to wonder why the govt are not doing anything about the spiralling cost of living?

[dirtyface]

they are making cuts left right and centre, but IMO are not looking at the bigger picture which is the REAL reason people are so skint. ie because of the cost of living ie food, gas, electric, (my particular bugbear) petrol , housing, local taxation.

this is why people are not spending money on the high street etc. its cos no bugger has got any disposable income after they have been fleeced every month paying for the essentials. i for one spend a good proportion of my earnings on petrol, so does dh and i am sure i speak for many people

obviously i am mostly talking about mr and mrs average joe on average incomes, ie, say min wage to about 30k or so. but am sure the higher earners are squeezed as well esp with them cutting off CB and tax credits etc after a certain income

whats going to happen? is it just going to keep going up and up. it scares me

disclaimer: i don't understand how any of this works so sorry if i sound thick. there is probably some clever obvious reason why "they" cant sort the cost of living out a bit

where in the country were you though bumble - if you were more south i would guess it wouldnt have gone far even then

honestly i was loaded on 23k though

at memories of having my hair done every 6 weeks, nails done every week, meals out all the time, wardrobe full of designer clothes, nights out 3 x a week, lovely holidays, my nice little car. seriously i was properly comfortable :(

Wages and the cost of living are getting badly out of kilter.

One of the costs of living that have risen ridiculously are rents. I watch Homes and the Hammer and see properties bought for £50 where the rent charged is £550 a month. That's quite a return on investments. And the you see houses in parts of London where they want £1800 a month and I think who the heck can afford £1800 a month in rent out of already taxed income?

So you have a couple that work but cannot afford the high rent of their home and therefore are subsidised by housing benefit paid for by the taxpayer. This cannot be right.

And tax credits - again subsidised by the tax payer. There is something very wrong when working a full work week does not provide sufficient income to pay the costs of living so tax credits are needed. (Not talking about part-time workers here).

So companies get away with paying minimum wages safe in the knowledge that the tax payer will top up their workers wages while the companies make even bigger profits. Something is very very wrong.

The Govt is terrified of interest rates going up - that would devastate some families who are already struggling. So those who have actually saved are getting virtually no return on their savings and in some cases where they have virtually no saving they are having to be subsidised by the tax payer - again. Whereas a higher interest rate would give them a few more pounds interest, so more spending power.

I don't remember things being this out of balance since the mid 1970s when we had rampant inflation and our wages were increased month after month just to try to keep up with inflation.

Whatever is going on now is not sustainable. QE will not be able to keep a lid on this for much longer. We are not repaying our debts as a country - our debts are actually higher now than they were at the last election, so so much for the Govt sorting out this mess - they have done nothing.

They could start by taking the heat out of BTL which would reduce rents. I think it's absolutely crazy that a buy to let landlord can claim tax relief on his mortgage interest rate payments yet an ordinary householder cannot.
They could increase the council tax on empty properties so owners are encouraged to keep them occupied - which again would lower rents and reduce council tax locally and hopefully reduce the number of 2nd homes which stand empty for much of the year.
And I'm no lefty liberal - I'm just sick of constantly being shafted by every utility, transport, council, etc etc.
Enough!

sorry ^ bought for £50K obviously

Well brace yourselves because interest rates are being kept artificially low at the moment.

Because they just don't care. The spiralling cost of living doesn't impinge on their lives (or the lives of ANY of their friends or family or acquaintances in the slightest. They don't have to bear the financialconsequences of redundancy or disability or bereavement either.

And neither they nor their peers ever have to rely on the public services they are dismantling- schools, hospitals, transport, post offices - for their everyday lives to function. They pay other people to do the everyday stuff of everyday life for them.They never have to queue up for anything or spend hours on the phone on hold to 'outsourced' services just to sort out their tax, or gas leaks, or fuck ups with their broadband.

These aren't simple problems to solve plus they have to keep the electorate happy - not a question of whether they care personally or not.

I think the government need to totally rethink their economic and other policies. Ok, i think we need a totally different government really.

But...

In warped rich boy Osborne world what they are doing makes some sense.....

Spiralling inflation in their view is GOOD as it inflates away the deficit. So the trillions owed become less impactful because the cost of money inflates faster than interest builds.

But that is in much the same way Thatcher was ok with spiralling unemployment if it fixed boom and bust ha ha ha........

The impact of their super smart economic policies on real people is neither here nor there. Arrogant cunts.

You guys voted for tories - what do you think would happen?

'you guys'

you have insider knowledge into who all these MNers voted for?

We have a coalition government

Best MN comment regarding the coalition was that Cameron doesn't even bother using lube any more.

