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The Labour Party under Andy Burnham

RT4038

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Yes, lots of people are. But not to the tune of over a thousand pounds a month. Having a thousand pounds a month spare to save per person is in the domain of the upper middle class at least.
Young(er) people in professional jobs/doing lots of overtime/two jobs still living at home or in cheap accomodation, saving for a house for instance, could save a thousand pounds a month, as could old(er) people who have paid off their mortgage by one way or another. Neither would be necessarily 'upper middle class'.
 
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Bletchleyite

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Young(er) people in professional jobs/doing lots of overtime/two jobs still living at home or in cheap accomodation, saving for a house for instance, could save a thousand pounds a month, as could old(er) people who have paid off their mortgage by one way or another. Neither would be necessarily 'upper middle class'.

I doubt it. A thousand pounds a month net is a lot of money. And if anyone is in that position, it's quite right that they be encouraged to invest in growing business or to pay tax on the interest (which is still only a very small sum). I think this is a financial version of the RailUK Standard Minority (the theoretical person with all 8 protected characteristics) who we've not seen posted about for a while.

Why, again, do we persist in defending the interests of the well-off (anyone who can save £1K a month is by definition well off, like it or not) with strawmen against the real "little guy" - the person on minimum wage struggling to keep their head above the water who we should really be supporting? The present political climate and the support the likes of Reform are being able to bring to the rich from people who aren't rich is utterly, utterly bizarre. See also rich Boomer pensioners being seen by many as scraping together their last pennies.
 

oldman

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If you put £8000 into a cash account paying 4.5% you get £360 interest annually on which the standard rate tax would be £72. That extra tax is unlikely to stall the housing market.

My criticism of this change is that it doesn't really matter. What matters is the ability for people to put aside £20k every year, sheltering very large amounts from tax. I would put a lifetime limit on contributions, say £100k.

I don't get too hung up on disparities in wealth (the rich will always be with us) but I object to measures which add to them.
 

RT4038

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I doubt it. A thousand pounds a month net is a lot of money. And if anyone is in that position, it's quite right that they be encouraged to invest in growing business or to pay tax on the interest (which is still only a very small sum). I think this is a financial version of the RailUK Standard Minority (the theoretical person with all 8 protected characteristics) who we've not seen posted about for a while.
If you are earning £3000 a month net, living at home or have paid off your mortgage and/or are living with a partner also earning, you could quite easily save a thousand pounds a month net. And not be in any way 'upper middle class' , as I would consider it anyway. I am not sure your 'class' has got anything to do with it.
There are lots of people in this position who are not 'upper middle class'. If you worked on a second hussle every weekend for a while and have a partner living with you doing the same, pay off your mortgage, I expect you could get there too! It is for you to decide whether the sacrifice now is worth it for future wealth, but if not don't expect those who do to want to help you in the future because you didn't.

Why, again, do we persist in defending the interests of the well-off (anyone who can save £1K a month is by definition well off, like it or not) with strawmen against the real "little guy" - the person on minimum wage struggling to keep their head above the water who we should really be supporting? The present political climate and the support the likes of Reform are being able to bring to the rich from people who aren't rich is utterly, utterly bizarre. See also rich Boomer pensioners being seen by many as scraping together their last pennies.
I am defending the interests of the well-off (in your definition) maybe because I am one of them in a small way - I've worked hard (sometimes lots of overtime, sometimes a second hussle, often with lots of responsibility) and I don't just want my money earned and saved to be taken from us just because 'I can afford it', to help the people any more than strictly necessary who won't /didn't. Within reason of course.

I don't want to be encouraged to invest in Stocks and Shares - I was burnt many years ago by a Stock Market crash (probaly engineered by big financial / government interests). No thank you. Nor do I have any issue with paying tax on any interest earned above inflation rate.
 

Magdalia

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The housing market is key to a prosperous economy.
A well functioning housing market is key to a prosperous economy, but in the UK the housing market is dysfunctional and one of the main barriers to economic growth.

In particular a liquid housing market is important for job mobility, one of the best ways for people to improve their productivity is to be able to move to new and better paid jobs.

