Big pronouncements

He has begun with VAT on domestic fuel bills

No VAT on domestic fuel.

Electricity - a renewable fuel. . Gas not mentioned, which is a fossil fuel.

Costed - from savings on cancellation of ID programme.

One priority should be to reverse Rachel from Accounts dreadful "jobs tax" which was one of the biggest own goals of the last regime. And the tax allowances need to be unfrozen too as a matter of urgency.

On rough sleeping Scandinavian countries have a different approach, summed up: The Underlying Philosophy: It is virtually impossible to recover from trauma, mental health issues, or addiction while fighting to survive on the streets. A stable home provides the necessary foundation for all other rehabilitation.

Hostels were turned into flats and new flats built. Being on the streets and homeless is a passport to a flat with intensive rehab input.

All sounds piece in the sky but apparently most Scandi countries have virtually eliminated rough sleeping.

Pie, not piece

Whitewavemark2

Costed - from savings on cancellation of ID programme.

Darren Jones has come out and said that the voluntary digital ID scheme had not been fully costed and that there had been no money allocated to pay for it.

He went on to ask AB where the money was actually coming from.

Source ITV Breakfast News

Graphite you probably know this but there are some mortgages now that will accept proof of rent paid when doing affordability checks.

Some at minimum or even 0% deposits.

The ID programme was going to cost over £1.8bn over the next 3 years.

I live in Gtr Manchester. My postal voting card arrived on Saturday for the Mayoral contest here.

Just to clarify: Homelessness actually ROSE during AB’s tenure. Check it out.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

I live in Gtr Manchester. My postal voting card arrived on Saturday for the Mayoral contest here.

Just to clarify: Homelessness actually ROSE during AB’s tenure. Check it out.

That was just pointed out on the Breakfast News.

From Wiki:

Yes, homelessness has increased significantly in Manchester. Data from Shelter shows that 1 in every 61 people in the city-council area is homeless, which is one of the highest rates in the UK.The rise is driven by two main factors:Temporary Accommodation: Over 9,500 people in the Manchester area are currently without a permanent home, including thousands of children housed in temporary or emergency accommodation.Rough Sleeping: The number of people sleeping on the streets has risen for consecutive years. In Greater Manchester, the official annual snapshot count of rough sleepers rose to 197, more than doubling from the low of 89 recorded in 2021.Local authorities attribute this upward trend to the freezing of Local Housing Allowance rates, increased Section 21 "no-fault" evictions, and pressures on the asylum housing system. To combat the crisis, Greater Manchester continues to operate the A Bed Every Night (ABEN) scheme, which provides hundreds of emergency bed spaces across the region.

A difficult problem with no easy fixes.
And more people moved into the area of 5million people - a population the size of Scotland!

Whitewavemark2

The ID programme was going to cost over £1.8bn over the next 3 years.

Someone has got it wrong

As the OBR and Darren Jones are saying that the digital ID scheme was unfunded.

The 5% VAT saving is according to Martin Lewis to be approximately £40-45 per year per household.

Already scrapping between the last cohort and this cohort, not a great start.

I hope the pettiness stops PDQ

The explanation regarding the rough sleepers is that Burnham allotted 600 spaces for rough sleepers in Manchester, which given the fact (shelter) that there are roughly 5000 rough sleepers in the whole country should have been more than sufficient.

There are a couple of explanations for the rise.

The first is that the economy has not been kind to the working or middle classes for that matter.

The second which is more likely is that this sort of scheme has not been set up by communities surrounding Manchester, and so the possibility of a bed for the night attracted rough sleepers from communities outside of Manchester.

Burnham’s argument is that if the country as a who,e pulls together, this problem can go a long way to bring resolved. Norway set up a similar scheme and as a consequence there are no people sleeping rough on their streets"

gg13 you clearly don’t want to enter the spirit of pulling together😄😄😄

Whitewavemark2

Electricity - a renewable fuel. . Gas not mentioned, which is a fossil fuel.

Thats not strictly accurate, though. Electricity does use some fossil fuel for its production, it even still uses gas, though I understand that the use of gas is something of a fallback position when renewables produce less.

There are two problems related to this, firstly that electricity is currently priced on the cost of producing it by gas, which is both far more expensive than renewables and not a major producer. It is argued that the pricing of our electricity should change to reflect this.

Secondly, there are potential major renewables suppliers which cannot yet be connected to the national grid. The grid needs urgent attention and investment. It’s all very well pushing renewables but the infrastructure needs to be in place, too.

Re the scrapping GG. I feel disappointed but not surprised although I’d expected better from Darren Jones. I suppose what’s so dispiriting is that I’d ( naively) hope he cared enough about the country to just button it. I can understand RR refusing a job, I can understand a bit of ill feeling and sulking but coming in like that this morning is unacceptable.

Whitewavemark2

He has begun with VAT on domestic fuel bills

No VAT on domestic fuel.

True but it's only at 5% in the first place.
I do see that every bit will help but it's very little - maybe £45 a year?

Better to uncouple gas and electric in my opinion.

Cutting VAT on business gas and electricity would be a 20% cut for most.

MaizieD

Whitewavemark2

Electricity - a renewable fuel. . Gas not mentioned, which is a fossil fuel.

Thats not strictly accurate, though. Electricity does use some fossil fuel for its production, it even still uses gas, though I understand that the use of gas is something of a fallback position when renewables produce less.

There are two problems related to this, firstly that electricity is currently priced on the cost of producing it by gas, which is both far more expensive than renewables and not a major producer. It is argued that the pricing of our electricity should change to reflect this.

Secondly, there are potential major renewables suppliers which cannot yet be connected to the national grid. The grid needs urgent attention and investment. It’s all very well pushing renewables but the infrastructure needs to be in place, too.

But the general population won’t see the niceties of that will they?

They will simply see that their bills are being reduced, and Burnham will have achieved his aim.

Whitewavemark2

The ID programme was going to cost over £1.8bn over the next 3 years.

Yes but hadn't been budgeted for as yet so just stopping a drain doesn't free up the money that didn't exist.

Luckygirl3

On rough sleeping Scandinavian countries have a different approach, summed up: The Underlying Philosophy: It is virtually impossible to recover from trauma, mental health issues, or addiction while fighting to survive on the streets. A stable home provides the necessary foundation for all other rehabilitation.

Hostels were turned into flats and new flats built. Being on the streets and homeless is a passport to a flat with intensive rehab input.

All sounds piece in the sky but apparently most Scandi countries have virtually eliminated rough sleeping.

That's pretty much what I suggested upthread, but I was told that putting addicts together would create centres of drug abuse.

As for the costing or otherwise of the VAT cut, I guess MaisieD could explain whether that’s actually an issue at all.

Whitewavemark2

gg13 you clearly don’t want to enter the spirit of pulling together😄😄😄

I most definitely do.

Hence my final sentence I hope the pettiness stops PDQ

The last thing the U.K. needs is an ongoing war of attrition between Starmer’s old cohort and Burnham’s new one.

GrannyGravy13

Whitewavemark2

The ID programme was going to cost over £1.8bn over the next 3 years.

Someone has got it wrong

As the OBR and Darren Jones are saying that the digital ID scheme was unfunded.

The 5% VAT saving is according to Martin Lewis to be approximately £40-45 per year per household.

Already scrapping between the last cohort and this cohort, not a great start.

I hope the pettiness stops PDQ

I hope it stops quickly too. Let's all give him a chance, eh?