Budget? What budget?

The Tories have pulled their usual trick of stoking the housing market to create a bubble which the media will report as a recovery while we all wait for it to burst or slowly deflate as Osborne's pre-election housing bubble did. Nothing to help those most in need.

Elegran- the confusion about having a budget in November may be due to the fact that it used to be an "Autumn Statement", with the Budget in March.

It is more sensible to have a budget in November as there isn't enough time in March to get any measures to be included in the Finance Bill passed in time for the new financial year starting in early April.

I still can't work out how an "aspiration" for building 300K houses a year by the mid-2020's can be achieved without further measures, but perhaps they are included there somewhere. Such measures could include allowing councils to build and taxing owners of land with planning permission left empty after 3 years or cancelling the planning permission after that time.

Some radical changes need to be made, but IMHO the only radical change this Government can focus on is Brexit.

I am not happy with the cut in stamp duty for first time buyers up to £300,000 !

In my part of the country £300,000 is a massive amount of money and not in the reach of most first (or indeed second) time buyers. This would have been much farer if it had been for all purchasers not just first time buyers which could free up some of the smaller more affordable homes for first time buyers.

I would have also like to see some genuine help to encourage growth and employment for small businesses in the more deprived areas. Something like the reduction in employment tax (other wise known as employers NI) for SME's which can be crippling.

Now heard several comments about how the NHS is being starved to pay for Brexit . £2.8bn for NHS and £3bn for Brexit (and I imagine it will not stop there).

It seems that in private forums like this one, that there is a lot of criticism of the government. Wouldn't it be great if we could get Parliament to reject this budget to reflect the will of the people?

I feel so worried for the future of my family, as all the measures seem designed to increase the riches of the rich and to take from the poor.

Loved that cartoon posted earlier in this thread - it's seems so accurate.

I can't honestly believe what we have gotten ourselves into with regards to Brexit. Setting aside £3bn which could do so much good for so many people and all for what?

I can already see companies mothballing projects that were planned to go ahead. We know of at least 2 large employers in the North who are moving some of their manufacturing out of the UK and is that just the tip of the iceberg?

Wouldn't it be great if we could get Parliament to reject this budget to reflect the will of the people?

Look where the "will of the people" has got us so far though RosemarySuperager

Well, you asked for it Elegran and you got it.

No stamp duty for first time buyers up the £300,000 and £500,000 in London, seems good to me, and hardly helping ‘the rich become richer’.
Also money for nurses pay to increase.
Fuel duty frozen
It was seen by political pundits as a generally cautious
budget, but with some loosening of purse strings all round.
Negotiating Brexit is hardly the time to go mad with public money, and we may see a more generous budget next year.
Moaning about budgets has been a national sport for untold numbers of years.

I don't think you would find a property for sale in my town for £500,000 lemon and not many for £300,000 either.

Blimey lemon only you could ignore the elephant in the room and make such optimistic noises about a budget that makes clear that Britain is permanently and substantially poorer.

I can never understand why successive governments encourage growth in the SE, when all they do is complain about how overcrowded and expensive it already is.

£3bn set aside for Brexit and 700 million already spent.

Can a brexiter please enlighten me how the Hades, now that it is becoming clear the devastation being caused to our economy any of it is worth it?

What would 3bn buy us? That is just the start.

Just as an aside add in the 1bn bribe to the DUP.

gillybob we live nowhere near London but you would be hard pushed to find a home under the £125,000 stamp duty threshold, so I hope that some first-time buyers will now be helped.

No houses here for under £125,000.

Nothing can be done about brexit, the country voted

I too would like an answer to Whitwaves question. Where is all this money coming from? I cannot see a Benefit to Brexit at all at the moment just untold misery for years to come.

The stamp duty changes will do zero for the housing crises. It will simply increase house prices.

What we have is a crises of supply. To cure the crises we need more housing.

First developers have to be persuaded to build. Land banked has to be released. Affordable houses must take priority.
LAs should start a social housing building programme.
The rented sector needs overhauling and rent cap introduced.

Ain’t going to happen is it?

This isn’t a Brexit thread.
When have all the people been happy about what is in a budget?
Is there a golden year somewhere I have missed?
Ever since the 1960’s ( when I first noticed Budget Days) there have always been moans about it, no matter who is in power at the time.
And will no doubt go on being the same for evermore, since no Budget can please everybody.

GracesGranMk2.
In 1964 as a married couple and after living with parents for two years and with a six month old child, and not a cat in hells chance of getting a council house, dh and self scraped enough to put a deposit and obtain a mortgage to buy a 2 bed house. The wifes earnings were not taken into consideration.We struggled.No tv, no car,no holidays abroad nothing like what most see as their rights in 2017. There was no garden in which our growing child could play the second bedroom was a mere box room no central heating But it was ours.My question is what are first time buyers looking for 2017?
My present home would have been way out of our league in 1964 and I frequently get asked the question how did you afford this ?My answer large oaks grow from small apples.Your first property may not be all you desire but you have to start somewhere.At least its a roof over your head you can call your own.

It’s been happening for the last four years where I live ( housebuilding)whitewave huge numbers of houses have been built.
Houses are usually built in the areas where people want to live and there are plenty of jobs, so it will be harder in some areas than others.

Not with this useless lot white wave!

Plenty up here in the North East.

It seems we have been left behind in this house price boom which reflects the low wages and the lack of investment of successive governments.

lemon you obviously missed the bit in the budget which set out what we are forking out for Brexit. Then we were told that we can only afford half of what the NHS needs.

Affordable houses must take priority

Yes whitewave but it depends on the idea of affordable.

The lack of affordable housing needs people to move up the ladder (and down) to free up the more affordable homes and those for growing families too.

Blimey whitewave it may well be that I am the only one prepared to stick my head above the parapet and say what I think.