Suggestions for Osborne's July budget

caronoel

1) Raise stamp duty for overseas investors Raise stamp duty to min of 10% on purchases of property by non - European residents.

2) Vacant homes chargeintroduce an annual vacant house charge, to prevent properties being bought as investments and not being rented out. The charge would only come into effect where a house had not been rented out for a minimum of 6 months in the previous eighteen months.

3) Raise pension age to 70the effect of the 'triple lock' will soon make pensions unaffordable. Time to raise the pension age to 70 and phase out the free bus passes, tv licences, etc etc

4) Reduce in work benefits by raising NMW government is subsidising low pay at the moment through in work benefits and working tax credits. Time to remove this subsidy by moving the minimum wage of £6.50 to the national living wage of £7.85.

5) Benefits only paid out once you pay in The Republic of Ireland has a much more generous welfare system than the UK, yet they only allow welfare to those who have been resident in the Republic for at least two years. Same criteria applies to returning Irish citizens.


Anyone have anything else he could do to plug the deficit?

michaels

1) I would introduce regional rates for public sector pay, benefits and tax credits, minimum wage, etc. Also fits nicely with the devolution drive.

2) Something needs to be done about the pension triple lock, currently with negative inflation the 2.5% min is hugely distorting when other benefits are having to be cut to pay for it. Given it was a manifesto pledge the money probably needs to be clawed back in some other more complex way.

One way is obviously the OPs suggestion of increasing the retirement age, personally I would rather have the option of a lower retirement age and lower pension. There is already the flexibility to take state pension later than the state retirement age with the deferment resulting in a higher pension per annum - perhaps flexibility should be brought in in both directions for state pension commencement, combine this with the OPs suggestion and perhaps you can avoid breaking the triple lock rule but still reduce the overall cost of pensions and increase 'pension freedom' - I am starting to like this idea a lot.

3) I would combine Income Tax and employees NI with transitional relief for those with unearned income not currently subject to NI. I would also stop the 15 hours disregard for employers NI which distorts the labour market.

4) I would adjust the spare room subsidy removal so that those council tenants who had not been offered an alternative (alternative being decided by the council not the tenant to decide) smaller property were exempted.

Tromking

michaels wrote: »

1) I would introduce regional rates for public sector pay, benefits and tax credits, minimum wage, etc. Also fits nicely with the devolution drive.

So would you initially cut the pay of public servants in some areas?

antrobus

caronoel wrote: »

1) Raise stamp duty for overseas investors Raise stamp duty to min of 10% on purchases of property by non - European residents. .....

Non-European residents typically buy their properties through corporate envelopes. Good old Gideon is already charging 'em 15%.

caronoel wrote: »

...2) Vacant homes charge introduce an annual vacant house charge, to prevent properties being bought as investments and not being rented out. The charge would only come into effect where a house had not been rented out for a minimum of 6 months in the previous eighteen months.........

We don't really have a big problem with vacant homes in the UK.

caronoel wrote: »

....3) Raise pension age to 70 the effect of the 'triple lock' will soon make pensions unaffordable. Time to raise the pension age to 70 and phase out the free bus passes, tv licences, etc etc....

Raising the pension age to 70 is unlikely to have much impact on today's deficit. The increase to 68 is not going to take full effect until 2028. I suspect that the next review, due 2017, probably will increase the retirement age to 70, but you're probably looking at the 2040s before that kicks in.

caronoel wrote: »

...4) Reduce in work benefits by raising NMW government is subsidising low pay at the moment through in work benefits and working tax credits. Time to remove this subsidy by moving the minimum wage of £6.50 to the national living wage of £7.85.....

Obviously, employers might react to the removal of the 'subsidy' by not employing so many people. The cost of paying benefits to this group of the new unemployed might be greater than any anticipated 'savings'.

caronoel wrote: »

...5) Benefits only paid out once you pay in The Republic of Ireland has a much more generous welfare system than the UK, yet they only allow welfare to those who have been resident in the Republic for at least two years. Same criteria applies to returning Irish citizens.....

We already have the Habitual Residence Test.

michaels

Tromking wrote: »

So would you initially cut the pay of public servants in some areas?

Not sure, perhaps pay rates could be benchmarked to regional norms - I guess it might even cost rather than save money overall?

caronoel

antrobus wrote: »

Non-European residents typically buy their properties through corporate envelopes. Good old Gideon is already charging 'em 15%.

Any evidence for this sweeping statement???

antrobus wrote: »

We don't really have a big problem with vacant homes in the UK.

Another unsubstantiated fallacy.

From emptyhomes.co.uk:
"The latest Government data on vacant dwellings shows over 610,000 empty homes in England with over 200,000 long-term vacant dwellings (that is homes unoccupied for over six months)."

Shelter certainly seem to think empty homes also need to be addressed, but what would they know?
http://england.shelter.org.uk/campaigns/why_we_campaign/the_housing_crisis/building_more_homes/empty_homes

antrobus wrote: »

Raising the pension age to 70 is unlikely to have much impact on today's deficit. The increase to 68 is not going to take full effect until 2028. I suspect that the next review, due 2017, probably will increase the retirement age to 70, but you're probably looking at the 2040s before that kicks in.

The point is that this change to pension age needs to be brought forward.

According to the NIESR's recent paper on extending working lives, a one year extension of working life increases real GDP by around one per cent about six years after its implementation, and the government budget would improve by 0.6 per cent of GDP.

The other alternative is for the government to water down the "triple lock" guarantee, particularly now that inflation is non-existent.

