To ask what should be being done about the economy and the country generally

Repurposing existing buildings is already happening where I live, and has been for years. Former bank with offices above, former hotel, former ambulance service HQ, 4 x former pubs, old police station, ex-county music school are all now homes. Work has started on 32 social housing properties on a site that used to be a primary school. There's another school that has been sold, and would be very suitable for housing, but it's a listed building so would have to be converted rather than demolished and rebuilt.

A large site here that used to be an industrial estate has planning permission for 400 properties, but the site has changed hands several times since the PP was granted (over 20 years ago!), and no fucker seems to want to start building the homes.

Maybe there should be a way of repossessing sites that have PP for housing that are just being sat on by developers, and councils could then have them for social housing.

honestly, there are no obvious answers to anything.

But if I were in charge, I would tackle the following:

Media literacy - make it a core function of the curriciulum to educate about critical thinking. I was always taught, "read a story in one newspaper, then read that same story in three others - then you'll start to uncover the reality without the bias". In today's age of disinformation, I think this is a fucking CRUCIAL thing we need to do. The impact of the billionaire media barons is terrifying, not to mention the tech bros literally force feeding us false algorithms.

Immigration - Ultimately, I'm a lib dem voter at heart, although I did vote labour last election. We have to acknowledge that there are big concerns over the levels of immigration. Why can't we move to a points system whereby we encourage those who have the skills we need? Other countries do it effectively. I absolutely agree we need healthcare and highly skilled professionals - but the "unskilled" migrants, e.g. the deliveroo drivers, the uber drivers, is where the problems occur because they simply won't be 'putting back into the pot' - in fact, if they are using the NHS, using schools, even driving on the roads - that's not being a net contributor.

Education - ironically, I think the curriculum needs to be reformed (yet again!). It's not fit for purpose anymore - technology has changed so much that the kids don't have the skills for the new jobs that are emerging/will emerge. For instance, we know that the UK film industry contributes billions to the economy - yet the arts subjects have been decimated in the curriculum. More focus needs to be on tech subjects - coding, data analysis, interepretation, AI implementation - this all needs to come before university level.

Housing - I've said a million times. A huge issue is the focus on first-time housing, and not last-time housing. We need developers to build final homes - possibly bungalows, but ones that can allow people to remain living independently at home for much longer. Making hallways wide enough for wheelchairs/walkers, having downstairs bathrooms, removing the need for steps into the front doors - these are all minor things but we know that bed blocking is a huge issue in the NHS. Elderly people want to remain living in their homes and that's why they dont want to downsize or move - but the reality is that in many circumstances, their homes aren't appropriate for their changing needs. There should be incentives - perhaps if you're downsizing, you are exempt from stamp duty.

Taxation - we need to pay more tax. It's simple as that really. I genuinely don't know how you do it. We need to start explaining where the money is going and how it's being used.

Comments like Voluntary euthanasia would massively reduce care needs and draw down of state resources and immigration requirements send a chill down my spine

Beware the slippery slope https://www.betterwaycampaign.co.uk/canada/canadas-slippery-slope/

Many of those countries don't keep people alive to that stage with that level of intervention.

I dont want that level of care for decades on end, nor do i want to pay for it. If you, the taxpayer, or the government, want to keep me going the you can pay for it.

Its no surprise people are trying to offload their money to dodge fees.

The type of care that's needed for frail, elderly people here is very different from the care that other countries provide for their elderly. Would you be able to provide 24/7 supervision, a special bed and air mattress, two hourly turns, pressure area care, tube feeding/specialist diet, weekly polypharmacy to -force them to remain alive- keep going, monthly antibiotics, airway suction during chest infections, wound dressing when they fall over and hurt themselves, diabetes monitoring etc.?

Thought not.

Working from home & Flexible working is / was a great way of moving jobs out of London, and out of City Centres, into areas of lower employment.

I work in the CS, and we were able to offer more roles to people with disabilities who found it hard to physically get into an office; more roles to people living in small towns not well served by public transport, who couldn’t get to a Government Hub in a major city; more roles to people with caring responsibilities, who found 9-5 in an office hard due to travelling time.

All groups, who found it hard to secure employment.

Our ability to do that has now decreased due to mandated office days, mostly because the Media & Reform think WFH is for Shirkers, and they unable to see it’s actually a really valuable tool in Economic Mobility.

Absolutely - not to mention the security implications of having run down the defence-tech sector in some regards so thoroughly it will take a while to rebuild capacity.

Same with mining, shipyards, steel plants, car plants, mill towns, etc. We all liked the idea of cheaper goods imported from low cost countries, but failed spectacularly to appreciate the entirely foreseeable societal costs of unemployment, run down towns, poor health and addictions, etc. We really need to bring back some of the manufacturing - yes, it will cost us more in terms of higher wages, but we'll be paying less shipping costs, and societal costs of unemployment and all that goes with it will reduce substantially. We really can't go on letting the run down towns, cities and regions get even more run down with the resultant increases in poor health, addictions, crime, etc. We're supposed to be one of the richest countries in the World, let some places in the UK look more like Third World hell holes.

Agree @Badbadbunny and HMRC has the tools to differentiate this ought not to have been an impossible task.

"Farmers" weren't - it was investors who were, but genuine farmers are now going to be penalised by IHT on land that they have no intention of ever selling but instead to be passed through the generations like it's always been. At the very least, there should have been exemptions for faming land that wasn't actually sold, i.e. like the extra IHT exemption for family homes that are passed onto the deceased's children there should be extra IHT exemptions for active farmland passed on to the deceased's farmers children.

