We won’t know too much until we can read tomorrows analysis , but we do know of this government’s intended direction of travel, and whether it meets with our expectations as voters and what we all voted for, which of course changes with each individual.
My vote and expectation was for
First and foremost to save our NHS and crumbling public services.
Second was to address the state of our environment, the polluted seas and rivers, and the lack of diversity.
Next -to address the fact that economic growth has been more or less stagnant since 2010. We need a Keynesian type budget for growth, that is imaginative and forward thinking to produce the revenue to invest in out country.
Personally I have never thought it possible to have this type of successful economy where citizens can be confident of a cradle to grave welfare state, where education is first class, health is free at the point of use and available within a very reasonable time limit, where public services are well run and invested in and care for all in need comes as a right, can be obtained by the tax payer on the cheap. This type of economy must be paid for and we will need to see tax at Scandinavian levels in order to achieve this.
Looking at the state the country is in, we knew in July that this would be a mighty task. Mighty tasks need research/planning and massive effort. They always start painfully slowly but momentum will gather as each year passes and we will gradually see the result of the effort put in to save our country from the ravages of 14 long years of economic blows our public services received.
Of course the right wing media - childlike - is insisting on jam today without spending any of their pocket money, but as wise parents we know that all jam does is rot your teeth. Instant gratification is only for the hard of thinking, the more intelligent know that time is the master.
So now looking back at the few short months Labour has been in government, i am pretty supportive of the direction of travel, and the achievements to date - which probably need listing to remind everyone - but not for this thread.
Some stuff has been announced but I think it best until we begin to see how it fits into the overall picture before we begin to comment.
It looks as if this is going to be a massive budget though - so hold onto your hats!
Allira
One angry farmer in Scotland has many questions for what he calls the "metropolitan elite" in this government: One is - how does farming fit in with Angela Rayner's proposed four day working week?
Well he’s got a point!
What about nurses, doctors, teachers? We can’t employ more because there aren’t more ready cooked just waiting to be employed! Or farmers!
madalene
Allira
One angry farmer in Scotland has many questions for what he calls the "metropolitan elite" in this government: One is - how does farming fit in with Angela Rayner's proposed four day working week?
Well he’s got a point!
What about nurses, doctors, teachers? We can’t employ more because there aren’t more ready cooked just waiting to be employed! Or farmers!
A further £1.5bn will be used to provide extra hospital beds and free up capacity for an additional one million diagnostic tests.
How will NHS staff manage to find the extra staff needed for the proposed extra beds and diagnostic tests? Medical staff take years to train.
Why would 200 acres be a hobby farm?
Because, if David49 is correct, it wouldn't be providing a living for the farmer.
How will NHS staff manage to find the extra staff needed for the proposed extra beds and diagnostic tests? Medical staff take years to train.
Perhaps the wage increases will entice back some of the already trained practitioners who have left the NHS over the past few years?
Education business aren’t Academies run as businesses?
Forgive me if I hadn't noticed, but since when have Academies charged parents for educating their offspring?
MaizieD
^Why would 200 acres be a hobby farm?^
Because, if David49 is correct, it wouldn't be providing a living for the farmer.
It depends what they are growing.
If you keep a few alpacas on a few acres then that's a hobby farm.
MaizieD
^How will NHS staff manage to find the extra staff needed for the proposed extra beds and diagnostic tests? Medical staff take years to train.^
Perhaps the wage increases will entice back some of the already trained practitioners who have left the NHS over the past few years?
Well, not the ones I know who left because of stress and the more who left, the more stressful it became.
MaizieD
^Education business aren’t Academies run as businesses?^
Forgive me if I hadn't noticed, but since when have Academies charged parents for educating their offspring?
They do not MaizieD as you know.
Your previous post VAT is being charged on education businesses. Education shouldn’t be a profit taking exercise
For profit schools are not allowed in the U.K., whether they be State, Academies or Private.
Not a lot of people know that, GrannyGravy!
🤔
There have to have been some decisions made so far which seem to be ill-thought through, the consequences of which could impact on Working People and which are tinkering at the edges of this questionable £22billion Black Hole.
I spoke to my doctor daughter who is in New Zealand last night, and I told her about the new, much needed MRI scanners we’ve been promised, something I have a particular interest in since I required a scan well over a year ago and NHS pathways have been put in place to ensure that access to an MRI scan is very difficult, even when indicated by NHS consultants. Well, my daughter soon burst my bubble of enthusiasm,
and where will all the highly qualified staff to operate them come from? It takes years to train staff to operate scanners, they are very highly trained and not well paid, and there aren’t enough staff to fill the vacancies now
So there we have it!
and where will all the highly qualified staff to operate them come from? It takes years to train staff to operate scanners, they are very highly trained and not well paid, and there aren’t enough staff to fill the vacancies now
Yes, one young woman in our family is one of those highly trained staff and she and colleagues were in such despair at the demands made on them by the NHS and became so stressed some have left, work in the private sector or left the profession altogether.
