We’ll all take the hit

[Tiredofthis2022]

Hi. If we’re all going to take the hit, more cuts higher taxes. I have a few thoughts on where we might start.

First like to see the numbers in the Lords reduced significantly, we can’t afford to support this number.

I do not want to see any cuts to education, disability or carers, if they have to come I want to see change at the top first.

Any other ideas?

I think we need a huge housebuilding program of publicly owned homes - equivalent to that after WW2.

Build small homes, small blocks of flats, prefabs, living pods. Convert shops and offices in dying high streets to homes. Huge recruitment of apprentices working under experienced trades with routes of progression.

The rent and housing benefit received from these homes will then be going back into the public pot and cycling round.

The housing crisis is a real crisis and emergency. People struggle to find stable homes and to have a decent quality of life due to housing costs. Housing benefit is transferring huge amounts of public money to richer private individuals.

Tax empty second homes and residential properties let as holiday homes/ air B&B out of existence. Require planning permission for holiday lets where the area and property is appropriate which would not be granted for ordinary property in residential areas. The current drive to apply triple council tax etc is a great start.

If we can increase housing supply enough everyone can have a stable and affordable home. Landlords would have to charge a reasonable rent for a well maintained home if they want tenants or they would be left with empty property and sell up.

Sorting out the housing crisis would in turn ease so many problems with poverty, fractured communities as people can't afford to stay local or can't find a new rental in gge area, the difficulty of making work pay compared to benefits and countless more beneficial side effects.

I agree @NoLongerATeacher

I’m going to have to pull you up on the pension point. You don’t get a state pension unless you pay for it. So these people have controbuted to the public purse
for a significant period of time. Hell, they probably paid for all our education and healthcare. They/We should be free to enjoy it anywhere we bloody want.

I can’t get excited about MPs second homes when there is a 50 billion£ hole in the budget. Even if we put them all on minimum wage we would t even touch the sides. Instead support measures that try to close tax loop holes used by large conglomerates and billionaires.

I agree with much of this but I don’t think that those married to a higher rate tax payer (non tax payers/lower tax bands) should be lumped into their partners tax band.

very selfishly - I was hugely impacted by this action when it was introduced for child benefit, my partner was just over the qualifying level, we were living in a city, huge mortgage, 18 month year old twins and he was serving his country abroad. I went from having little to zip and I am not keen to see others pushed under water when I see a lot of waste elsewhere. I have a voice and capacity this time (in a way I did not last time round).

small changes can be made alongside bigger changes in order to balance the books but I need to see those in power (and making decisions) feeling the requirement to pull together even if the amounts involved are not huge.

Agree with all of this

Thing is we're not actually short of houses. That's not what 'supply and demand ' means when you talk about housing. It doesn't mean that there aren't enough houses for households. In fact the number of houses built has outstripped the number of new households coming into existence for years now.

'Demand' when talking about housing is really 'availability of credit '. So when credit is readily available there is demand.

And credit is readily available. Here and in all western property markets. It's been tipping over since the early 2000s but it's been exponential since 2008. That is the point at which we started printing money ("quantitative easing") and we haven't stopped since. When money is worth less credit is easy to get. Keep at it long enough and money becomes so devalued that anyone with money just scoops up every asset they can.

This is exactly what's happened. It's not just houses, it's gold and art and antiques as well. But most of us don't buy those so we don't notice it. We notice houses because we need them. But they are assets too, and like all assets at times when currency loses value they gain in value. Unfortunately unlike other assets they can also be purchased with credit. And credit is easy to come by when currency is cheap. And so the circle continues.

Honestly, look around you. There are plenty of properties. A lot of people can't afford to buy them so they rent but there is no shortage of actual properties.

They're just all owned by other people.

Brexit tax on all who voted for it to make up for the blackhole it has caused in our public finances. If not enough people 'fess up to having voted for it when it becomes apparent that they rather than others will bear the cost, then clearly there isn't a real majority for it when the consequences are included, so rejoin the single market. Either of the two options would result in an additional £40bn per year and fill much of the current funding gap so it works either way.

Get rid of the triple lock (means test it instead)... increase inheritance tax.... extra taxes on second homes/airbnbs... limit numbers in the House of Lords... means test prescription charges rather than have blanket free prescriptions for some conditions not others...

Align public sector salaries to the equivalent private sector salaries and align the benefits to match too, including pension, holidays and sick pay. We can’t afford to up all the public sector salaries without looking at the whole benefit package.

