What small change do you want from the new government?

HCM2007

This may be a controversial one, but .......
Drop the council tax to 50% on empty properties.
It use to be that you paid no council tax on an empty property for 6 months, allowing landlords time to find another tenant without incurring charges. Many will say that landlords can afford it, but for some of us, 2nd properties are a 2nd income to cover a poor pension or low income. Landlords are not all rolling in money! If you are a single person living in a property you pay 50% of the council tax, as there is only one person using the schools, police, roads, refuse collection etc, so how come when NO-ONE is using these things at a property the charge is 100%!?

System

If the government want everyone to go paperless and digital then smaller businesses should pay less fees to their card processors so they can afford to take card payments instead of cash - the fees are crippling to small businesses and they are often the same no matter what your monthly card volume is. I work in this business and my parents own a small business. I hear all too often that the local shop, cafe, hardware store etc. can't afford to lose so much from their cashflow to fees so don't accept card payments.

Introducing a simple staggering of percentage charge fees would earn card processors more money as more businesses would sign up if the fees weren't so horrendous and those businesses could then benefit by moving in to the modern payment process.

Similarly ALL card processors should allow their merchants to log in and manage their own account online, it's pre-historic the way card processors manage their merchant accounts and it drastically impacts my job several times a day sitting on hold to speak to a teenager who has no experience of business.

System

HCM2007 wrote: »

This may be a controversial one, but .......
If you are a single person living in a property you pay 50% of the council tax

No, unfortunately you're mis-informed.... If you are a single person living in a property you pay 75% of the council tax for that property.

isobel.rose

Currently the government allows the first £4250 per year of income from a lodger to be tax free. Increasing this would encourage more people to rent out spare rooms in their houses, which would help tackle the housing crisis. The current level of £4250 is out of date and does not reflect current rental prices, especially in London.

System

Change Council Tax Banding

This is based on what a property is 'worth' but in areas where property prices are inflated such as London and Surrey this penalises single tenants in small properties drastically, our rent is already inflated and on a low income it makes it hard to survive.

E.g in Norfolk I paid £54 council tax a month for a band C property including a 75% discount as I lived with 3 students.. In surrey my Band A property costs £80.80 a month including a 75% discount, the disparity is too high.

samlincs

I am disgusted that Child Maintenance received is not taken into account as income and that claimants can receive benefits and/or Tax Credits on top of this. When we are trying to reduce the Welfare Bill, this is totally ridiculous. (However, Tax Credits are taken into account for those paying Child Maintenance.)

Yes, I do have a personal interest in this - my husband's ex-partner has 4 children by 4 different Fathers - all paying child maintenance on top of the uncapped (one child has ADHD) benefits she receives. Meaning that her annual income (income support, Tax Credits, Housing Benefit, DLA, etc.) is more than mine and my husband's, when we both work full-time and receive only child benefit for our 3 children (not Tax Credits as our income is too high). Her children have the latest ipads, iphones, smartTVs, designer clothes, entitlement to free school meals, free prescriptions, reduced water rates, etc. - whilst we gratefully receive hand me downs and buy refurbished/second hand gadgets for our children. :mad:

DMB1066

When I purchase something I pay for it immediately. When organisations refund the same rule should apply - what is this 7-10 day wait for a refund!

DMB1066

Planning applications for new housing estates should be refused on green field sites if there is brown field alternative - which there often is.

Anindi

I'd like to see the lottery handed to Richard Branson to run so he can implement all the profits to reduce the National deficit, get National Health back on track, help schools, raise pensions and tackle crime, homelessness and loneliness.

dynamoMan

What's the point in online banking if it only lets you browse the last 3 months transactions (Clydesdale Bank is one of them)? Ideally they should be able to show all the transactions on your account or at least a years worth.