Chancellor's autumn statement 2015

Why are we praising George Osborne for not making the sort of cuts to the police force that the police said would mean they would only be able to deal with serious emergencies? There have already been cuts in police numbers. More and more people living in wealthy areas are paying for private security firms to police their streets.

Councils have will have to cut even further or raise council tax. That won't be a problem for more affluent areas but for poorer ones it will mean a loss of vital services to the elderly, the mentally ill or learning disabled and young people.

Student nurses will now have to take a loan out for their training and poorer students won't get maintenance grants.

Labour did alter the right to buy, by reducing the amount of discount, and saying that those who bought could not sell on for five years.
In fact when they came into power, most house building was done by housing associations, not councils.
Thatcher had sold off 1.7 million council houses, and reduced the councils spending power. They had no money to build more.
New Labour got into power. Blair was not a socialist, so why should he build more council houses.
Did anyone else see an article last week in the i about the number of properties owned by Tony Blair?

A raise in council tax will fund council adult care in everyones area.student nurses will have to pay back their loan when they are eventually working as nurses, so will fund it just as other students do for their chosen careers.Poorer students will get the loan just as others do.

Shouldn't student nurses be treated differently? They are working as well as learning.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/11/25/spending-review-losers_n_8648964.html

www.theguardian.com/society/2015/nov/25/local-government-councils-funding-gap-critical-budget-cuts-social-care-spending-review

He gives with one hand and takes with another.

www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2015/nov/25/views-from-local-government-on-george-osbornes-spending-review

However, there is a permanent pothole fund.

We have had a council tax freeze for years so I expected to go back to the usual state of play and find council tax would be raised again.

3 things strike me .

a) I think it is a good thing the increase of 2% is defined as raising finances for provision of care, not giving themselves more in their wage packet, more b----y cycle white lines on the pavement, road humps and pure waste whilst sitting on funds.

b). Those on disability , pension credit, housing allowance etc. probably have no council tax levied on them if they have little in savings or income. For example my father was on pension credit and paid no council tax anyway.

c). After having a council tax freeze for so long I am happy to pay more to fund for extra care in our community to be honest but that is obviously a personal view.

Too many Plenty of new housing being build round here. Whole new estates to the east and west of this town springing up. So it's absolute rubbish to say there's no successful rebuilding programme. And they're all snapped up PDQ so either they're 'affordable' or people have the money to buy.

What worries me about threads like this is how, even when policies are reversed and cuts deferred or abandoned, no credit whatsoever is given to the Chancellor for listening. Very one-sided.

Re Mao's red book, being a joke, I did laughed was when Osbourne looked inside and quipped that It was a signed copy!!

How to put your arguement forward with humour

There are big demographic differences between councils in terms of how many older people, needing care, they need to support. Milton Keynes will be happy enough and probably won't have to raise their council tax (youngest city in UK).
London (most able to pay) will be OK as it keeps on sucking in young working people. Places popular with people who move to the coast on retirement will be hammered. As will cities with a larger proportion of older, poorer people as this group suffer more chronic illnesses and less money to pay for their own care. So taxing care via council tax benefits richer, younger areas and penalises others.
The whole budget was about Osborne's political reputation because he wants to be our next PM.
We will doubtless hear more details today.

I give credit to Osbourne, for having the brass nerve to lie through his teeth without flinching and explain he had suddenly found this money and the fact the lords threw out his tax credit cuts brutality , despite Cameron had put an extra 40 Tory members in there this year, not forgetting the Tory Sun has been running a strong campaign against the brutality too.

And the fact that chief constable after chef constable has spoken publicly of the fact they would not be able to protect the public with the cuts Osbourne had promised plus the country is in fear after the Paris attack .

Give him credit? He had no choice, he wants to be PM

I think that Anya has made her case, on reading your post ab.

That's exactly what his "sound-bite speech" is for - so we don't look too closely, ask questions....till it's too late.

We are about to see what it's like to live in a One Party State, I fear. No brakes on the madness & hubris takes over. I weep for my
country.

Thatcher made it impossible for the proceeds of council housing sales to be used to build more. Here lies the start of lack of housing stock.
Osborne will push more people in to poverty using universal benefit .
When are companies going to be held to account re wage levels? Working tax credits are paid when it is seen that the amount paid for work is insufficient. Tax payers are subsidising low wage paying business.
The use of hard working families as those who should be seen as those who should be assisted ignores those who are unable through caring responsibility or ill health who don't chose not to work but are unable
A country which vilifies its less fortunate and applaudes those who see the price of everything and the value of nothing is in deep trouble.

Haven't see mention of ' foreign aid' on this thread-yet.

POGS You said: Those on disability , pension credit, housing allowance etc. probably have no council tax levied on them if they have little in savings or income.

While it's true that pensioners are still, for the most part, protected from the changes, it's no longer true that working-age people automatically get 100% exemption from council tax. There have been many changes over the last five years, and this was one of them. Here is a quote from Citizens Advice relating to working-age benefit claimants (many of whom, let's not forget, are working people on very low wages):

You will need to check the rules of your local authority's scheme to see what you are entitled to. It's likely that you will have to pay something towards your council tax bill – even if you were getting full Council Tax Benefit before 1 April 2013.
www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/help-if-on-a-low-income/help-with-your-council-tax-council-tax-reduction/council-tax-reduction-what-you-need-to-know/

In other words, an increase in council tax will also be felt by people on very low incomes

Traditionally-Give with one hand and receive with the other

Yes there are people who can afford to buy houses, my concern is for the many on minimum wage and zero hours contracts who cannot buy, there is no social housing for them to rent, a tax is to be placed on landlords which will be passed onto the rent thus upping cost of private housing rentals

No matter if eighty or eight hundred are built to buy in any area, where do those who do not earn enough to buy live ?

To Gillyknits - neither have I, so where are the comments? The .07% of our national income going in foreign aid appears to have been forgotten. But surely the cuts should have started there.

Gillyknits and Indigo if there have been no comments maybe it's because the majority are happy with the amount spent on overseas aid.

I'm happy to leave it as it is.

Good news on the increase in pension but nothing for women like me who have had an extra 6 years or more added to when we can get our state pension.

Riverwalk, perhaps the majority feel that foreign aid is a concept set in stone, but who gave the government a mandate to do this, apparently we're the only country that does it.

As far as I recall, the Tories back when they were in opposition, gave this pledge.

So I suppose the mandate is from anyone who voted Tory at the last election.

I think Osborne's looking more and motte like Mr Micawber - ever the optimist!

The OBR get's its estimates wrong in July, adjusts them in October and lo a magical £27 billion appears!

Of course - since it's a forecast it might not happen.

One of my personal favourites is that councils may keep the proceeds from small business rates - OK if you live in economically prosperous areas - maybe not so good if you are in Redcar

POGS - I'm not sure "Council Tax Freeze" is universally implemented. Ours has increased at least 2 points above inflation year on year for the past 5 years.

And that's after the coalition stated it was to happen.

Maybe council tax freezes are just another way of consolidating inequality