Chancellor's autumn statement 2015

A good budget all round.No cuts to tax credits, no cuts to the police, more money in the pipeline for NHS and mental health.True, local councils can put up council tax, but money has to come from somewhere, one wonders what Labour would have cut to get the money? A laughable rant from John McDonnell in answer to the Autumn Satement, even the Labour back benchers looked away or read or texted during it.

Part of the benefit cut is going to hit those on the new Universal Credit, it seems.e.g. a single parent on the new "living wage" will be more than 2k worse off.£12 billion on benefits budget.
There is a massive cut to the home office so don't get too excited about "no cuts to policing".
"The money's got to come from somewhere" hmm. So instead of taxing income or corporation tax that would affect the rich (and those in the South East) you crank up Council Tax and hit the poor - as pointed out above, a potential disproportionate hit on poorer people.

Exactly, JessM. He's still going to take £12 billion out of the welfare budget between now and 2020. Hasn't said where.
One thing I cannot understand is why he had to have all this aggravation in the first place. He had no need to have an emergency budget in July in the first place. He could have waited until the Autumn statement to find out that the OBR said there would be an extra £27 billion to play with.
OBR forecasts have never been correct so far - not a single one.

Shocking subsidy for house builders and for very well paid under 40s who have parents who can stump up a huge deposit.
www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/autumn-statement-starter-homes-osborne-10503069

Just realised there are two threads on this.

Where will those on minimum wage and zero contracts live? They can't buy, social housing is being sold off

"We are the builders," he said again.

This is from John Healey, Labour's shadow housing minister.

“If hot air built homes, then Conservative Ministers would have our housing crisis sorted.

“A matter of weeks ago the Housing Minister promised a million more homes, now George Osborne is saying they’ll build 400,000 more.

“Rather than rate them on what they say they will do, people will judge them on what they’ve actually done.

“George Osborne’s first act as Chancellor in 2010 was to slash housing investment by 60%, and his plans today could still mean 40% less to build the homes we need compared to the investment programme he inherited from Labour.

“The Tories’ housing record speaks for itself. The lowest peacetime level of house building since David Lloyd George was prime minister in the 1920s, home ownership fallen year-on-year to the lowest level in a generation, and alongside the lowest number of genuinely affordable homes built in two decades, the number of affordable homes to buy halved since 2010.

“On housing, the Tory record is five years of failure on every front. Bluster about big house building figures simply won’t cut it when people have seen the country's housing crisis get worse with Osborne as Chancellor."

An excellent response made before the budget speech. How did he know?

Just realised, JessM, that was in your link as well. Mine wasn't from the Manchester Evening News.
Were housing associations mentioned?

Roses, did you listen to McDonnell's response all the way through? It wasn't laughable at all. He praised Osborne for doing the things that Labour would have done. Did you not hear that?

I heard it all, in fact I was agog! it was just the sort of speech he would have given at a Labour conference, to the adoring masses.Hardly a real response to the Statement at all, more about what he thought they should have achieved, bigdeficit etc and then that frankly bizarre reading from the little red book, all this in answer to an important Autumn Statement which affects millions! Corbyn ( and everyone else on the Labour benches) looked embarrassed as well they might.

This budget was better than anyone, from any party could ever have expected.

Reading from that book was a joke about Osbourne and his suddenly found admiration for the Chinese , it was amusing

No, it was just pathetic.

If it HAD been funny, I wouldn't have minded.

www.resolutionfoundation.org/media/press-releases/very-welcome-relief-on-tax-credits-but-most-losses-have-been-delayed-rather-than-reversed/

Not everybody thinks so, roses.

Osborne does it all the time. He says really bad things, leaking to the press, then backs off in his budget speeches, so people think it's better than it could have been.

I agree, Annie. You have to listen to it in context. He was right about the railways. Any other government can run them, but not this one. That's where the Chinese quote came in. The quote itself was apt.

Roses, the cuts to welfare are still happening - just not next year. Did you not realise that?

Yes Jen, it was funny and true, did not Osbourne say we here should work like Chinese.

Robert Peston - "The OBR has just found £27 billion down the back of the sofa."

Those who praise the statement today, will you share your views on housing for the low paid ?

Yes, and so did Hunt who believes in TCM and has a Chinese wife.

This budget was better than anyone, from any party could ever have expected.

Sadly, I am sure you actually believe that roses. It's is unravelling already. I will be interesting to know how far this has gone by the weekend. As far as I can see most economists would trust relying on Mystic Meg about as much as they trust relying on the OBR predictions.

I fully realise that some of you will never, ever be happy as long as Conservatives are running the country, and that even when they do announce good things( no police cuts) and no cuts to tax credits for three years, when the living wage will be much more than now anyway, they will be damned.I expected that, but don't understand it at all, as I will either damn a policy or applaud it, by ANY party.It seems to be a head in the sand way to carry on, to defend a party to the death ( as some were doing over Ken Livingstone) and at the same time damn another political party even when their policies and budget speeches are good.

OBR spokesman said there was a 50% chance of it being wrong!

IT ISN'T A LIVING WAGE.

Oh, come on GracesGran unravelling already indeed!
Nobody in the Labour Party expected the double whammy of no tax cuts and no police cuts!