To ask what should have been in the budget?

[dollopofsauce]

All I've seen do far, from reading threads on here and watching CNN, is doom and gloom.

So what should Labour have done to swerve the hate? What would have been an acceptable way of raising money to help fund health, social care and education?

Genuine answers, please.

I think Labour should have been a lot more honest with the country about how difficult the situation is, because the country has been mismanaged for so long. And I think then that they should have increased income tax rates to raise more money.

But I think they should have used most of the money they raised in tax for two things: more investment and to reduce borrowing.

Borrowing money most of the time is daft - it simply means you have to pay interest on the debt later. British debt interest payments are expected to reach £126bn in 2025-26, which is nearly the same as the entire Education budget. A massive amount of money just being thrown away.

Compared to other similar countries in Europe, America or Asia, Britain has spent a lot less on infrastructure - roads, railways, energy, etc. If the country spends more in infrastructure then the economy will grow more in the future. A growing economy generates more tax revenue - and you then have money to spend on health, education, and all the other things.

I'm not unhappy to see more spending on the NHS, but I think it would have been better for the long term to have spent that money on reducing borrowing, and investment, and to have raised the money more evenly by increasing income tax.

Don’t allow foreign businesses/ individuals to buy property here. Force the sale of empty homes. Force fathers to pay for their children - remove passports/driver’s licenses if they do not comply.

Simplify tax system. Get rid of NI and just call it all what it is, income tax. Employers contributions could be given to the employees instead.
Just have two tax bands but with larger tax free allowance to benefit lower earners.
Crack down on 'cash in hand' employment.

Get rid of inheritance tax completely - there should be an incentive for saving for the future and possibly care needs, not "spending it all so the government don't get it."

New law - Public sector workers to get inflationary plus 1% pay rise every year - nothing more, nothing less, none of this arguing with unions and striking. How much time and money is wasted on these discussions.

Invest in a more obvious 'Buy British' campaign so people can choose to support home economy if they want - All those Brexiteers can literally put their money where their mouth is.

Extra 1% on VAT

Why the fuck did they take 1p off a pint????

Brilliantly put! 👏👏

To improve personal health I would like to have seen taxes on processed foods including sugary products. Plus all alcohol products.
The additional income could support healthy food producers thus reducing the cost of these products

A per mile tax on vehicle usage. This could reduce vehicle use and pollution.

A charge on all vehicles entering the country whether for business or tourism. These vehicles use the roads and increase pollution ( I live near Dover ) so they should pay to support infrastructure.

Impose a requirement for all developers to install solar panels and air source heat pumps on all developments

Reverse the employee NI contribution rates

Abolish businesses paying themselves tax free lump sums
Abolish individuals setting up multiple businesses to offset tax on what is essentially one business ( does that make sense )

More regulation on NI and private pension payments for the self employed.

A review of the current benefits and disability systems.

They should give lots of money to me. You asked for serious answers. In a way, I think this is most people's real answer. The one they dare not say in public.

The problem with agricultural property relief is that is massively exploited as a loophole. Yes you have your genuine farming families, but then you have people with big country houses that have no interest in farming. Under existing rules pre budget they can have a large country house with extensive land and are able to claim agricultural property relief on the whole lot by putting some sheep on part of the land and/or paying someone to grow some crops. The whole value of the house which potentially alone could be several million is then exempted from the estate. Now their will still be an exemption of £1m for the farm plus 2 x £325000 for a couple before any IHT becomes due.

No doubt but this is not insurmountable. It's pretty easy to demonstrate that the working farm is, in fact, a working farm both before and after the death.

It's a bit of extra admin but this will help to secure food security and will attack what it is supposedly aiming to attack rather than hard 'working families' who not only work hard to keep the food supply sustainable and in the UK but also have a wealth of knowledge.

But perhaps it was deliberate, we'll see if they resolve it so that we don't lose our genuine family farms because that would be a complete travesty, and all of us will start to notice if our food prices rise and we have to rely on more imports.

Absolutely with you 100%.
Education - my girls go to an undersubscribed outstanding (just reclassified by ofsted from good last week) primary. Being undersubscribed mean they have less money than many schools, but they produce amazing outcomes both academically and psychologically with higher than average SEN and a very broad demographic with higher than average PP. We have a dynamic creative committed head who taps a wide variety of private funding schemes, super engaged with and places a high expectations on children and families in terms of behaviour and attendance. Parents actually struggling - she goes above and beyond to help, taking the pi** and we are called in her office and told to prioritise our child. Staff who arent committed move on quickly, highly skilled committed staff are nurtured and retained. Schools need this child focused, high expectations high results approach, rather than just having money thrown at them.