People in low income areas worked hard when the jobs were there, if they had continued investment in other manufacturing plants from the start, it wouldn't be in this state.
In Dublin city when they changed the docklands to mechanical machines, all the men were unemployed, the city plunged into poverty. People who thought they'd would never steal starting stealing, men were depressed, started drinking, taking drugs, some the children became addicts and criminals the knock on impact of removing a families means of earnings, it rippled through 3 generations.
It takes a lot of money to untangle.

Farming is low profit on trading, but potential for huge capital gains on the land values. That's why it's a popular "investment" for rich people - especially if there is any likelihood of them selling the land for something like HS2 or a housing development or even a solar farm, where the underlying land value increases enormously overnight when it changes from being farming land to development land.

Because farmers were hoovering up vast IHT exemptions.

But his farm is actually "farming", i.e. producing food etc. It's trading whether you think it is or not.

HMRC could easily have imposed a rule where only farmland that is actively farmed by the owner (not a tenant, not left as an investment) keeps the IHT relief and that which is let out to tenants or left unfarmed gets the full charge to IHT. HMRC already have similar rules for deciding whether a "business" qualifies for other forms of relief, i.e. for CGT so that some, say, caravan sites qualify as businesses because they offer other services like swimming pools, onsite gym, onsite shops/restaurants, whereas others don't qualify as a business because they're literally just a site, with no facilities beyond water, power and drainage.

It's not rocket science to "build in" checks and balances, but the Treasury, HMRC etc seem spectacularly incapable of basic common sense.

I think the biggest issue at the moment is the government is running scared following what happened to Truss.

We need large changes in our systems, but the government is petrified that if they try to implement them the same will happen to them as what happened to Truss. This is the real damage Truss did.

That means they will probably try to desperately continue to tread the same old path rather than actually do anything to really change it and improve the countries fortunes. This is why the Labour party at the moment seem more right than the Tories that preceeded them.

The spectre of reform is actually similar to that of Thatcher. Either the government makes changes, or someone else will come in who is willing to take radical steps to try and improve the economy and peoples lives.

I don't believe reform are currently capable of being a credible government. But they are a credible threat to existing parties, and all the while the existing parties fail to make the necessary changes to improve the fortunes of the country their threat grows.

I was talking to some Canadian tourists the other day - Scottish whisky is more expensive in Scotland than it is in Canada.

Hmm. Why does farming, a low earning industry, need to be the one where we moralise that investment has to have pure motives?

Not close to, they're already at that point. That's why so many are refusing promotions/overtime if it takes their wage over a tax cliff edge like £60k or £100k, or they pay into pension to get their gross wage under the cliff edge. It's why so many professionals are leaving the UK and getting jobs elsewhere.

Literally all the graduates at my son's employer are planning to emigrate once they've qualified as actuaries and accountants - most of the leaving "do's" aren't for retirements, they're for 20 somethings who are emigrating.

People need to wake up and smell the coffee. We can't keep clobbering the middle and higher wage earners to subsidise those who either don't work or only want to work part time hours, just enough to get their UC entitlements.

We're at a pivotal point where workers are being hammered enough, especially considering workplace pensions, NIC, student loan repayments, not just income tax.

There is no alternative but to get more people working IN the country to reduce our imports, increase tax/nic revenue, reduce the benefits costs, etc. We also have to reduce the costs of public services and public spending so that the current (I think) £38k threshold where workers actually contribute rather than being net takers, is reduced to a more realistic level. We can't keep increasing tax revenue to pay for public spending - we need to reduce public spending too - a good start would be reducing the waste and inefficiency.

It was a pipe dream to think we could survive and prosper on a service economy relying on cheap imports for everything from goods, to power, to call centre staff - trouble is the politicians havn't worked it out yet and still cling to the flawed idea that we can survive on the financial services industry, hospitality and tourism and somehow prosper on the backs of very low paid staff in the Far East! Trouble is those staff in the Far East are now wanting more for themselves too and their wages etc are increasing, added into the profits expected by the factory owners, ship owners, etc., that's driving up prices back to the kind of level they'd be if we made the stuff ourselves in the UK!

But the primary aim of these investors is to dodge IHT and seek capital profit on their investment, not to produce anything. That’s why they should be prevented. Does anyone look at Clarkson’s farm and think that there’s a man trying all he can do to make money out of farming? He looks like he’s doing it for a hobby.

There is no data on how many 'millionaires are buying up agricultural land for a tax break'

It was an attack on farming

Even the example everyone pulls out - Jeremy Clarkson - he is actually a farmer. He is producing food and industry. So..... how is that even supporting your arguement?

If you have watched Clarksons Farm you will also have seen how much he has invested (CASH!) in that farm.

@AlertCat your name isn't Rachel is it?

Zero VAT for overseas visitors when shopping/on overseas purchases like there used to be. Encourages more tourism & spending to bring cash in - they can spend on accommodation and eating out & other services, the government would get more than the VAT there that isn't being brought in by overseas visitors now IMHO.

It is. The IHT exemption only applies if the land is being farmed.

If billionaires are buying it, they’re letting it to tenant farmers. Iht will hugely increase rents and bring land out of farming

I don’t agree that what they did was better than nothing on farms @Freeasa - it seemed so obviously avoidably flawed.

we need grants etc for people who are not young too, if the high unemployment AI produces, happens.

arguably we already have people stuck in badly paying jobs or economically inactive due to barriers to retraining.

It’s amazing that people seriously think this