To ask what one or two policies you think could make the biggest difference to the U.K.?

[whatkatydid2013]

To me the big one is social housing. I feel like if we could build up a large supply of social housing at reasonable rates all over the country the benefits would be massive. It would make life affordable for many more people and lead to them being less likely to need in work benefits. The affordable rents would cover maintenance and could keep large numbers of people in stable employment doing said maintenance (as well as creating administrative roles). It would make it less challenging to staff key worker roles in more expensive areas. In the short term I appreciate it would be a massive expense but it seems like in the long term it would cost less than our current system on a going basis and it would make many people a lot more financially secure. I find it disappointing that all main parties seem so focused on home ownership in their policy statements. I know there are many important policy areas but this just always feels like one that’s very central and totally glossed over by all parties. Maybe because there isn’t a quick, easy fix?

To put a stop to having additional people on an already crowded island.

Not from a racist perspective but from an economic one. I know there are some people who will turn this into racist spin, but it seriously isn't.

From an economic standpoint, there just is not enough resources to support the people who are already here! Historically, overcrowding leads to civil wars

Struggling for (what used to be seen as basic) things like-
Public Housing
Dentist
Doctors
School places

If we carry on as we are, I dread the country that our grandkids will live in. Already many of our adult kids will be living with parents well into adulthood as they can't find a place to live

I don't suggest I know the answers to this or how to achieve it, but things are unsustainable.

One of the most sensible and more importantly costed suggestions on this post.

Universal Basic Income and a general simplification of the welfare system.

@HollaWithDaRisinSound

"To put a stop to having additional people on an already crowded island".

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I don't think this is in anyway racist unless of course it is no more migrants from country x but it's OK from country y.

However in practice how do you achieve this? Examples include:
British man marries woman from India, is he allowed to bring his wife back to the UK?
Big American bank based in the City wants to hire a specialist in yippitydoodaa derivatives to come and work in the London office but the guy is currently based in the US - can he come to the UK?
Migrant from Afghanistan crosses the channel in a small boat to see a better life in the UK - can he stay in the UK?

By saying well yes people can only come to the UK for secured jobs or marriage but not anything else then this will discriminate against migrants from certain (eg African) countries which in turn could be viewed as racist.

Why not winter time all year round?

BST is not the UKs natural time.
Weather and conditions is normally worse in the mornings rather than early evening.
Icey roads and pavements, rain and wind making it darker in the mornings has to make it more dangerous for children and commuters traveling to school and work.

There can be a big difference in the weather and light between 7am and 8am, have BST all year means kids going to school in complete darkness, not even a twilight, some areas not seeing proper daylight until 10am.
Darkness at 4pm vs 5pm makes very little difference to anyone. The kids are mainly home by 4pm. And adults are generally still working until that time anyway.

I agree, they're so stupid, the only thing they can think of as to how it's all going to be paid for is the lame "tax the rich"! They've learned nothing from history (well probably couldn't even be arsed to do any reading/research about past mistakes re taxation).

It's like the window tax all over again from a few centuries ago. They imposed taxes "per window" in an effort to tax people with bigger houses. All that happened was that "the rich" bricked up some of their windows!

Same in the 70s with the (I think 98%) tax on unearned income, which just drove authors, artists, etc and rich people living on interest/dividends, abroad.

Who pays for it, and why would anyone want to work if they had a liveable income? Who'd do all the dirty/hard work like retail, carers, etc?

@JustKen

Reduced cost broadband for people on low incomes.

You can get a pay monthly mobile phone data package for as little as a fiver per month. You really can't get much cheaper. Use it as a "hub/hotspot" and you can connect a laptop to the internet through it.

If, however, you are talking about not having a decent mobile phone signal in your area (i.e. rural etc), then, yes, I agree that's a very real problem that needs to be solved.

Like I said, I really do not know how we would achieve a more sustainable population - any possible way would come across as dictatoral

ie - families only allowed to have one child each
No immigration at all from anywhere

None of them come across as good options

Who knows

Not just social housing but much more affordable housing in general. Rent caps and more rights for tenants.

Secondly, scrap university tuition fees and remove private schools' charitable status.

How?
Most people are still at work at 5 so makes very little difference if it'd dark at 4 or not getting dark until 5

One child policy worked really well in China.

There are certain sections of the community who have much larger families than others.

The two biggest things that make people reduce their child numbers are access to contraception and education of females. Females who are educated are less likely to have a big family.

@Sugarfree23

"One child policy worked really well in China."

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Errr I don't think so and really can't see this as ever being possible in a democracy.

To enforce the policy, China carried out massive sterilization and abortion campaigns. In 1983 alone, a year with about 21 million births in China, 14.4 million abortions, 20.7 million (predominantly female) sterilizations, and 17.8 million IUD insertions were performed. A large proportion of these procedures were involuntary.

www.brookings.edu/articles/the-end-of-chinas-one-child-policy/

Also it has caused a demographic time bomb of a rapidly ageing society:

I can do it in 5 letters. PR and UBI.

Cut working hours.

Every city should be a ULEZ

Calm - I was being sarcastic!
It was someone else who suggested it.

@Pottedpalm

"I know! Maybe I should have said increase tax to 90% on obscenely high ‘wages"

++++

Let's work this through. So let's say you had a doctor or a lawyer on £100k pa. They were then offered a promotion at £125k per year. However this additional £25k per annum would be taxed at 90% meaning they would only receive an additional £2.5k or roughly £200 per month or £50 a week.
Logically they would accept the promotion to £125k but only on a 4 days a week basis pro rata giving them the same £100k a year salary it with a day off a week and foregoing the additional £50. If they have children and have to pay for childcare then it makes even more sense to forego the £50 and work 4 days a week.

I think the challenge with voters in the UK is an educational issue in that people like the sound bite aspirational political slogans of "yeah let's tax the rich at 90%!!". But none of them are interested / bothered in the detail of how this would actually work or the consequences of it.

@Sugarfree23

Apologies- my bad and didn't realise you were being sarcastic (I do like a bit of sarcasm myself 😀).

@Sugarfree23

"The two biggest things that make people reduce their child numbers are access to contraception and education of females. Females who are educated are less likely to have a big family."

+++

Totally agree and foreign aid spent on female education is money well spent.

Also the single most impactful and cost effective environmental measure you can take to deal with everything from global warming, to water pollution to deforestation to micro plastics is contraception.

Legalisation of assisted death.

The prospect of me becoming severely disabled or having an illness like dementia terrifies me.

I would say with more flexible working introduced, fewer people are doing the typical 9-5. You also have retired people or parents kids. I depend on that hour between nursery pick up at 4 and 5 to take my son for a walk. I don’t feel safe at any time when it’s dark.

@MariaVT65 Well there is a very challenging conversation to be had at some point about our "life at all costs" policy.

If you don’t want private schooling, the state schooling needs to improve first. Massively.

And many young people will depend on inheritance to get onto the housing ladder. Who else do you propose someone’s money goes to?

It doesn't have to be like that. My DH did national service (much more recently than your English teacher probably as it's not long abolished in his home country) and says it is a great social leveller that provided hugely valuable life skills to people who would otherwise have been NEETs, at a crucial stage of their journey to adulthood.