Page 3 | What Rachel Reeves does next? Surprised no thread on this yet. It's all over Twitter

Sharingsomewisdom · 2024-08-21T12:50:09+00:00

[[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13764547/Rachel-Reeves-mulls-tax-hikes-spending-squeeze-raising-rents-social-housing-Chancellor-sees-Government-borrow-3bn-forecast-month.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13764547/Rachel-Reeves-mulls-tax-hikes-spending-squeeze-raising-rents-social-housing-Chancellor-sees-Government-borrow-3bn-forecast-month.html]] Or am I the only one interested what she is eying next? Any comment on the reasonableness or otherwise of Rachel's next focus?

rumblegrumble · 21/08/2024 16:03

SusieSussex · 21/08/2024 15:55

Unfortunately the tories have spent 14 years trashing public services and leaving us in a lot of debt. They also accidentally bumbled out of the single market which has damaged the economy. Labour now have to pick up the pieces. Sadly a lot of tories have very short memories and will blame Labour for the awful mess the tories have left.

Edited

As short as Labour who seem to have totally forgotten it and are now being forced to raise taxes unexpectedly, weeks after telling everyone they definitely wouldn't need to?

ZaZathecat · 21/08/2024 16:04

YouveGotAFastCar · 21/08/2024 14:24

I mean, it has to be considered, like anything else. Social housing near me averages £400 a month, private rental averages £1,200.

If you’re on universal credit, you’re eligible for all social housing to be paid regardless of the amount, so she’d have to do the sums carefully - and it’d be a shock for people who pay their own rent, but live in social housing. But a tax increase will be a shock, too.

I’m not sure there’s a single way to raise money that won’t be unwelcome and feel unfair to a group of people.

Exactly, I totally agree

TheHateIsNotGood · 21/08/2024 16:05

Bitterness about those that live in SH is not where the solutions lie - but by increasing the amount and availabilty of SH benefits everyone.

It is different from place/region to place - vast differences based on the geographically uneven distribution of economically viable and wealth producing 'industries' is a start.

Meanwhile, with regards to SH, in my area there is absolutely no need for more 'private' homes but that is about what 97% of homes and 'landbanked' sites will provide. All that does is to increase the strain on infrastructure and public service provision as those that rely on the NMW local 'industries' can hardly afford to secure homes to live in.

7wwkw · 21/08/2024 16:06

BitOutOfPractice · 21/08/2024 15:38

And yes. The Tories - remember them? The party of prudent financial governance 🙄 - have left a massive hole in the finances.

We are where we are though and need to move forwards.

The tories were also criticised for starving the doctors of money. As well as starving all sorts of places of money - NHS, education.

so I wonder, when people say that the tories left a black hole, did people want them to give the doctors/NHS/education etc more money and leave a greater black hole?

I’m no Tory but don’t think the blame game helps. Labour need to get money as they are spending big. There is no source of money other than the UK population and debt. Hitting a small number of people (eg private school vat or winter fuel) is not enough for labour’s spending plans. They will have to hit nearly everyone somehow IMO.

blackpear · 21/08/2024 16:21

piscofrisco · 21/08/2024 14:40

That note was an ongoing joke traditionally left by ALL outgoing chancellors for the next one since pre world war 1 I believe. The Tory press just leapt on it that time for their own ends and it's been quoted ever bloody since.

This.
And the fact of it being an ongoing joke has been pointed out time and time again.

cardibach · 21/08/2024 16:33

twistyizzy · 21/08/2024 14:50

They had full access 6 months prior to the election. There should have been no surprises!

Show quote history

Except the bits of the civil service which oversee the ‘books’ have said there was expenditure they weren’t told about. Lots of it. So, no, they didn’t know how bad it was before the election.

Original poster

Sharingsomewisdom · 21/08/2024 16:35

A big thank you to all of you for commenting or sending me thanks. Apologies, I am now back and starting to go through all the comments- I just hope we all respect MN's rules so this useful thread- by the sample of initial comments I have seen- doesn't get deleted as I am interested in ALL your comments.

It has been interesting to follow threads after threads on here on VAT on schools and winter fuel allowance. I did not comment on either, but found posts for and against interesting to read. So please let's keep this thread going.

Again thank you all. LBC radio also having phone ins today on some of these topics and having experts (one of whom wrote the article) commenting broadly. All v interesting.

