Probably more of a WWYD but

[muminhants]

if you were the new government, what five priorities would you set?

I would:

(a) Make tuition fees for a first degree completely free

(b) Make travel season tickets deductible from tax

(c) Require charities with the same ends to merge in order to keep their charitable status - it annoys me when charities do the same thing but don't work together, thus adding to admin costs which takes money out of the system for actually doing something

(d) Make sure that local authorities stopped closing libraries and do more to get people to use them who aren't under 10 or over 60 so that everyone understands their value

(e) brownfield sites to be prioritised over greenfield sites for building projects and more to be done to bring empty buildings back into use

Abolish private schools and ensure ALL schools are excellent and well funded.

(A) I wouldn't do (the new system is better than the £3000 fees I paid!)
(B) I agree with but probably wouldn't make my list of top priorities
(D) is certainly a good idea but needs more funding from Central gov (local councils can't afford to keep them and have limits placed on how much they can increase council tax by)
(E) is definitely a good idea

1 - I would start by extending E; whatever help to buy schemes etc. are introduced we will inky solve our housing problem by building more houses. I would make councils replace any houses sold under right to buy in the future by building new council homes. I would give central gov funds to all councils for the express building of houses and set a number of houses they need to build with that money (councils can choose to sell those or use for social housing but we need to increase the number of houses).
2 - I would bring back Sure Start, evidence shows intervention in early years is the most important thing for a good education and social mobility. Cutting that was shameful.
I'm sure I'll have more ideas in a minute.

inky! I meant only.

I think you should also say how you plan to fund this.

Oh and stop the Right to Buy and build more social housing or use home epty for more than 20 years as social housing.

AND I'd stop tenants from having to pay council tax. UNLESS their landlords offer long term tenancies in which case the tenant can pay council tax and be responsible for wear and tear repairs.

None of the things in your op sound like priorities to me...

a) Make tuition fees for a first degree completely free

How would you pay for this? More would do degrees, devaluing them even further.

(b) Make travel season tickets deductible from tax

So those on PAYE would have to become self assessment? Good idea in theory...how would it work in practice?

(c) Require charities with the same ends to merge in order to keep their charitable status - it annoys me when charities do the same thing but don't work together, thus adding to admin costs which takes money out of the system for actually doing something

Ridiculous

(d) Make sure that local authorities stopped closing libraries and do more to get people to use them who aren't under 10 or over 60 so that everyone understands their value

Where's the money coming from?

(e) brownfield sites to be prioritised over greenfield sites for building projects and more to be done to bring empty buildings back into use

Far too simplistic...building on brownfield sites is more expensive apparently.

AND any man or woman guilty of sex crimes will have much heavier penalties. As will those who cause death by reckless driving or drunken driving.

love all of your ideas except your first one! If tuition fees were free you would get a lot of young people wasting three years of their lives partying! trust me, I was a student!

(1) All state-funded or partially state-funded schools to be non denominational.
(2) SMP/SPP to be six months at Minimum Wage for your contracted hours (companies can of course privately offer more)
(3) Rapists to be sentenced to a minimum of 15 years with no optipn for parole
(4) Paedophiles to be sentenced to a minimum of 30 years with no option for parole
(5) Murderers to be detained til they are 80, irrespective of what age they committed their crime

1. make a sustainable funding plan for the NHS including considering what the NHS can't provide for free.
2. increased funding for mental health
3. reform parliament - English votes for English laws. fewer MPs, reform devolved funding and also the constituency boundaries to make them fairer
4. welfare reform and eu reform to discourage benefit tourism and keep immigration to levels that uk infrastructure can accommodate
5. a faster rise in the minimum wage.

ensure ALL schools are excellent and well funded.

Mrsflanel if you have a specific proposal by all means bring it forward.

I'd cap rents at a maximum of 50% of the average mortgage rate for the area- or whatever other criteria seems sensible to decide a fair and affordable rent.

BTL LLs are a skid mark upon the anus of our society. Pricing them out of business should be a priority for any government.

Raise income tax to fund

1. Lower student fees. £9000 a year is shocking.
2. Heavily subsidised childcare and wraparound care for all who work.
3. All LA schools to be secular (although I'll miss nativity plays!).
4. Raise minimum wage so it becomes a living wage.
5. Do something about tax evasion.

We need some rentals saucy, I lived in rentals for years because I didn't want to buy.

Maybe we do need some rentals. But not the amount we currently have, nor with the profit they make.

Nobody should be forced into buying a house for somebody else. Private renting should be a choice for those who want it.

I do dislike second home tho. No one is even living in it!

My top 5 priorities would be....

1. Give up on "Trickle down" economics. Making things easy for the rich doesn't see wealth trickle down, it just makes things harder for the people who aren't rich. The London property market is a great example of this.

1. Make sure employers pay a living wage. Most people receiving state benefits are working, but on wages so low they are not enough to live on.

1. Reverse the changes being made to disability benefits and allowances. Actually, stop demonising people on welfare full stop.