The house needs to be sold - benefit estate agents, surveyors and solicitors. People need to buy new stuff for the house - benefiting retailers. People need to sustain in a job to earn the cash to pay the mortgage - benefiting the entire economy.
You are right that this is all economic activity.

But the UK housing market has key impediments to liquidity. One is tax, with continuing occupation of the same property undertaxed (council tax) and moving overtaxed (stamp duty). Another is planning law, which for decades has restricted supply. Building new houses generates a lot more economic activity than existing houses changing hands.

A consequence of planning law restricting supply is that interventions on the demand side mainly affect prices not activity, where the economy gets a "sugar rush" as buyers respond to demand side interventions, but this quickly disappears when sellers raise prices.

It is a splendid coincidence that this is interwoven with a discussion about taxing sugary drinks.

Won't be long before they introduce a Staying Indoors tax...
It has been around for years and is called the TV Licence!
 

johntea

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And as if things couldn't get any worse...the budget leaked before 12:30 anyway!
 

jfollows

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To an extent. But this budget has been a particularly egregious example of 'putting the feelers out' with a dozen significant policies floated months in advance, then u-turns floated weeks later, then silence. There's a complete lack of confidence in UK markets right now and it's because of uncertainty.
The speaker has told the government off for the level of speculation and that some ministers - including Reeves - may have broken the ministerial code.
 

styles

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The speaker has told the government off for the level of speculation and that some ministers - including Reeves - may have broken the ministerial code.
Exactly. Loads of bodies have called this out now, from commerce lobbies to parliamentary groups, from think tanks to the OBR themselves. It's just a farce.
 

Tetchytyke

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If you are earning £3000 a month net, living at home or have paid off your mortgage and/or are living with a partner also earning, you could quite easily save a thousand pounds a month net.
£3,000 a month net is a salary of about £55K to £60K. Whilst that's not staggeringly high, it is pretty much double the average wage in the UK. People earning that much (myself included) are not staggeringly well off but we're not exactly paupers either.

As for the consequence of the change, anyone who put in £20K tax-free will now be taxed on the interest on an additional £8K. Assuming 4% interest and a higher-rate taxpayer that tax will be £144, so a little over a tenner a month. I'm sure they'll somehow cope.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==

Exactly. Loads of bodies have called this out now, from commerce lobbies to parliamentary groups, from think tanks to the OBR themselves. It's just a farce.
It's a tough one.

If you don't float things in advance then, if the financial sector takes against your proposal, you can rapidly end up in a world of pain. Ask Liz Truss. A certain amount of pre-Budget sounding out absolutely makes sense and, sadly, these days you can't trust the trade bodies and similar organisations that you sound out to not leak things they disagree with.

But running everything up the flagpole and seeing what sticks just makes you look daft.
 
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Bletchleyite

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£12,000 cash ISA annual limit, but £20,000 for anyone over 65.

Another sop to rich Boomers. Are we ever going to consider our young? We need to be taking from the Boomers and giving to under 30s so they can e.g. have some hope of buying a house ever.

That's particularly bad because very, very few people who are retired have a grand a month spare to save, so it really is aimed at the super-rich.

I'm quite angry about this Budget, to be honest. Not because it'll cost me a few quid (it will, but I'm in favour of higher taxation for improved public services and always have been - I'd be in strong support, for instance, of a few pence on all rates of income tax), but because it will cost me a few quid in the wrong ways (e.g. taxing pension contributions rather than income/CGT) and once again is favouring a generation that is likely the richest, overall, that has ever lived. When is a party going to be willing to be honest and simply increase Income Tax as is necessary, and start looking at e.g. how profit gained from the use of artificial intelligence can be taxed?
 

johntea

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£12,000 cash ISA annual limit, but £20,000 for anyone over 65.

One bit of good news is they aren't changing it until April 2027 so next year is unaffected

The other £8k can still be put in a Stocks and Shares ISA so there is still technically a £20k allowance - but will people be investing in UK stocks and shares I'm not so sure!
 

