the Right to Buy had generated substantial sales in 1979 and 1980 and would, no doubt, have continued to do so thereafter. Higher discounts introduced periodically after 1980 boosted sales, while later restrictions on maximum discounts reduced them.

 

[Bod ...]

Except there are no council houses anymore as they were all sold off or moved into housing associations to avoid it. Plus the benefit was ramped up and then down over time. The benefits now are tiny fraction of the previous ones.

That's not true.....is it

 

[JohnD]

It's even more surprising that in this day and age there are stupid Marxists like yourself spouting 'hang the rich' nonsense.

You are mistaken

Or lying

Which is it?

 

[JohnD]

Oh, "gone."

Obviously the second.

 

[ellal]

The question really is has their been a distortion in house prices compared with salaries?

Bingo...

And something the so called hard working spivs with their tax payer hand outs don't seem to get!
House 'values' are the only thing keeping the UK afloat, but it is just a paper asset...
One only needs to check out our antipodean cousins to see the state of a country's finances in reality...

"Australia's central bank on Wednesday said its equity had been wiped out by losses suffered on pandemic-era bond buying, but its ability to create money meant it was not insolvent and would continue as normal.

Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Deputy Governor Michele Bullock said the bank had taken a mark-to-market valuation loss on its bond holdings of A$44.9 billion ($30.02 billion) in 2021/22.

The bonds were accumulated under a A$300 billion emergency stimulus programme that ran from November 2020 to February 2022.

The losses eclipsed underlying earnings of A$8.2 billion and left the central bank with an accounting loss of A$36.7 billion. It also ate up all the RBA's reserve funds, leaving it with a negative net equity position of A$12.4 billion.

Bullock noted that while this would bankrupt a normal commercial entity, the RBA's liabilities are guaranteed by the government.

"Furthermore, since it has the ability to create money, the Bank can continue to meet its obligations as they become due and so it is not insolvent,"



Of course as stated it's only recourse is to print more money, but then that just makes matters worse...


An insignificant little troll got a topic closed when it couldn't understand the situation in Iceland...

If truth be told, they let their banks go bust, paid all their debts and now have a booming economy...

Of course they have real resources as opposed to virtual ones, but then so many in the UK just don't get it that this country is a spent force!

 

[JohnD]

For a fair assessment of the likely results, just read the report which the Office of Budget Responsibility is obliged to produce.

What we do - Office for Budget Responsibility

The Office for Budget Responsibility was created in 2010 to provide independent and authoritative analysis of the UK’s public finances. It is one of a growing number of official independent fiscal watchdogs around the world.

obr.uk

Oooops.. you can't, because Truss has suppressed it.

Truss team would shun OBR forecasts for emergency budget | Financial Times

Frontrunner in Tory leadership race to decline offer of economic data from independent fiscal watchdog

www.ft.com

Silencing mini-budget analysis will not help Truss woo the markets

Government needs independent verification of policies if it is to win vital finance sector confidence

www.theguardian.com

"What does it all mean for the public finances? Well, we won’t be told, at least not immediately, by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the body that matters most. The independent watchdog has been gagged, in effect, until the actual budget – which will almost certainly be a smaller fiscal affair – arrives later this year.

The Tory chair of the Treasury select committee, Mel Stride, is furious and is right to be. The economic weather has been transformed since the OBR’s last forecasts in March. If tax policy is to be rewired, a full analysis of its effects on the main moving parts of the finances – growth, the deficit, borrowing, debt-servicing costs – is essential."

 

[JohnD]

"Kwasi Kwarteng refuses to let OBR release forecasts with mini-budget
Tory chair of Treasury committee says assessments on economic impact of planned tax cuts vital to provide reassurance to markets"

Kwasi Kwarteng refuses to let OBR release forecasts with mini-budget

Tory chair of Treasury committee says assessments on economic impact of planned tax cuts vital to provide reassurance to markets

www.theguardian.com

 

[Pat ex]

Truss team would shun OBR forecasts for emergency budget | Financial Times

Frontrunner in Tory leadership race to decline offer of economic data from independent fiscal watchdog

www.ft.com

Silencing mini-budget analysis will not help Truss woo the markets

Government needs independent verification of policies if it is to win vital finance sector confidence

www.theguardian.com

"What does it all mean for the public finances? Well, we won’t be told, at least not immediately, by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the body that matters most. The independent watchdog has been gagged, in effect, until the actual budget – which will almost certainly be a smaller fiscal affair – arrives later this year.

The Tory chair of the Treasury select committee, Mel Stride, is furious and is right to be. The economic weather has been transformed since the OBR’s last forecasts in March. If tax policy is to be rewired, a full analysis of its effects on the main moving parts of the finances – growth, the deficit, borrowing, debt-servicing costs – is essential."

OK, thanks for the clarification.
So under normal circumstances the OBR provides a forecast report for THE budget, or the Spring Statement.
In fact the OBR requires 10 weeks notice for such a budget.

As soon as the Chancellor of the Exchequer sits down after delivering his Budget or Spring Statement to Parliament, the OBR publishes a forecast for the economy and the public finances that incorporates the impact of the policy decisions he has just announced.

Forecast process and papers - Office for Budget Responsibility

The forecast process, working papers, briefing papers, discussion papers and occasional papers.

obr.uk

But this wasn't either. But the OBR requested permission to publish a report anyway, which was denied by the Chancellor, because according to him, it wasn't the normal thing to do, which many have interpreted it as the OBR being gagged.

As long as we've cleared that up.