Budget today

I like the action on standing charges, since we frequently pay more for the standing charge than actual fuel.
I’ll watch with interest how this affects the price of fuel though.
My water bill went down when we got a meter. Many posters also said the same, but the price is rising to make up for the water providers’ lower income up as more people get a meter.
Will the action on standing charges have a similar impact, for the same reason?

This is just the start, there could be a lot more next Spring

Not if he sticks to the one Budget a year rule set down by Reeves. He’s stuck to her ridiculous ‘fiscal rules’, so I’m not holding out much hope. We may get a Spring Statement but that’s not a Budget.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

Apparently we are 3 TRILLION ££s in debt as a nation which is £100,000 per capita. Growth will be our only way out of this mess as servicing the debt alone (the interest) costs us more that the whole budget for education.

Quite shocking.

Will you and everyone else please, please stop worrying about the ‘national debt’. It is not a serious problem.

All that the national debt is is people’s savings and the place where institutions like pension and insurance funds put money for safety. The government will never default on its debt; which makes it the safest place to put money. It also provides a guaranteed ‘income’ through the interest it pays.

Some of the ‘debt’ is money created by the bank the government owns, the Bank of England, to purchase government bonds from the Treasury and the bond market for quantitative easing in 2008 (to rescue the commercial banks) and to cover Covid expenses in 2020. Some £900+billion that the government doesn’t owe to anyone. Foreign debt is held mostly by countries which want sterling to pay for exports from the UK, the interest being paid in sterling.
The UK holdings (which comprise the largest part) are financed by, believe it or not, from the budget deficit, i.e what the government spends that doesn’t come back to it via taxation (if it weren’t for the deficit you wouldn’t have any money).

If you’re really worried about the debt and you have Premium Bonds I suggest that you redeem them; that would help to reduce the debt..

Will you and everyone else please, please stop worrying about the ‘national debt’. It is not a serious problem.
I know some of it's mine so it's reassuring to know I don't have to worry if everyone decides to cash in their loans to the Government.

You could get your Premium bond money back, but Treasury bonds are fixed term; the only way you’d get your money bavk on them is either when their term ends or by selling them on the secondary bond market.

But most private bondholders don’t actually want their money back, they want the income from them (or the prize money 😀. ).

There’s £137 billion invested in premium bonds and about £100billion in National Savings Accounts(which are also part of the national debt.)

I have to admit that there is some complexity when it comes to Treasury bonds, but the government never has any difficulty in selling them. It’s the secondary market that everyone gets upset about and that is a playground for speculators.