Budget 2013: what would you like to see from Osborne on Wednesday?

[SarahMumsnet]

This Wednesday, at 12.30pm, chancellor George Osborne will deliver his 2013 budget. With the UK on the brink of a triple-dip recession, and grumblings among backbenchers about the wisdom of his 'austerity first' course, it looks set to be Osborne's most scrutinised budget yet - and it will affect all of us directly, in terms of the tax we pay, the benefits we receive, and how much we'll be spending on our next bottle of . Many of the changes to taxes and benefits that will take effect this year (such as the increase in the personal tax allowance and the 1% cap on working-age benefits) were announced in December's mini-budget, but key areas that look set to be affected on Wednesday include pensions and childcare (the Daily Mail is already reporting that the government is set to unveil childcare tax breaks worth up to £1500.


With 48 hours to go before Osborne takes to the despatch box, what would your recommendations for this year's budget be?

• Ought cutting the deficit to remain the priority - or should we be concentrating on generating growth by investing in infrastructure projects, even if it means increasing our borrowing in the short term?
  
  
• Have spending cuts been implemented too quickly or should we be cutting harder to get through the pain faster?
  
  
• Is the government doing enough to support families, and if not, what more could be done?
  
  
• And how have the changes since last year's budget affected your households incomes - are you better or worse off?
  
  
  We'll be glued to our screens in MNHQ on Wednesday, and will post the key announcements in the budget thread as they happen - please come and watch with us! And Mark Dampier, who guided us through events last year, will post as soon as possible after Osborne sits down with a roundup of the key points. But until then, let's come up with our own suggestions for what George should be concentrating on. Over to you.

[Talkinpeace]

Babyroobs
see the first point in my list earlier : Housebuilders are sitting on 400,000 houses worth of land with planning permission : but will not build on them because the glut of properties coming onto the market would make house prices drop and reduce their profit margins.

Therefore they should either be taxed a lot for land banking - or be forced to sell the land to people who can self build or small groups ....

[expatinscotland]

YY, that fuel duty will spike the price of essentials like food and transport, even by public transport, even more.

Bedroom tax is a crock of shit, too.

[Kazooblue]

Oh yes get rid of all benefits for wealthy pensioners now.

[Talkinpeace]

the fact that my Mum spends her winter fuel allowance at Majestic sums up why that "Universal benefit" is just wrong!

[Kazooblue]

Oh my mil uses it for pin money on one of the £30k of holidays they have a year or gold coloured shit in Surrey garden centres.

Her grandchildren camp in Cornwall,well they did until the CB went.

It's just laughable.

[GetMeToAPunnery]

Commitment to spend 0.7% of GDP on overseas aid, which the UK has been promising to do for decades. And make sure that aid gets to the people who really need it, especially malnourished mothers and children.

[ihategeorgeosborne]

Agree kazooblue, we lose some of our CB, and now that they have announced child care tax breaks for families on 150k I am mightily pissed off. I want these bastards gone.

[Kazooblue]

On another thread there is a link to a countdown site to polling day with hours,seconds and everything- I've bookmarked it!

[Kazooblue]

Only 779 days to go folks!

Perhaps we should have a MN ticker.

[ihategeorgeosborne]

In May 2015, I will be sitting up all night to watch the election results as they come in. Nothing will make me happier than to see the pathetic faces of our current useless incumbents making lame excuses about why they didn't win, when we all know the reason is because they are a bunch of clueless, incompetent WANKERS!!! Bring it on.

[Kazooblue]

Oh yes indeedy!

[Kazooblue]

Actually it looks better in days not May 2015,will pretend I didn't see that-2 blardy years,we'll be on our knees by then.

[Talkinpeace]

But who would you have WIN the election?

Labour : Psycho Ed Balls - he who was the deputy of Gordon "I've abolished boom and bust" Broon?
The man who borrowed from our kids to give our parents tax breaks on their buy to let portfolios?

UKIP : who are underneath it all racist Climate Change deniers?

Tories: Gideon and Dave with their gilded spoons and hereditary wallpaper?

LebDims : where only Vince Cable has a shred of reputation left?

Maybe we should borrow Beppe Grillo?

[expatinscotland]

'Rich on Benefits' - Channel 4 right now.

[ihategeorgeosborne]

When you put it like that Talkin it's a thoroughly depressing thought. I guess the reality is that we will end up with a lib/lab coalition. I'm not too impressed with the thought of that either.

[Kazooblue]

So why the hell can they means test CB(utterly unfairly)but not WFA?

It's the grey vote pure and simple.

Will never forgive Boris for saying we all spend it on stocking our wine cellars,utterly clueless re real life the lot of them.

[NetworkGuy]

"Double VAT on refined sugar, fags and all booze except beer and wine.

Abolish road tax for people in parts of the country where there's practically no public transport, and double it for people in London."

Why 'except beer and wine', BoffinMum ? I never drink beer, but like a can of cider once in a while (I do and have gone months without anything alcoholic - never consider it a 'need' but a treat), and why should all wine drinkers get off an increase when the (infrequent) bottle of Southern Comfort or Bailey's would be hit harder ?

As for road tax, think a congestion tax should be the way to go, to encourage more use of public transport (make sure buses and coaches are exempt and have lower fuel charges for them, alongside lower energy costs for trams/trains), and encourage people to work local to their home, if possible.

[Talkinpeace]

The Road tax idea would never work because there are (currently) no restrictions on where you drive your car so renting houses in tax free areas would become de rigeur.

VAT on unhealthy foods : I've said for long time that there should be VAT on any food that has more than five ingredients on the packet - because it has had "value added" by processing.
That would make healthy food proportionally cheaper.
won't happen though - food lobby too powerful

[ihategeorgeosborne]

Are these child care tax breaks going to be based on a single income of up to 150k a year or a joint income of up to 150k. If it is based on the former, that means the government are prepared to give a tax break for a family on a joint income of to 300k . If based on the latter and therefore a joint income, why can't they use the same logic for the cuts to child benefit? This is an even more convincing reason that the CB cuts were for purely political gain. With 3 dc, we've taken a hammering with this and yet they're cutting tax for the wealthiest 1% and now offering tax breaks to seriously high earning families

[serin]

Stop taking money away from social services and the NHS to give to inferior charities to run expensive 'projects' that never really get off the ground.

Yes Alzheimers Society I am looking at you

What use is a "singing for the brain class" when you have shut our bloody day centre that catered for far more people and was a lifeline.

[serin]

Also, stop giving money to parish councils unless it is going to be spent on something specific.

When I joined ours I was amazed that they still had to 'find' things to spend money on, to ensure their budget was "all used up" and didn't get cut next year.

[FriggFRIGG]

Make the living wage law.
I don't want hand outs,I want my wage to match inflation.

Make disability benefit easier to get for people who really need it.

Oh and his resignation.

[FriggFRIGG]

Oh yes,
The masive old people's home at the top of our road,that was abandoned 5yrs ago,and is still sitting empty...along with all the other disused buildings and land across the county.

Praps sell those,if your so very strapped for cash?

[notenoughsocks]

I don't want hand outs,I want my wage to match inflation

Hear Hear!

wages should be enough to live on. Live on as in be able to eat properly, keep your house warm etc. etc.