To ask if you were Prime Minister for a year, how would you combat the cost of living?

[MzGG]

To ask if you were Chancellor of the Exchequer, how would you combat the cost of living?

Reduce taxes - if people can keep more of the money they earn its easier for them to deal with cost of living pressures. This may also attract big business back to UK contributing to economic growth, which will help stabilise the economic. There is a sweet spot where reduce taxes but total tax take is similar due to higher number of higher earners paying in, fewer unemployed etc

Find a cost neutral way to build more social housing for working people on low incomes. If less money going on rent then more money to pay the other bills

Pray that Trump will stop being a dick, that Putin will pull out of Ukraine and that there won’t be any other wars, climate events or foreign actions that impact the global economy negatively. Otherwise, piddle about pretending anything I do makes more than a tiny bit of difference (Liz Truss excepted, of course).

I would stop sending money abroad, focus on tightening security on our borders, fixing our roads and funding the NHS

Find a cost neutral way to build more social housing for working people on low incomes

Surely if it were that straightforward they’d have done it ages ago?!

Pull the plug on all overseas aid and spend it on the needy here. Not one solitary pound should go abroad while our own people are sleeping rough and homeless.

I certainly agree with more social housing - I think we would have fewer people who are too unwell to work if we took away the underlying anxiety of housing instability (and the health effects of substandard damp or cold housing ) for far more people.

Invest in renewables so we can be more self-reliant for energy and bring down bills. As an island with lots of coast, tidal energy sounds like a really interesting source, though I'm not sure how viable it is currently.

Scrap Net Zero. It’s insane. Making us poorer while doing nothing to stop climate change.

But surely if they did this instead of HS2 they would have funded (from housing benefit savings) HS2. More housing is an urgent priority. Nothing is being done about it. They pledge 1.5m new homes but seem to be doing nothing to back up these pledges.

Lots of talk of spending money, but no explanation of how the funds would be raised, apart from scrapping foreign aid, which would cover about 4% of the NHS budget.

I’m not saying that we don’t need more social housing, I’m saying that “find a cost neutral way” to provide it is a lot easier said than done.

I forgot to add mine. I’d tax the ultra wealthy more, but I’d also increase the personal allowance so ordinary workers can earn more before paying tax.

Like a PP, I’d invest more in renewables. We don’t utilise our renewable energy anywhere near as much as we could! There’s so much missed opportunity.

I’d also impose a higher tax on vapes and Shein/Temu etc. imports to encourage shopping second-hand within the UK.

How would you pay for this?

Unfunded tax reductions didn’t work out so well when Liz Truss tried it.

Benefits for British Born citizens only.

NHS only free for British Born citizens. You must pay a fee to go to A&E, GP etc if not British.

Lower Corp Tax and VAT to encourage people to start and run businesses.

Free Stamp Duty for over 60s to encourage downsizing.

Really? So my mother who has lived in the UK for 60 years, her entire adult, tax paying life, you would not allow her the state pension she spent decades paying into or access to the NHS? Just because she wasn't born here...?

A year is not long enough but I would make a start at closing loop holes, especially on corporation tax and generally just tax the wealthiest, which is not necessarily the highest earners.
Also, renationalise, build social housing, invest in renewable energy for the future... Plan for the long term good, rather than the short term, personal, political good.

I would introduce an outsourcing tax for companies who outsource their workforces, call centres, IT departments, web chats etc.

For every worker they outsource abroad they would need to pay tax equivalent to the difference between the salary they would pay here and the salary they’re paying abroad. That way it would either generate revenue, or the jobs would remain in the UK.

In hindsight, a year is absolutely not enough!

What about my 85 year old granny who has lived and worked in the uk since the age of 20. Spent 40+ years working for the nhs.

or would she be okay because she’s white?

Give everybody £10,000 and let them do whatever they want with it. Might end in disaster, but it'd be a fun year.

scrap the triple lock & out that money into infrastructure.

The problem is in your question - and in the electoral system to an extent...

Short termism has dominated and dictated politics for decades. Even 4 years is not enough to make deep, difficult change which is why since privatisation nothing has really changed, parties are more interested in staying in power.

I’d freeze benefits for the next 5 years so 0% growth in UC, PIP etc.
I’d reduce the amount people can have in savings to £5k before they lose benefits.
Reduce UC payments to single parents who receive stable and regular cms payments from non-resident parents. For example 1 year of bank statements showing regular transfers -the UC is reduced by that amount. Cash cms payments would be forbidden.
Benefits only available to those who have been in the country for a minimum of 5 years and employed.
Zero benefits or housing support to rejected asylum seekers.
I would have kept the 2 child benefit cap.

The savings I would use to lift the income tax thresholds significantly (40% rate from £75k) and fund very generous pay increases to nurses and teachers.

I agree, but the sentiment still applies!

Find a cost neutral way to build more social housing for working people on low incomes. If less money going on rent then more money to pay the other bills

I agree - reducing housing costs would be the ultimate goal to reduce COL. Ideally, the average house should be able to be affordable on one average salary. This would also reduce childcare costs for a lot of families, as both parents could afford to drop hours rather than needing two full time wages, or have a SAHP if preferred.

In the short term, and where UC housing benefit is being paid, compulsory purchase of properties from landlords to convert into social housing.

In the longer term, I agree more social housing needs to be built. Perhaps couple with a scheme where there are incentives for under-25s to be employed to help build them, getting them work experience and teaching them valuable skills.

Also look at the private rental market to see how / if the private sector could provide a secure alternative to social housing for middle or higher income earners, who may not want or be able to afford to buy but want a stable home. Perhaps encourage big pension funds to branch out into this.

I would introduce a tax on empty commercial property that increases the longer it is empty. It’s absolutely criminal that high streets are empty.

I would also cap rent to a percentage of the value of the property, with mandatory revaluations so landlords are motivated to keep properties well maintained.