This would benefit many in the public sector no end, they'd get a massive overall pay hike: including pretty much everyone I work with. So great idea! Not going to save you money though. Our private sector counterparts had 7-8% payrises this year as standard and performance-related on top. We got 1%. They also get bonuses, company cars and equivalent/ better pensions. Similar benefits with maternity/ sick leave. My workplace has gone from somewhere with very low turnover (massively benefitting the public due to skills and knowledge from many years) to being understaffed and full of new faces who do not know how to do the work.

So depressing thatso much of this discussion is about MP's expenses. How does that help with what the OP asked, which was what changes would fix the immediate deficit? It's a drop in the ocean and economically completely irrelevant. Yes it should be fixed but do people not realise how insignificant those numbers are compared to the money that needs to be found? Totally irrational.

Yes, totally agree. Plus the whole sacrifice of privacy. Even mid-level professionals wouldn't consider this, for such wages and scrutiny and putting family potentially at risk etc and all for a maybe on a 4-5 year contact? Why would you? And yet we need competent people with experience and skills in Parliament. This is why most equivalent countries pay 2-3 times more for the political representatives. We should have PR and fewer of them and pay them more.

But as you noted, this is all totally irrelevant to the current economic problems. It's peanuts in the national budget.

It’s the opposite as far as I’m concerned. I’m in the private sector. We were offered 1%, and then with union involvement it went to 2%. Our pension is far, far lower than public sector and the risk is all on us. My salary is a lot less than most public sector workers. Friends who are teachers or nurses earn much more than me. My sick pay entitlement is much less than a public sector worker, and being sacked for being off sick is really common. I work for a big global company. Obviously, there’s no car or private healthcare or bonuses.

It’s the opposite as far as I’m concerned. I’m in the private sector. We were offered 1%, and then with union involvement it went to 2%. Our pension is far, far lower than public sector and the risk is all on us. My salary is a lot less than most public sector workers. Friends who are teachers or nurses earn much more than me. My sick pay entitlement is much less than a public sector worker, and being sacked for being off sick is really common. I work for a big global company. Obviously, there’s no car or private healthcare or bonuses.

Not in my experience. All the people I went to university with who are in the private sector earn way more than me/friends who are public sector. Big pensions, private healthcare, bonuses, pay rises. The divide is big.

I think it might vary a lot by profession. In my profession, the private sector roles are significantly better paid.

We all need to be paid more though is the bottom line. Not just because rising costs mean it's nicer for us but because all this fucking about with QE means we've devalued cash and all the in work benefits mean there's less of it anyway. We need more money, all of us, so that we can start spreading it around.

But why should the MPs for Berwick upon Tweed or Truro have to bear the financial cost of travelling between their constituencies and Westminster when London MPs could cycle to work?

Yeah! Make them all cycle to work! And make them pull a bus behind them to help the environment. Lazy shirkers!

My parents get this for their second home (so two payments). Also the energy rebate twice, once for each home.

Had a chat with a medical friend at the weekend. The ICU team (doctors/surgeons) have a rota of 2 weeks on, 6/7 weeks off. Fully paid. I get that it must be insanely stressful as a job but WTAF?
They are all doing private work on the side.

We should have PR and fewer of them and pay them more.

I would like to see this too.

That'd be nice.... So, what's your plan for getting the money to provide this extra pay? Obviously you don't want to use QE, or do anything that increases in the cost of living by raising interest rates, devaluing the pound etc.

If you pay employees more they will spend it. That's how you generate money and increase productivity.

I'm not sure how much money this would actually save but it would increase spending. When a child is born, the national insurance number of both parents should be noted in the birth records and in the event of an absent parent the maintenance should be taken straight out of their wage/benefits. I have absolutely no idea if it would work or not, but someone far more clever than me would work out all of the details.

That'd be nice.... So, what's your plan for getting the money to provide this extra pay? Obviously you don't want to use QE, or do anything that increases in the cost of living by raising interest rates, devaluing the pound etc.

Rejoin the single market. Invest in productivity with a proper industrial strategy. Implement a proper plan for food and energy security. Invest massively in schools and retraining.

It's perfectly possible to implement proper and enforced child support. Even the US manages this!

Another easy win for long-term productivity gains is to stop penalising single parents through the tax system. This would reduce child poverty levels overnight, leading to better outcomes, less state dependency and a higher skilled and healthier future workforce.

Our politicians don't make long-term choices though. Hence the mess of social care, health, education, pensions, infrastructure, etc.