As far as I understand it, the CGT on second homes remains the same, post Budget.
It was hiked up last April by the Conservatives from 10% to 18% for basic tax payers.
Open letter to the Chancellor on the impact of increased NIC for charities.
www.ncvo.org.uk/news-and-insights/news-index/open-letter-chancellor-national-insurance
“So what sort of income do you think a 500 acre farm would generate?
I agree that 200 acres is more a hobby farm than a profitable farm enterprise, but there's a lot of diversification at that level, surely?”
Typical less than £50k, assuming no borrowings have to be repaid then tax, and living expenses have to be paid out of what’s left.
Diversification, maybe, many dont because they are too remote for that to work, some would have other income from work away from the farm, that’s very difficult for livestock farms
Currently owner occupied farms have resilience, tenanted farms are precarious they only have their livestock or crops as security.
Surely tenanted farms wouldn't have to pay IHT (correct me if I'm wrong - I'm reading this thread with interest and learning).
A lot of the farms I know, if they have multiple family members working on the farm, that can work out better than employing too many people.
Family members, working for themselves, will weather the rougher years better.
They will put up with a lot more.
Allira
MaizieD
Why would 200 acres be a hobby farm?
Because, if David49 is correct, it wouldn't be providing a living for the farmer.It depends what they are growing.
If you keep a few alpacas on a few acres then that's a hobby farm.
If it’s 200 acres it’s a small one man 60+, probably livestock farm making a marginal profit, most likely living from the wife’s wages outside the farm.
From the food production aspect they are working for nothing
MaizieD
^How will NHS staff manage to find the extra staff needed for the proposed extra beds and diagnostic tests? Medical staff take years to train.^
Perhaps the wage increases will entice back some of the already trained practitioners who have left the NHS over the past few years?
I doubt that very much, and in any case those medical practitioners who left the NHS won’t be sitting around doing nothing in the years since they left, they’ll all have other jobs now.
growstuff
Surely tenanted farms wouldn't have to pay IHT (correct me if I'm wrong - I'm reading this thread with interest and learning).
They would, it would be the total of all the livestock and dead stock when it is sold, the IHT changes don’t affect them it’s only the land which they don’t own, that gets the 50% allowance .
Most tenants retire and buy a cottage so are not likely to be paying IHT
An example is in the next village 2 tenanted farms owned by an Oxford college, both around 200 acres.
One retired and sold his stock, the buildings are being developed, the land contract farmed on short term agreement.
The second farm, the son was allowed to continue, and spends about half his time working elsewhere, again traditional buildings being developed
I agree with others on here that saying we’ll have hundreds more experts in whatever field doesn’t mean they’ll magically appear, if only!
As for farmers, why is RR going after them this way? Farms aren’t just businesses they’re a way of life and so important for our country to produce our own food rather than import everything.Now we will see demonstrations by farmers and small farms could decide to throw in the towel.
I find all this scraping about for cash is the result of saying income tax and NI won’t go up as an election promise.It needed to go up and it should have gone up.
Why is it that whenever a demographic is expected to contribute to the collective good they are being ’targeted’ ‘hit’, ‘gone after’?
Doesn’t it suggest that they have been spared the obligations that the rest of us have had until now?
Are you producing food for the Nation? I’m not.
Farmers pay tax like everyone else but this on top seems like a big mistake to me.
Oreo
I agree with others on here that saying we’ll have hundreds more experts in whatever field doesn’t mean they’ll magically appear, if only!
As for farmers, why is RR going after them this way? Farms aren’t just businesses they’re a way of life and so important for our country to produce our own food rather than import everything.Now we will see demonstrations by farmers and small farms could decide to throw in the towel.
I find all this scraping about for cash is the result of saying income tax and NI won’t go up as an election promise.It needed to go up and it should have gone up.
Because she can see a lot of money being invested in land to get the tax concession, however, just like shares value can go down as well as up, if farmland ceases to be be an attractive investment fewer will want it and prices fall.
I doubt there will be any additional IHT collected, falling land values used as security for loans will cause problems with negative equity and loans being recalled.
Farmers have had it very good for a very long time regarding IHT exemption. Now it’s time to welcome them to the same rules as everyone else.
There are apparently loads of celebrities and people with lots of cash buying up vast tracts of land and saying they are "farmers" and aed apparently doing it for IHT purposes.
This is a cheap alternative to putting money elsewhere.
Also, at present, 88% of farms pay no inheritance taxes at all.
There was a table put out recently showing how much was paid on various estates last financial (recorded) year. It wax quite interesting.
I'll see if I can find it.
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