I remember MN before the election and there were a few posters who were very vulnerable, benefits, disability but also young and were unhappy with the current government. They voted Tory because they couldn't remember Thatcher and honestly thought the conservatives would help them.

Raising wages will just make the problem worse, there is not much that can be done about utilities as it's a global market, however there is a lot that could be done to help make housing more affordable - for a start banning of BTL mortgages - you can invest in property but you have to be able to buy the property outright so that you can charge a reasonable rent rather than a tenant paying off a 2nd mortgage (that they could easily afford themselves if they just had a deposit) for an already wealthy person. Imagine how much household finances would be helped if the cost of housing was reduced by 25%.

We already have some of the highest wages in the world.

but catgirl they maybe a small fraction of what we pay but paying out to shareholders and gaining a profit should not come at the cost of customers

gas and electricity costs are spiralled in the last few years so why are companies still making profits

people can not afford to but their heating on when they need it

We may have some of the highest wages, but we also have some of the highest costs too, especially in housing and childcare.

I don't think I will ever own my own house in the uk, but I know many who own multiple houses. That can't be right.

My childcare costs are 50% of my wages, that too is untenable.

We need a radical change in government and thinking, but I can't see it happening whilst people are complacent and there is no real, regarded appetite for change.

Looking around at other countries in the west, we are becoming more selfish, more individualistic and more meritocratic... Fundamentally more right wing.

The left doesn't exist, so there is no balance or middle ground.

What should the gov do? Reduce what is paid out to use it elsewhere, so that might be benefits, NHS, education - all of those are stretched to the limit already.
Increase tax? Well there aren't enough people in the top bracket to really make a difference, I think that was tried, and failed, in the past.
Most things are private companies eg trains, gas - so not sure that the gov can do much.
They seem to be going after those not paying their tax.
I do think they should stop fraudulent subletting of social housing in London or any fraudulence, eg non declaration of income. If people thought they would be caught for cheating they prob wouldn't do it, at present everyone assumes they will get away with it.
Can't think of any magic solution.

Why does raising wages make things worse? The gal between rich and poor is growing and executive pay is going up shed loads. Why is that ok?

There's lots the Govt could do.

What about the water company that claimed it needed an above inflation increase not just 'for development' purposes but because it had failed to collect debts FFS! We are being asked to pay for their incompetence!

What about the train companies that require Govt to sanction above inflation increases year on year. How about saying 'NO' to them.

What about the BBC licence fee that forces us to pay approx. £140 a year so the BBC can make massive payments to redundant staff far in excess of what those staff are entitled to?

What about nurseroes that charge several hundred punds for each child's care and pay their staff minimum wages?

And so on....

Prices in this country are driven by pure greed

How much can we soak the public for? How much will the tax-payer tolerate?

How could the government change what private companies do?
We are not in China or the former Soviet union
and do you REALLY want the Government interfering in the day to day running of TV stations?

Water companies cannot collect debts as they are legally not allowed to switch off the water supply to properties. Most non-payers are rich people who do not care about thier credit rating.

Nurseries make little profit here is Busy Bees profit margin at around 4%, not much scope for reducing fees or increasing wages.

and do you REALLY want the Government interfering in the day to day running of TV stations?

Who do you think appoints the Chairman of the BBC?

The private utility companies are overseen by quangos (Ofwat, OfTel, OfCom, etc) who have to agree their proposed increases and who have the right to challenge increases - but seldom do. Those are quasi-governmental.

The Govt could and should be making policies that stop these spiralling increases.

They have managed to get Local Authorities to stop raising council tax at that alarming rate they used to year on year. The Govt have plenty of leverage with the large private companies - they just chose not to use it. Whoever knew that some multi-national private companies had actually made their own 'tax deals' with HMRC or even thought that arrangements such as that are legal?

There's a lot that could be done.

Because they are loaded and are out of touch with the reality of the situation for ordinary people.

Busy Bees - have you read the article?

They have a turnover of £86m which they rake in from an average occupancy of approx 7519 . So that's about £11,400 per child.

Only 63% of its places are filled . Find it strange that so many places are unfilled. Perhaps occupancy would increase if rates charged were lower?

It appears that they have written off a whopping £6.7m loss on the sale of fixed assets.

No wonder nursery fees are so high.

sorry that 6.7 should have been 6.1.

sorry that 6.7 should have been 6.1 and included depreciation

Raising wages will just reinflate things further, too tired to go into it now but the price of basics will always rise to match the supply of money. If we implemented a living wage for all now, in 10 years time we'd have people campaigning for the 'real living wage' and so on.