On the Autumn 2017 Budget
The Autumn 2017 Budget (note: it is nearly now winter) was released today by Phillip Hammond, with a particularly noted focus on promising to help first-time buyers who are increasingly shut out of the housing market, especially south of the River Thames and in Greater London.
Despite these promises made in the budget, they fall flat for these five reasons:
1. Abolishing stamp duty does not get to the root of the problem and it will not be enough.
House prices have risen extortionately in the last 20 years, especially south of the Watford Gap, and far beyond any reduction of stamp duty would ever accomplish. The average house price in many London boroughs is well above the £300,000 threshold (below which stamp duty would be abolished) which represents 15 years' salary (after income tax and National Insurance contributions) for an average worker in Britain. And more people earn less than average than above it!
2. Investment in a nationally maintained infrastructure for electric cars is what is needed-not merely exempting charging them from "benefit in kind" status.
There are currently few regular electric car drivers in the UK, since charging points are still not widespread enough for electric cars to be usable for long commutes or long-distance travel of any type. Charging points need to be as widespread as petrol stations are now, and sufficient electricity generation needs to be guaranteed for them to be reliable. A £400 million infrastructure grant will not be sufficient.
3. A tax on single-use plastics is not good enough.
The production of single-use plastics needs to be banned outright except for specially qualified purposes where it is operationally necessary e.g. for medical or surgical reasons. The concentration of plastics in our oceans is now so bad that people end up consuming it because so many fish and birds end up ingesting micro-plastics found in oceans and rivers, and it ultimately harms us as well.
4. Extending the upper age limit for railcards to 30 years does not solve fundamental problems with our railways.
Even when train fares are discounted, young people still pay much more than their continental counterparts, simply because railways in Europe are under public ownership and not in the hands of private companies. Like the abolition of stamp duty, this promise is only there to sway younger voters whilst failing to tackle more fundamental problems that affect everyone in the UK.
5. Where are the promises to tackle offshore tax havens and funds hidden in them as exposed by The Paradise Papers?
No mention of this in the budget at all, to answer that question, even though Britain has a lot of leverage in tackling the offshore tax avoidance problem given that most offshore tax havens are Crown Dependencies (e.g. Isle of Man, Channel Islands) or are in the British Commonwealth. Given the sums involved in tax avoidance via these havens by corporations and the rich, bringing them under control and removing the relevant tax loopholes that encourage companies to store assets there.
This budget just papers over cracks for short-term political gain-it does not solve problems in the long term.
Despite these promises made in the budget, they fall flat for these five reasons:
1. Abolishing stamp duty does not get to the root of the problem and it will not be enough.
House prices have risen extortionately in the last 20 years, especially south of the Watford Gap, and far beyond any reduction of stamp duty would ever accomplish. The average house price in many London boroughs is well above the £300,000 threshold (below which stamp duty would be abolished) which represents 15 years' salary (after income tax and National Insurance contributions) for an average worker in Britain. And more people earn less than average than above it!
2. Investment in a nationally maintained infrastructure for electric cars is what is needed-not merely exempting charging them from "benefit in kind" status.
There are currently few regular electric car drivers in the UK, since charging points are still not widespread enough for electric cars to be usable for long commutes or long-distance travel of any type. Charging points need to be as widespread as petrol stations are now, and sufficient electricity generation needs to be guaranteed for them to be reliable. A £400 million infrastructure grant will not be sufficient.
3. A tax on single-use plastics is not good enough.
The production of single-use plastics needs to be banned outright except for specially qualified purposes where it is operationally necessary e.g. for medical or surgical reasons. The concentration of plastics in our oceans is now so bad that people end up consuming it because so many fish and birds end up ingesting micro-plastics found in oceans and rivers, and it ultimately harms us as well.
4. Extending the upper age limit for railcards to 30 years does not solve fundamental problems with our railways.
Even when train fares are discounted, young people still pay much more than their continental counterparts, simply because railways in Europe are under public ownership and not in the hands of private companies. Like the abolition of stamp duty, this promise is only there to sway younger voters whilst failing to tackle more fundamental problems that affect everyone in the UK.
5. Where are the promises to tackle offshore tax havens and funds hidden in them as exposed by The Paradise Papers?
No mention of this in the budget at all, to answer that question, even though Britain has a lot of leverage in tackling the offshore tax avoidance problem given that most offshore tax havens are Crown Dependencies (e.g. Isle of Man, Channel Islands) or are in the British Commonwealth. Given the sums involved in tax avoidance via these havens by corporations and the rich, bringing them under control and removing the relevant tax loopholes that encourage companies to store assets there.
This budget just papers over cracks for short-term political gain-it does not solve problems in the long term.
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