Same for the nhs, too many rude abusive no show not helping themselves patients, too many mediocre staff. The NHS needs to get tougher with both staff and patients with high expectations placed on both, less wastage and red tape - as an NHS employee for 20 years I am constantly disappointed with how badly it runs and efforts to improve are blocked

As a country it's too often a race to the bottom rather than a race to the top approach.

I think @Tara336 may be referring to if she dies during her working lifetime then the element of her pension which pays out to her nominated beneficiaries (generally spouse and/or children to support them as they would have lost a family earner who has not lived to draw down their pension) that money is now regarded as part of the pensionable estate for IHT, whereas previous it was exempt.

The IHT tax bands are not set to increase and given the cost of housing in many areas of the country more and more people are going to be caught with IHT.

I think I'm right in saying that within a married couple, yes when one spouse dies they can transfer between themselves IHT free, but if a single or last remain parent this will affect IHT the children pay.

I'm not sure many people have or will clock the impact unless or until bereavement hits a working aged parent with an estate over the IHT threshold.

Tax the extremely high net worth individuals who play the system by using securities-based lending or loans against shares. The middle are paying for everything while those on the top table get richer and richer and those at the bottom are struggling to survive.

I actually agree with this. As a labour voter this one of the decisions I disagree with. It will make private schools even more exclusive and will overload already overloaded state system (I am a teacher). With class sizes already at 30+ and teacher recruitment in dire straits, this is one worse policy decisions.

Except demographics are reducing the pressure on state school places. Not evenly everywhere, but overall and increasingly so.

I was going to say this, maybe spend better and not promise £27b to Ukraine.

I know it'll get some hate, but fks sake, if we give Billions away when the house is falling apart, it'll never get any better

It’ll never get better if Putin encroaches further either.

Agreed. Defence and justice are the two most important jobs for the State and Ukraine is doing the fighting at the moment. I'd prefer to keep it that way!

If we do that then the likes of Estonia and Latvia will be next.

I'm more interested in why Hunt doesn't want the OBR to publish the report.

Personally I think like all budgets there's good and bad aspects. Overall I'm happy with for now and will judge by the outcome.

But I do think they need to have a discussion with farmers as this seems to be an area where it could have a detrimental affect.

SCHOOLS - there are HUGE shortages of teachers because it's such tough job. It's all very well saying they're going to supply more teachers, but realistically they need to look at WHY people don't want to teach and WHY teachers leave after not many years of teaching.

NHS - There is no point throwing money at it. The whole NHS needs restructuring. Too much management. Too many pen pushers. Too much money paid out to pharma companies making HUGE profits.

BENEFITS - Make it worthwhile to work and unattractive not to work. Too many kids are now seeing benefits as a lifestyle choice. We need to go back to the idea of them being a helping hand to get back on your feet which was why they were introduced.

HOUSING - More social housing, axe the right to buy scheme, and have scaled rent depending on income e.g. if you earn a higher salary, then you should be paying more rent. Prioritise social housing to those with minimum wage jobs who struggle with private rents.

TAX - Increase tax on cigarettes, vapes, alcohol and high sugar foods. And tax companies properly - so many big companies that operate in the UK pay such a small amount of tax! Stop allowing tax loop holes.

PRISON - take crime seriously. Have decent punishments in place for those who commit crime, and use the USA 3 strikes rule. Take prisons back to absolute basics and have the main focus as exercise, education and rehabilitation.

A lot of that is not material for the budget. I disagree on benefits - looks like misconceptions. Don’t disagree about some of your tax suggestions.

I remember when that came in and there were loads of pensioners confused as they didn’t need it. There was a massive campaign for them to donate it to charity.

Obviously repeatedly tax the richest.3% (but not their children's education because that's not fair) until they have the same wealth as average then somehow prevent them leaving the country etc. Anything else is 'destroying' hard working people.

I don't agree with everything in the budget, but the whinging about it has already got very old. The vast majority of people will be affected very little or not at all. If you're lucky enough that you WILL be impacted by these measures, then why would you not want to give a bit back to your country when it's in an absolute mess after 14 years of mismanagement, rather than have it funded by people already only just surviving?

I'm so sorry you are bored with people discussing a budget which may cause significant issues in people's lives. I mean, I suppose it was a whole 2 days ago.

If people are only just surviving they probably won't be the ones funding the country. Quite a few of those people have already left.