MSE News: Ed Balls: 4G mobile sale should fund housing boost

rogerblack

I'm reminded of a song by Black Box recorder - "Stay off of my land, turn your stereo down
When you drive through the village won't you please slow down?
There are traps in the grass for the working-class
So stick to the path, go home, have a bath
All the farms have alarms, all the hills have eyes
So for God's sake stay out of the countryside"

theGrinch

less government is what the world needs

fergieforever

Or here's an idea.. we could use the money to pay down some of the £1 trillion of debt that we have accumulated and that continues to grow by the day. Most people on this site understand the perils of getting into debt and only spending what we can afford, sadly labour don't seem to share that sentiment.

The_Earl_of_Streatham

A stamp duty holiday is a tax perk for house buyers, a very small part of the economy that generates no wealth and very few jobs. It is in effect a subsidy on house prices.

House prices are too high, ordinary people on ordinary wages cannot afford them. Nothing has ever become cheaper by being subsidised; all that happens is that someone else, in this case those paying taxes other than SDLT pay part of the price instead of the buyer.

During the last stamp duty holiday prices rose and immediately fell back when it ended. No wealth was created, it was simply moved from taxpayers, who have a reasonable expectation of a well-funded health service and a myriad of other things that taxes pay for, into the pockets of people who sold their houses (or their banks, since most of the houses affected were mortgaged).

There is no housing shortage, if there were rents would have gone up at some rate comparable to house prices. This has not happened, rents have risen a little ahead of general inflation for many years now falling a long way behind house prices. Returns on rented property have been steadily falling as the capital cost of getting into the market has climbed. Returns on investment in any commodity do not fall when there is a shortage.

The bubble has been driven by the availability of cheap credit, that is no longer available so prices should come down. So far savers have paid to sustain the bubble through low interest rates and tranche after tranche of quantitative easing. What Labour are proposing here is that the taxpayer subsidise further a bubble commodity and that national assets (in this case rf spectrum) be sold off to keep the bubble inflated.

I exaggerate for effect, but I expect soon to be instructed to sell one of my kidneys to help keep the housing market afloat!

chewmylegoff

4G licence auction predicted to raise £3-4 billion. Call it the midpoint, £3.5 billion. The stamp duty holiday is predicted to 'cost' £500 million. That leaves Ed Balls with £3 billion with which to build 100,000 houses, or £30,000 per house. Interesting sums.

WelshRarebit

Building new homes isn't the answer. When will this government wake up and see that there are literally thousands of perfectly good homes lying empty all over the country? Better to invest the money in rejuvenating these abandoned properties rather than turn more of the British countryside into unsustainable housing estates. Refurbishing abandoned properties if done on a large scale would probably provide just as many jobs as building new homes and have a much lower environmental impact.

Zorz_2

WelshRarebit wrote: »

Building new homes isn't the answer. When will this government wake up and see that there are literally thousands of perfectly good homes lying empty all over the country?

Sure enough, all we need is to get Eddie Stobart ship a few hundred of them from Belfast to Bermondsey!

Nope, this is unfeasible. Better grab some families from Stoke Newington and pack them in a train non-stop to Stoke-on-Trent....

jjlandlord

WelshRarebit wrote: »

Better to invest the money in rejuvenating these abandoned properties rather than turn more of the British countryside into unsustainable housing estates.

Ultimately, I think that everyone wanting to live in a house with his own little garden is unsustainable.
It is less efficient in every way: space, heating, transport, public transport, etc.

We should start to build good quality, attractive flats, in small buildings as you can see all over the place on the continent, and convince people to live there, including families.

mr_fishbulb

The Government is publishing analysis showing that the stamp duty land tax relief for first time buyers has been ineffective in increasing the number of first time buyers entering the market.

http://cdn.hm-treasury.gov.uk/autumn_statement.pdf

Pincher

Do a deal with Putin and G4S.

Ship all the illegals and prisoners to Siberia.

Minimum security, since there is nowhere to run to.

Offer them work in the oil fields and mines, as well as building accommodation.

Medical facilities will be supplied by Russian doctors.
We provide satellite internet for calling home.
Chartered flights for conjugal visits, paid for by the visitor.

Relief for prison overpopulation and housing crisis.
Discourage future economic migrant.
Lower cost per head, of providing for prisoners and asylum seekers. We could save billions.