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?

Pay a proper wage to family carers ie minimum wage rather than the £75 a week, capped at say £400 a week, they could fund that by not paying outside agencies who charge approx £100 a visit.
It would ease the burden of families who make a difficult decision to put their loved one in a home as they can’t afford not to work, also a lot cheaper than care home fees and therefore the home won’t need to be sold.

Allow parents to use the child care vouchers amount to stay at home and raise child.

1. Improve out of hours drug/alcohol dependency and MH services
2. Swift justice for anti social offences - community service orders. Drunk and disorderly this Friday, up before the magistrate on Saturday morning. Tagged and next Saturday morning the Sunshine Bus will track you down and dig you out of your pit at the crack of sparrows. Off to the next town with a tabard on cleaning up other people's spilled takeaways and vomit.

Another voice in favour of more social housing or more housing in general.

One thing I noticed in Germany is that because the average house is cheaper people spend less of their monthly income on paying for it. This in turn allows more disposable income to be either invested in savings or pensions or spent in the local economy creating jobs. The issue in the UK is that so much of the average person's income is spent on rent or mortgage on an unproductive asset (the house).

And before anyone asks about concreting the countryside have a look at this article:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41901297.amp

I also recognise that politics in the UK is cursed by voters asking for more Government money to be spent on this or that without ever explaining where the money would come from other than "tax the rich more" - with the rich being defined as anyone earning more than them but most definitely not them.

So in that regard and to pay for more social housing I would be prepared to see capital gains tax levied on the sale of principal home and not just secondary homes, after all it is unearned wealth creation.

Secondly I would shift the generational unfairness which is becoming unaffordable due to demographics and a worsening economy by increasing the state pension age, getting rid of the triple lock, taxing benefits such as winter fuel allowances, bus passes etc. I would then reinvest these savings into areas such 1) free childcare which would mean it would make economic sense for more women to go back to work benefiting both the economy and income inequality for women. 2) I would invest MUCH more in education especially earlier year's education - if you can create a positive educational environment and attitude from Reception onwards then that pays dividends for later years.

Universal Basic Income

Tax wealth (currently we tax labour excessively and wealth barely).

I think the point was that there won't be any rental properties for students. Very few parents can afford to buy somewhere for them.

I would invests in education so people would be able to work out that generational unfairness is much less than they have been led to believe and unfairness within the generations is much bigger

I would invest in social housing

I would invest in changing society to help prevent and adapt to climate change

By using taxation to reduce income and wealth inequality

A greater focus on early intervention. If we tackle problems when they’re small, they cost less in the long run. I’m thinking healthcare (prevention better than cure), mental health (you shouldn’t be suicidal to get support), housing, social care, education (early diagnosis for ND and support so kids don’t end up with trauma and school refusal). I work with vulnerable adults and when you look at their life trajectories, early intervention would have made the biggest difference. Now all we can do is stick plasters on gaping wounds. This would also result in less crime, less anti-social behaviour and less demand on services in the long run. So yeah, invest in kids and families if you want to see long term change.

Things are changing as many countries have signed up to OECD minimum tax rate at 15%, for over 750m, so multinationals. Ireland included

But it does show how just tax a higher amount doesn’t always work out. As they benefited hugely with surplus when they could do 12.5%

So if your DC wasn't offered a place at your local Uni, or if that Uni didn't offer the course your DC wanted, would you just say "tough shit, you can't go then"?

Lower taxes, narrow the North-South divide, no welfare if you can work, minimize red tape for entrepreneurs, make the NHS fit for purpose and pay-per-use for some services, raise taxes on things that contribute to lifestyle diseases and strain on NHS (cigarettes, alcohol, highly processed foods, vaping, etc..). Zero tolerance for anti-social behaviour. Fines for littering, the cities look like dumps.

You want healthy dogs to be put down because their owners haven’t picked up a poo?