Labour promised change, so looks like everything is up for grabs to effect this 'change'. The country is definitely going through some interesting times. None can predict what the overall outcome of this change will look like, as of yet! I have personally readied myself for change- both good and bad as I doubt anyone will be spared. Maybe the super rich only who can just ran away!

OP posts:

cardibach · 21/08/2024 16:37

rumblegrumble · 21/08/2024 15:33

That's not how economies work, the figures show it be be true whether you 'feel it' or not! 🤦‍♀️ The last few years have been dreadful for all economies worldwide, not just the UK. There are many reasons but covid is of course one of them. We are still in recovery but hopefully on course for a soft landing, and we are outperforming almost everyone else. You may never 'feel it' though as we could have the best economy in the world and you'd still be in poverty if the money isn't distributed towards you. Look at America - they do have the best economy, and they have extreme deprivation.

It's also not being used to sneer at Labour as it has nothing to do with Labour, other than they are apparently trying to convince people that the situation is much worse than it is. I'm just trying to fathom why they haven't mentioned it, especially when they were so quick to claim that they'd unearthed a multi-billion 'blackhole' that the Tories had apparently left them. You'd think they'd be thrilled to learn the economic outlook isn't anything like so bad as they believed. Now, they may just be so used to being rude about the Tories they just can't bring themselves to say something nice about them... they may be intending to take credit for the growth when it continues and hope nobody remembers it was already growing when they took over... or they may be concerned their policies are going to inhibit growth in which case they can then try to blame the failing economy on the Tories, again hoping nobody realises how good it was when they inherited it. All these possibilities are a bit worrying - if they have genuine confidence in their ability to stimulate growth they should be happy to acknowledge that we're already in a very good place and set to continue improving even if we do nothing, and then when they beat all the already positive forecasts they can show unequivocally that is was their policies that did it, engendering trust in both Labour and in left-wing economics.

Show quote history

Growth is a bit of a weird measure though, isn’t it?
If a country’s GDP was £1, increasing it to £3 would be 200% growth.
It still wouldn’t be doing better than a country whose GDP was £5 then increased to £10 which would only be 100% growth.
Growth doesn’t really tell you much about the economy at all.

maverickfox · 21/08/2024 16:40

ShamblesRock · 21/08/2024 15:10

There is always a yearly rent increase. This is hardly news, outside of the RW press.

Yes but she is talking about increasing the percentage.

ThreeFeetTall · 21/08/2024 16:48

Not really...as I understand it she's talking about making it CPI + 1% which is the same as what was agreed in 2020

maverickfox · 21/08/2024 16:50

nearlylovemyusername · 21/08/2024 15:50

Yep. And inflation falling with interest rates cut releasing substantial amount for Treasury. But this is against narrative

Re SH rents - it's a joke really. A lot of people there are on benefits anyway so will be covered by taxpayer. It's just a "clever" scheme to make middle class taxpayers to pay for social housing they won't get access to whilst struggling with own rents/mortgages

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How is raising SH rents getting the middle class taxpayers to pay for it? Pay for what exactly? In case you don’t realise, or have forgotten, SH tenants are tax payers too, whether they are on benefits or not.

JanefromLondon1 · 21/08/2024 16:50

Well above inflation pay rises for all of the union members that bunged them a few quid aren't going to help with that huge hole (that they knew about before they took office).

Boomer55 · 21/08/2024 16:51

YouveGotAFastCar · 21/08/2024 14:24

I mean, it has to be considered, like anything else. Social housing near me averages £400 a month, private rental averages £1,200.

If you’re on universal credit, you’re eligible for all social housing to be paid regardless of the amount, so she’d have to do the sums carefully - and it’d be a shock for people who pay their own rent, but live in social housing. But a tax increase will be a shock, too.

I’m not sure there’s a single way to raise money that won’t be unwelcome and feel unfair to a group of people.

My HA rent, which I pay, in full, is £900 per month. No handouts for me. It must vary by area. 🙄

Spectre8 · 21/08/2024 17:01

Maybe she should tell all MPs no more expenses on second homes ...because claiming expenses to pay energy bills on second homes whilst removing winter fuel allowance from ppl just smacks of hypocrisy. They should be leading by example....

itsgettingweird · 21/08/2024 17:05

ShamblesRock · 21/08/2024 15:10

There is always a yearly rent increase. This is hardly news, outside of the RW press.

Exactly!

I'm SH and we get increases every year.