1. Stop selling off the NHS and its services. Properly fund mental health. I'm happy to pay more tax if that's what it takes.

1. Take away charitable funding status for private schools and put the money into state education.

a) close as many tax loopholes as possible

b) put resources into getting hold of the actual tax that is owed

c) with the huge amount of money now available due to a and b, I'd restructure the nhs, which is a massive monster that haemorages money and needs to be run more efficiently and for the benefit of patients. This would include returning it to the control of nurses and doctors.

d) improve education. reduce testing as teaching children to pass tests is not educating them. Changing the curriculum to ensure that children are taught more economics, business, politics (small p) and are generally more globally aware is more important that getting them to chant a list of the past kings and queens of england. Every child should have an education that prepares them for the world we live in today. No child should grow up asking why, if the country needs more money, does the government not just print more!

e) turn the spotlight on the system itself. Civil service waste, house of lords gravy train, etc

In no particular order.

1 Lone parents or one parent would not be obligated to work till their youngest/only was 16.
However for the ones who wanted to work better more affordable childcAre ( for holidays and weekends) Sure start would have to start seeing past 4 year olds

2 Abolish all tuition fees

3 Abolish the bed room tax

4 make sure wages are enough to live on with having to rely on Wtc. No I absolutely applaud tax credits and I won't have a bad word said against them, but if you're going out to work full time you shouldn't need any help. You're wages should be enough to keep you. A fair days work for a fair days pay should mean exactly that. Not a pittence and then tax credits have to hold your hand in order to live comfortably

5 Abolish benefit sanctions.
Even convicted criminals eat.

6 No one sick or disabled or with MH issues would be obligated to work. But supported if they wish to do so

1. Fully integrate MH and addiction services. Yes plenty of people with MH issues are not addicts, but in my experience most addicts do have MH issues. And quadruple spending on both.

1. Quadruple duty on 'off' sales of alcohol but leave it as it is on 'on' sales. Thus encouraging those who enjoy alcoholic drinks to consume them in pubs and clubs, where management will be held responsible for their behaviour.

1. Allow local police and medical services to veto the renewal of licences for premises where customers behave antisocially during and after visiting. Landlords and bar staff have the right to say 'Sorry you've had enough mate', this should help concentrate their minds on using this right.

1. Re-introduce sensible licencing hours. Apart from major tourist centres there is absolutely no need for pubs and bars to be open midweek after about 11 pm.

1. Lock drug dealers up and throw away the keys.

Sorry, I do have views about other issues but having watched a much loved brother kill himself with vodka I feel very very strongly about this!

This is really interesting. I'm thinking about mine.

Make sure that local authorities stopped closing libraries and do more to get people to use them who aren't under 10 or over 60 so that everyone understands their value

What is the point in spending money encouraging people to use a service just so that you can spend money on that service. If there isn't demand for a service, then why artificially create it in order to keep it open? (Perhaps I am one of those who doesn't understand their value, but I am happy to be educated as this is one of those issues where I feel like I am missing the point sometimes.)

Abolish private schools and ensure ALL schools are excellent and well funded

Really, how would this be paid for? Not realistic in the slightest.
Even the cost of the students entering abolishing private schools, would be fundable.

Re-introduce sensible licencing hours. Apart from major tourist centres there is absolutely no need for pubs and bars to be open midweek after about 11 pm

Again, ridiculous. Why is there no need for them to be open after 11pm? Not everyone has weekends off to go out with their friends you know. Also, what about the people that would lose their jobs as a result of this?

Also, free tuition for all is a lovely idea, in theory, but it's not realistic, in the slightest. Where would the £ come from?

1. Make owning more than one BTL property very expensive. One per person allowable due to people needing to relocate short-term for work or similar. Otherwise, huge taxes on them in order to make them unattractive to own. Result: lots of houses coming onto the market, prices going down as there's more competition to sell, more people being able to get onto the property ladder.

1. At least half of all new builds, private and social housing, for the next five years to be built with a self contained 'granny annexe' as part of the property. These should be added to all types of property, two bed terraces, semis and so on, to make them affordable to more people. Result: more people who want to care for their elderly or disabled relatives themselves enabled to do so, without either party having to give up their independence and privacy by sharing their own living space. It will cut the bill for carers visits and residential home places and free up the houses the elderly/disabled relatives were previously living in as they come onto the market or return to social housing stock.

1. Housing benefit (at the same rate tenants locally would get) to be paid to homeowners for a maximum period of two years, with a charge added to the house for the total amount of benefit paid to be repaid when the house is sold. Currently if someone becomes unable to pay their mortgage, the house can be repossessed, the family move into rented accommodation, and then housing benefit pays their rent (i.e someone else's mortgage). Result: people would have the chance to get back on their feet after a short term problem like redundancy or illness without all the disruption and expense of moving costs, changing schools and so on. The state would get the money back eventually in most cases, whereas if it went on rent they'd never see it again.

I like the idea above about landlords having to pay the council tax unless they offer long term lets. Anything that gives people more security over their home has to be an improvement on the current situation.