Southerners and Northerners are paying higher taxes, but only the Southerners are benefiting.

Katie59

House prices only rise with the buyers ability to pay, wages in the North are lower on average so house prices and rents are lower. Income tax and NI rates are the same so buying a house from taxed income is harder in the south, overheads of everything else is higher too so lots of things cost more.

There is no “fair” way of reducing the impact of care costs unless it is free as it is in Scotland, although I hear it’s not really free there and very hard to access, maybe someone will tell us how their system works in practice.

What about people who earn their money and make a substantial profit on properties in the "south" and then retire to areas in the "north"? This isnot about north/south - that's a distraction from the real issue, which is about people with lower value assets paying proportionately more.

lemongrove

It isn’t just about house prices, services are more expensive in some areas too, hairdressers, plumbers, building etc.
As others say though, it isn’t just a North/South divide.
It’s true though that pay in many places in the North is much the same as the South ( apart from London weighting.)
Not just for the public sector either, as DS was recently offered a move to a Northern city with new offices there, and the pay was just the same.

It's not just a question of equal pay for equal jobs in different areas. There are fewer opportunities for promotion in many areas of the country, so many people hit a glass ceiling.

growstuff

Katie59

House prices only rise with the buyers ability to pay, wages in the North are lower on average so house prices and rents are lower. Income tax and NI rates are the same so buying a house from taxed income is harder in the south, overheads of everything else is higher too so lots of things cost more.

There is no “fair” way of reducing the impact of care costs unless it is free as it is in Scotland, although I hear it’s not really free there and very hard to access, maybe someone will tell us how their system works in practice.

What about people who earn their money and make a substantial profit on properties in the "south" and then retire to areas in the "north"? This isnot about north/south - that's a distraction from the real issue, which is about people with lower value assets paying proportionately more.

Plenty of “southerners” retire to the West Country, Wales, or overseas, where prices are lower because they are isolated. They often buy a derelict property or barn and renovate it bringing the work for local builders as well as trade for local shops

They do often more to cheaper areas of the country, but that brings its own issues when the burden of the care costs fall on that Local Authority.

Katie59

growstuff

Katie59

House prices only rise with the buyers ability to pay, wages in the North are lower on average so house prices and rents are lower. Income tax and NI rates are the same so buying a house from taxed income is harder in the south, overheads of everything else is higher too so lots of things cost more.

There is no “fair” way of reducing the impact of care costs unless it is free as it is in Scotland, although I hear it’s not really free there and very hard to access, maybe someone will tell us how their system works in practice.

What about people who earn their money and make a substantial profit on properties in the "south" and then retire to areas in the "north"? This isnot about north/south - that's a distraction from the real issue, which is about people with lower value assets paying proportionately more.

Plenty of “southerners” retire to the West Country, Wales, or overseas, where prices are lower because they are isolated. They often buy a derelict property or barn and renovate it bringing the work for local builders as well as trade for local shops

Indeed! Which is yet another reason why this isn't about a north/south divide.

Casdon

They do often more to cheaper areas of the country, but that brings its own issues when the burden of the care costs fall on that Local Authority.

Seaside towns in the south suffer from too many retirees as well, as does my town in the Midlands.

Prices are not lower in Wales or the West Country (or the North, or Scotland) because houses are isolated. They are lower because they are not near London, and the transport links are poor, employment is less plentiful and there is less by way of free entertainment.

People retiring to 'non-Southern' areas are not saving the economies of their new home towns - they push up house prices, particularly on bungalows and purpose-built flats for older people, making them less readily available to local older people, and then pay less to local councils than local families if they are single-person households and get a rebate on council tax.

Older people tend to buy fewer household items, or items such as children's clothes that need to be replaced frequently. They tend not to stay out late, so local nightlife venues don't benefit from them living there. They eat less than families, so such remaining grocers, butchers and so one as there are will not benefit from an influx of older people. Other shops, such as clothes shops aimed at younger people go out of business, so New Look and equivalent get replaced by Seasalt and similar outlets, and the town becomes less attractive to young families and more so to older people. Larger houses are sold to care home businesses, and the cycle continues.

It's not necessarily North versus South, but it is far more likely that an older person from the South will buy property outside of it than the other way round, leaving the South with wage-earning residents who pay full council tax and use all the local facilities.

Great points Doodledog. There's a huge diversity between different areas. It really isn't just a north versus south divide. That's why I keep arguing that it's more about individuals, who can end up in all sorts of different places for different reasons. Concentrating on areas encourages tribalism, which is a distraction from the real issues.

For all sorts of planning reasons, it's useful to concentrate on areas, for example when allocating funds for regeneration, but this isn't one of them. This is about individuals.