This is so short sighted.
Invest that money in education, learning and community resources then you'll find you don't need more prison spaces.

If schools had more funding, adequate staff and had around 20 in a class, that could make a huge difference to many peoples outcomes.

The parents arnt buying homes for their student child they are paying expensive rent so their student child can attend university

How will people attend university and stay at home I don't have one near me? It's three buses away minimum or two buses and a train away just to get to the town where a university is that is not affordable price wise who can afford to spend £100 a week on fares? Or will we introduce a German system where students don't pay for travel?

What about the fact that not all universities do all courses? Should families of aspiring doctors and dentists move home to accommodate this goal?

Baby formula is classed as highly processed

People who claim carers allowance can technically work however the government will then need to step in and improve social care and solve the issues around the lack of special schools

I didn't realise communism was so popular on here until reading this thread.

I understand that you can tax companies but this is not being mentioned either by any political party.

Social housing is long term. Needs a long term spending source behind it. And I would never vote for a party that allows right to buy. What would be the point of more social housing. People have screwed themselves here, they had a great deal and they destroyed it by their own greed

To make every able bodied person make a positive contribution. We definitely aren't all in it together
I totally agree, and I think the first step is to encourage employers to focus on a person’s skills and ability to work. Not on whether they’re pleasant to look at, or whether they want to chat and have lunch with them for the next five years.

For example, only about 20% of perfectly able bodied people with autism have jobs, and it’s not for want of trying. You’re a bore, your voice is monotone, you lack facial expressions and it makes us feel uncomfortable. You clearly have an unhealthy obsession with trains and we don’t want to hear about it every lunchtime forever. You struggle with small talk and it’s really awkward to to be around you. You rock when you’re concentrating, you flap your hands, and it freaks us out. These are people with degrees, maybe even PhDs, but nobody will employ them.

Then extrapolate that to people with other social difficulties or socially unacceptable health conditions. People with skin conditions, scabs, pus, psoriasis, flakes (eww gross, say the interviewers). People who are just extremely ugly (creates a bad impression of the company, makes me feel disgusted, say the interviewers). People who are obese (yuck, they must smell, they’ll probably break the chairs). People who just come across as “weird”. People who have speech difficulties. People with degrees and a desire to work, who get rejected over and over for reasons that have nothing to do with their abilities.

Fix that discrimination. Then tell me that you want every able bodied person to contribute. Because many of them WANT to contribute but nobody will hire them.

@Fizzology take it not due an inheritance then?

Why should people who have worked incredibly hard not be able to do with it as they wish?

With gov offering discounts of circa 100k off social housing wealth accumulation is open to all these days.

My DC not in private school but without it you would see lower educational standards more broadly and the economy would slump without the 17bn going into it as well as several bn in tax revenue so I wouldn’t be so quick…. Unless they can find an enormous cash injection for the education sector by raising taxes enormously…. And can magic up 20bn a year from somewhere.

So instead of your rent being expensive you’d just have nowhere to rent at all.

This doesn’t sound like an improvement.

And for the 99% of us whose parents couldn’t afford that?

No, making everyone attend their local university is imbecilic.

Raise inheritance tax. Inherited, unearned wealth should be taxed more than labour, not less.

Free childcare for all (to replace child benefit and child element of UC). Exceptions for children with complex needs for whom normal childcare is unsuitable. This way parents truly profit if they work more but are still able to be at home with their children if they wish/can afford it. More people
could go part time as well.

Yes, exactly so.

Most students need to rent somewhere, telling them to live at home is stupid.

My money’s on both.

No private schooling.

My DC like most in this country are in state schools - there is huge disparity within the state sector with funding and results honestly I'd rather this was looked at and minimised as much as possible rather than go after private schooling - some of which is SEN support.

I worry getting rid of it make good headlines but could actually make state disparity worse as catchment house pricing and private tutoring mean it wouldn't be the current private schoolers most adversely affected.