Anyone watching the Budget 2024?

[LadyofRutshire]

I couldn't find a thread on today's budget. Anyone watching live?

@PinkFruitbat compared to other developed countries the UK has a very unequal distribution of income, with a Gini coefficient of 0.351. The UK has one of the highest levels of income inequality in Europe, although it is less unequal than the United States.

You can’t simply look at benefits.

It is all benefits and services received vs any contributions in taxes.

remember;

free healthcare is not ubiquitous.

But it has, via a back door tax. The personal allowance is frozen until April 2028.

The GINI coefficient doesn’t measure wealth, it measures incomes.

When someone works like a bastard full time on minimum wage, but still has to think about putting the heating on, or has a sinking feeling when their child outgrows their shoes then yes something has gone wrong.

The wealthy thinking people's despair is jealousy is quite blinkered.

Not everyone desires a 4 bed detached with a range rover on the drive but every hard worker deserves to not choose between heating and shoes.

It's that level of low wage that needs concentrating on for once.

Very strange indeed, I thought it was a shoe-in. Landlords bad, not a manifesto pledge, easy to collect etc - Classic Labour policy prime target.

Maybe her colleagues said it would impact their property portfolios too much!

I was quite relieved that RR didn't extend the freeze in tax thresholds to 2030.

@fromdownwest that was a Tory policy though wasn’t it? I didn’t expect Labour to reverse it

@fromdownwest maybe that will be in the next one!

I wasn’t comparing the UK to other countries - simply responding to the misunderstanding that “the rich are getting richer”. A stable GINI coefficient demonstrates that this is incorrect.

Yes. And high energy bills etc.

Also because of the false economy of austerity.
Eg. People ending up more ill and less able to work (and for longer periods) due to NHS delays or social care failings etc.

Obviously of course also there's the fact that millions of people currently too ill to work or retired keep loads of people in work and businesses going. Not only health and social care (massive employers) but also shops, tradespeople etc. There would be significantly higher unemployment (and therefore more people needing benefits) without them.

How much more of other people’s money would you like to pay for these things?

Quite a bit of evidence to suggest it has grown
https://equalitytrust.org.uk/scale-economic-inequality-uk/
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/20/britains-wealth-gap-is-growing-its-malign-effects-seep-into-all-aspects-of-life-its-a-national-disaster#:~:text=Half%20of%20British%20wealth%20is,has%20fallen%20even%20further%20behind.
https://www.jrf.org.uk/narrative-change/changing-the-narrative-on-wealth-inequality

Why not move to the US ?

I just might. And lots of other golden geese might just leave too. I’m sure the UK will be just fine without us!

Savage cuts. There’s nowt left to cut.

Maybe she realised the cost of temporary accommodation? Already billions spent on it.

Absolutely the UK urgently needs more council housing asap, but it won't happen overnight (although there are precedents of quick build type of homes). So until then it would be disastrous to push loads of landlords out of the market.

@PinkFruitbat How do we improve public services without increased taxation?

SMEs are not a small part of the economy

I mean it's a massive part, although maybe people are thinking 250 is a high amount of employees

There were 5.5 million small or medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in the UK in 2023, representing over 99% of the business population. SMEs are businesses employing 0-249 people, including sole traders. SMEs accounted for 61% of UK employment

Nice.

No doubt an unbiased organisation!

The numbers as you see are stable (no change!)

https://www.statista.com/statistics/872472/gini-index-of-the-united-kingdom/

Yes I’m perplexed by this. It was a slight incentive to invest in shares rather than property. Any Labour MPs about to sell their buy to lets?

Seems like the Opposition were a bit confounded by how well thought out and reasonable the budget is for the majority of ordinary working people in the UK.
I like the fact that the Government seems to listen, and then act on advice taken from experts across the relevant sectors.
Much better than micro managing!
I truly believe most citizens do want the UK to be better for everyone and that we can get behind the Government.
Doctors need to be paid very well and have a much better work/life balance during their training years and their careers. It doesn't matter how rich or how " posh " you are, good health is the most important thing and capable not exhausted Drs and indeed all NHS workers matter so much.
Also , Rachel Reeves is extremely intelligent and listens to advice.

And here we go - UK 10y gilts as the market absorbs the impact of the budget.

Learn how to do things better from more successful countries.