Obviously, employers might react to the removal of the 'subsidy' by not employing so many people. The cost of paying benefits to this group of the new unemployed might be greater than any anticipated 'savings'.

Again, the evidence suggests that increasing the minimum wage does not cost jobs:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/11/the-evidence-is-clear-increasing-the-minimum-wage-doesnt-cause-unemployment

We already have the Habitual Residence Test.

We do indeed - but it is a complete nonsense, and nowhere near as strong as that which operates in the Republic of Ireland.

All you need to do is state that you intend to settle here:
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/coming-from-abroad-and-claiming-benefits-the-habitual-residence-test/the-habitual-residence-test-an-introduction/what-is-the-habitual-residence-test/


Rather than offering one sided criticism, the Forum would really love to hear your creative ideas on how Osborne could reduce public spending.

jimibaboza

Who is Gideon?

cells

caronoel wrote: »

From emptyhomes.co.uk:
"The latest Government data on vacant dwellings shows over 610,000 empty homes in England with over 200,000 long-term vacant dwellings (that is homes unoccupied for over six months)."

Shelter certainly seem to think empty homes also need to be addressed, but what would they know?
http://england.shelter.org.uk/campaigns/why_we_campaign/the_housing_crisis/building_more_homes/empty_homes

both shelter and emptyhomes.co.uk are completely and utterly useless about the issue because they can not think more than one step ahead

firstly its silly to expect 100% efficiency from any market or even most physical things. If you take the 200,000 long term empty homes which i don't disagree with that means that the UK has 0.2 million empty homes out of nearly 28 million homes. or just 0.7% empty. That means the system is 99.3% efficient which is extremely good

But when you think of why the 200,000 are empty you often find that a good portion of those homes are structurally unfit. We had a house empty for nearly 5 years on our street as it fell into disrepair and also had structural issues that would cost >£50k to put right. Someone has finally bought and fixed it and now its lived in by a Owner so thats good news.....BUT somewhere else in the town there is a house falling into disrepair due to poor owners (often the elderly) who can not afford to maintain the home properly. So what you find is that there is a constant churn of homes leaving that 200,000 empty list as people fix them and put them right...but on the other hand there are new homes joining that 200,000 empty homes list as they become dilapidated



So in summary we have very few empty homes less than 1% of the stock

The homes that are empty represent churn rather than anything else

antrobus

caronoel wrote: »

Any evidence for this sweeping statement???

Budget 2014: Stamp duty raid hits rich buying houses through companies
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/constructionandproperty/10709669/Budget-2014-Stamp-duty-raid-hits-rich-buying-houses-through-companies.html

caronoel wrote: »

Another unsubstantiated fallacy.

From emptyhomes.co.uk:
"The latest Government data on vacant dwellings shows over 610,000 empty homes in England with over 200,000 long-term vacant dwellings (that is homes unoccupied for over six months)."

Scandal of Europe's 11m empty homes
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/23/europe-11m-empty-properties-enough-house-homeless-continent-twice

The UK has 700,000 empty homes, France has 2.4 million, Spain 3.4 million. Ireland, with a population of only 4.6 m people has 400,000 empty homes. The UK has very few empty homes compared to its European neighbours, the number of empty homes has declined significantly in recent years, it is a very small percentage of the overall housing stock.

caronoel wrote: »

...Shelter certainly seem to think empty homes also need to be addressed, but what would they know?
http://england.shelter.org.uk/campaigns/why_we_campaign/the_housing_crisis/building_more_homes/empty_homes

What makes you think the issue is not being addressed? Why do you think the number of empty homes in England has fallen from 780,000 in 2008 to 610,000 more recently?

Besides, should you be the one that is required to substantiate your claim that there is an issue with "properties being bought as investments and not being rented out"?:)

caronoel wrote: »

...The point is that this change to pension age needs to be brought forward.

According to the NIESR's recent paper on extending working lives, a one year extension of working life increases real GDP by around one per cent about six years after its implementation, and the government budget would improve by 0.6 per cent of GDP....

So it's "Six years after implementation" eh? Told you it was unlikely to have much impact on today's deficit.:)

caronoel wrote: »

...Again, the evidence suggests that increasing the minimum wage does not cost jobs:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/11/the-evidence-is-clear-increasing-the-minimum-wage-doesnt-cause-unemployment
...

Oh, an article from the Guardian. I'm convinced.

caronoel wrote: »

..
We do indeed - but it is a complete nonsense, and nowhere near as strong as that which operates in the Republic of Ireland.

All you need to do is state that you intend to settle here:
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/coming-from-abroad-and-claiming-benefits-the-habitual-residence-test/the-habitual-residence-test-an-introduction/what-is-the-habitual-residence-test/
...

So you want a tougher habitual residence test?

caronoel wrote: »

...Rather than offering one sided criticism, the Forum would really love to hear your creative ideas on how Osborne could reduce public spending.

What did you think was going to happen when you posted up your suggestions?:rotfl:

Thrugelmir

caronoel wrote: »

The other alternative is for the government to water down the "triple lock" guarantee, particularly now that inflation is non-existent.

The guarantee ends at the end of this Parliament.

Sapphire

Stop people in the public sector profiteering, using taxpayers' money, e.g. using 'revolving door ruses' in the NHS (and other sections of the public sector), which mean that millions are being spent on parasites at the top of the NHS, rather than on patients.

Cut down on corruption in general and impose heavy prison sentences on offenders. Corruption in so-called 'high' places is frequently mentioned in the press, but that is all that happens – nothing is done about it.