We had a huge increase after Truss crashed the economy and it was changed to allow them to increase by 7%.

We still pay half of the market rental value.

Reading the guardian article (not clicking DM) it just says "expected to increase" and it states at 1% above the usual increase for 10 years.

To raise funds to build more affordable housing which will mean more people can benefit from rent at half the market price.

It's got to be better than where currently people can't afford a mortgage (they are told this via viability ) of £1500 but are paying rents of £2k!

I'm hoping if there's more affordable housing market rents will go down to be competitive and more people who could afford a mortgage to buy will get approved.

Boomer55 · 21/08/2024 17:05

Spectre8 Labour are no different to the others - they grab what they can, while they can. 🤷‍♀️

itsgettingweird · 21/08/2024 17:07

ThreeFeetTall · 21/08/2024 16:48

Not really...as I understand it she's talking about making it CPI + 1% which is the same as what was agreed in 2020

CPI - thankyou!!!

I was thinking not inflation but the other one and kept getting CGI in my head and knowing that wasn't right and was to do with films 😂

BellaBlythe · 21/08/2024 17:10

I'm hoping if there's more affordable housing market rents will go down to be competitive and more people who could afford a mortgage to buy will
get approved.
What a nice idea, has that actually happened anywhere else?

ThreeFeetTall · 21/08/2024 17:14

@itsgettingweird 😂

blackcherryconserve · 21/08/2024 17:15

BitOutOfPractice · 21/08/2024 14:21

In fact, I feel like saying to the DM and its Readers what they said for years to remainers. You lost, get over it.

Not sure the DM was for Remain tbh.

rumblegrumble · 21/08/2024 17:18

cardibach · 21/08/2024 16:37

Growth is a bit of a weird measure though, isn’t it?
If a country’s GDP was £1, increasing it to £3 would be 200% growth.
It still wouldn’t be doing better than a country whose GDP was £5 then increased to £10 which would only be 100% growth.
Growth doesn’t really tell you much about the economy at all.

Show quote history

Growth is an extremely important measure as it shows how an economy is currently performing, and whether it is moving in the right direction or not. This is even more vital right now as we are still very much in recovery from covid (we the world, not just we us) and it's still a bit touch-and-go. The growth measure shows how we are doing in comparison with other economies, and strong growth attracts investment as investors will expect a good return. Conversely, a country with low growth will not attract much investment as not only will the investors likely not make much return, it shows stagnation which is very much not a good thing. Strong growth also demonstrates that the economic policy is working, and should therefore indicate stability (as nobody would expect anyone to mess much with a fast-growing economy).

itsgettingweird · 21/08/2024 17:19

BellaBlythe · 21/08/2024 17:10

I'm hoping if there's more affordable housing market rents will go down to be competitive and more people who could afford a mortgage to buy will
get approved.
What a nice idea, has that actually happened anywhere else?

No idea. But saying I hope something happens is just a comment.

But then I would expect nothing less than some stupid unnecessary reactions to it on MN. 🤷‍♀️

itsgettingweird · 21/08/2024 17:20

Bella wasn't saying yours was an unnecessary reaction it was because the dipstick below thought laughing emojis was a useful way to react. I just realise my post looked like 8 was sniping at you - sorry!

BitOutOfPractice · 21/08/2024 17:23

That's exactly my point @blackcherryconserve DM and its Readers were Brexit and that's what they said to remainers: you lost, get over it. Now they’ve lost, they seem unable to swallow the sane medicine.

MushMonster · 21/08/2024 17:24

There is no money left in the pot, we have a massive debt, over-spent the budget as per article, wasted some £££s in the Rwanda scheme and other tory "brilliant" ideas, so the new government and all of us will have to make up the difference, somehow.
I am ok with a raise in taxes.
No with a reduction on essential services.
We are crippled with poor GP service, long NHS lists ( bear in mind, that may have something to do with people having time off work, on the sick, low productivity... Just a thought. The tories did not seem to get that there is a link between those. Apparently it is our fault, for being sick...)
The medicine prices and availability issues is another thing to add.
The country needs to offer the basic services we pay for, so we can work, be more productive and even creative. They had no time to re-structure and re-train/ recruit/ train more people or departments where needed. So a bit more tax makes sense to me.
For now. Once we are on our feet, then we can start walking and address failures in the tax system, education, transport and the lot.
But right now, we are on the floor.