Budget 2024 #2

[LadyofRutshire]

Hi, this is the follow-up thread to the Budget 2024 anyone watching thread.

Thanks @LadyofRutshire.

"I’ve also just twigged with the whole APR IHT they haven’t mentioned rollover. I will be fuming if they continue to allow rollover and hit family farms with IHT."

@WhitegreeNcandle
Where we live there are a number of small family farms, on land that is difficult to do much else with, and already the present level of stress and poverty for some of the farmers is concerning.

(I wonder if Labour have even bothered to consider the suicide rates.)

Would you mind explaining how rollover fits (or doesn't) into this new regime?

Re OAPs receiving their State Pension when they move abroad, until the recent changes they were also getting the Winter Fuel Allowance! Bloody ridiculous! In theory if they receive pension credit they still could 🙄
On the whole I liked what I heard today. I'm glad the minimum wage is rising by so much. It's about time! I'm retired btw so it doesn't directly affect me but I'm happy for those who will receive it. Obviously I'm very happy with the extra funding for the NHS and education.

Re state pension and retiring abroad. Some countries it's frozen.

This woman is a WW2 veteran - and worked (and paid taxes) in the UK for 50 years. She moved to Canada after retiring. If she'd moved to America she'd get the full pension.

https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/gloucester-news/war-veteran-anne-99-fights-9657299

Inheritance tax needs proper reform, as does business rates. They both come from an era when life was very different.

@LlynTegid in what way ? The reason people with us to pass on to family isn’t it ? You tax too much people lose incentive

I also think RR done a good job today and it was a good as can be budget. I am not happy with the PM though, why all the doom and gloom/anxiety spreading for weeks before? It just screams to me that he is trying to please all the people all of the time. I voted Labour for a change from the Tories/snp but I don't think the PM is a leader or strong. I am in Scotland by the way so we have double the shit show going on.

I was glad to see the first budget from a woman in my lifetime and hope she delivers what she's said. However we all know politics can turn on a sixpence at anytime, plus they have a mountain of ambition to climb. I am aware that this is a 5 year plan and anything could change at the next budget. I wish them well in there endeavours for all of our sakes.

I think big changes need to come in the UK like means testing the state pension, taking control of social care/GPS/dentist under the NHS.

I also think university should be free, up to a point.

I don't agree with those living abroad being able to claim state money.

I also think radical changes need to happen with the benefits system.

This was linked by another pp and it's a pretty good overview of the OBR response

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/oct/30/obr-budget-economic-growth-rachel-reeves-economy

Although not that great for growth

Labour has embarked on a “large, sustained increase in spending, tax and borrowing”, according to the government’s economic forecaster, as it judged that Labour’s first budget for 15 years is unlikely to increase economic growth over the next five years.

Assessing Rachel Reeves’s policies, the Office for Budget Responsibility(OBR) said the economy would expand at the same rate as predicted in March by the end of the parliament, despite a £70bn-a-year rise in spending.

I tried to post this in response to another poster on the last thread but it filled up before I had the chance!

She had been talking about why we need to be looking after our farmers, not shafting them, and promoting our own food security without being reliant on importing so much food via unstable supply chains which are also bad for the environment.

My comment was: Totally agree with your points on the need to grow more of our own food, but sadly Labour have made it clear what they think of the countryside. Near me, within weeks of the GE, Ed Milliband approved a solar farm that had been rejected by the local council and sent to the Secretary of State on appeal. Now of course the Tories should have kicked the appeal out but instead sat on it for a couple of years.

So now we’ve got what will be one of the biggest solar farms in Europe being built across prime East Anglia farming land.

@CaveMum and same in Wiltshire Limedown heartbreaking and all down the m4 corridor just awful

I am all for renewable, but solar farming in this way is anything but environmentally friendly. It is a travasty against nature for profit. It makes me so angry that that the whole issue is green washed and so little thought is given to better alternatives. Solar should be integrated into car parks, buildings, cars etc etc. Not virgin land, all washed down regularly with precious water, chemical cleaner and goodness knows what pesticides.

Neither should we be building on greenbelt. Plenty of brownfield sites need regenerated.

Exactly. Why not change planning rules to make it a legal requirement that all future building projects (houses, factories, car parks, etc) must be fitted with solar panels and that all housing with off street parking must automatically be fitted with electric vehicle charging points? Then they can start retroactively applying similar rules to every commercial building with a flat roof and then there would be little need for these mega solar farms.

It’s common for brownfield to be contaminated. Which doesn’t mean it can’t eventually be built on but often needs to lay idle for decades to decontaminate. This is partly why people think so many brownfield sites they see are abandoned

Our local FB groups are saying tonight to expect a reduction in services and a possible increase in prices whilst they renegotiate staffing. I live in a small town that really only has summer trade so most businesses are small and are concerned they won't be able to keep all their staff year round with the increase in mw plus their hike in ni. It's very concerning for many of the young mums that work part time as we have no childcare. Very worrying time for small businesses and farmers which is basically all the employment in my area 😔

That is interesting. Although when I look round all the vast number of areas in towns and cities near me which need regenerated - not one of them would reasonably be thought of as contaminated. They are not old factories etc. Perhaps I am using the term 'brown field' wrongly. I'm talking about failed shopping centres and empty office blocks. Failed shops in the high Street. Abandoned domestic premises. Areas of old or near or should-be condemned housing stock.

You mentioned you work in insolvency. So I'm guessing you are very likely to see more than the average genuinely 'contaminated' site. But I live in a part of the world with starkly contrasting 'have' and 'have not' or 'completely gave up hope years ago' areas or dying/dying/dead high streets. And I cannot help but notice quite a few similar areas when I travel across the UK. Urban regeneration may seem more expensive than a nice easy new greenbelt site, but in social and environmental terms - I really think we cannot afford to build on greenbelt, it is so so shortsighted.

Although not that great for growth

I can’t see us having big growth ever tbh. Not with ageing population, shrinking birth rates, Brexit, etc.

If farmers sell land for development they have three years to buy more farmland to avoid paying any tax on. Often huge huge sums are involved. It’s the bit of IHT that the industry thought they might go after as it would raise a lot and massively skews the land market

I would treat your main home (not second homes) differently from the rest of a deceased person's estate. One thought is an exemption for any home in certain tax bands, providing you name in a will who the house goes to.

The lack of understanding of how bad this is for farmers is shocking. So many “I’m alright Jack” attitudes.

Labour made clear what they thought of farming and countryside issues within weeks of coming to power - approving plans for massive solar farms (some of the largest in Europe) across prime agricultural land in East Anglia and Wiltshire.

@LadyofRutshire

means test state pension? Yes I’m 52 and have worked since I was 16 and have paid into the system towards the state pension. So by all means they can introduce a means tested state pension whereby those that have paid their dues get one and those don't/haven't do not get one!

I don't understand how this ties in with IHT? You generally have to be dead for your estate to be liable for it, not busy buying more land for development. Are you confusing it with CGT maybe?

Just realised is posted this on the wrong thread! But the point still stands!

The solar farms I imagine are built on farmland that farmers have sold for a good profit, hardly out of pocket.

You can still farm on solar farms, it's called agrisolar. You can keep free-range chickens, graze sheep or grow fruit under solar panels as long as the panels are in rows with gaps (as they often are).

Ah..what a bucolic scene that will be. The glorious British countryside.