Lewisham2221

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If you are earning £3000 a month net, living at home or have paid off your mortgage and/or are living with a partner also earning, you could quite easily save a thousand pounds a month net. And not be in any way 'upper middle class' , as I would consider it anyway. I am not sure your 'class' has got anything to do with it.
There are lots of people in this position who are not 'upper middle class'. If you worked on a second hussle every weekend for a while and have a partner living with you doing the same, pay off your mortgage, I expect you could get there too! It is for you to decide whether the sacrifice now is worth it for future wealth, but if not don't expect those who do to want to help you in the future because you didn't.


I am defending the interests of the well-off (in your definition) maybe because I am one of them in a small way - I've worked hard (sometimes lots of overtime, sometimes a second hussle, often with lots of responsibility) and I don't just want my money earned and saved to be taken from us just because 'I can afford it', to help the people any more than strictly necessary who won't /didn't. Within reason of course.

"I'm alright, Jack"

Anyone peddling the narrative that people earning at/near minimum wage are lazy and need to try harder can go and throw their opinion in the nearest bin as far as I'm concerned. There's only so many jobs. If the vast majority of them are only paying minimum wage, or a little above it, what are people supposed to do? Sometimes I wish that everyone earning sub-30k would walk out and show everyone with such an attitude just how quickly the country would fall to pieces if they weren't doing what they do.
 

brad465

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Fuel duty going up by a staged increase while rail fares freeze seems to be the first nod away from the car lobby in a long time (if ever). Obviously pay per mile for electric cars will be seen as a problem, though personally I think this should have been applied to all vehicles to replace fuel duty.
 

Bletchleyite

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Fuel duty going up by a staged increase while rail fares freeze seems to be the first nod away from the car lobby in a long time (if ever). Obviously pay per mile for electric cars will be seen as a problem, though personally I think this should have been applied to all vehicles to replace fuel duty.

Personally I'd apply it on top of fuel duty to encourage switching to EVs and to provide a short term tax take spike which would then reduce back to the previous levels as ICE cars go out of fashion.
 

Kite159

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Good news that the taxpayer will pay for the l ladies who will be going back to popping out babies every year to claim lots of benefits...

Should have kept the 2 child limit, if anybody wants to have lots of kids they can pay for them themselves
 

class ep-09

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Good news that the taxpayer will pay for the l ladies who will be going back to popping out babies every year to claim lots of benefits...

Should have kept the 2 child limit, if anybody wants to have lots of kids they can pay for them themselves
Do you know how much child benefit is ?

A lady could pop out a child every year, as you say, but the benefit is still very little comparing to how much raising a child costs.
Also, either “our “ mums give birth to “our” children or they have to come from abroad just to keep economy and society afloat .

It’s not child’s fault it was born but it would be “our” problem if it has nothing to eat or lives in mould infested accommodation.
 

jfollows

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The speaker has told the government off for the level of speculation and that some ministers - including Reeves - may have broken the ministerial code.
Now from Hansard: https://hansard.parliament.uk/commo...4B7AABFB798/FinancialStatementAndBudgetReport
12.31pm
Madam Deputy Speaker
(Ms Nusrat Ghani)
Before I call the Chancellor, I will make a short statement. For a number of weeks, and yet again yesterday, there have been extensive briefings to the media on the Government’s fiscal policy and public finances. This disappointing trend in relation to Budget briefings has been growing for a number of years under successive Governments, but it appears to have reached an unprecedented high.

Weeks ago, we saw the Chancellor delivering a speech in Downing Street setting the scene for the Budget, and specific policy announcements have been briefed out to the media in advance of today’s financial statement. [Interruption.] I do not need any help from Members. It seems that just a moment ago, the Office for Budget Responsibility’s analysis appeared online. This all falls short of the standards that the House expects. The premature disclosure of the contents of the Budget has always been regarded as a supreme discourtesy to this House and to all the democratically elected Members, not to mention to Mr Speaker, and to me, the Chairman of Ways and Means.

The Government’s own “Ministerial Code” cannot be clearer. Paragraph 9.1 states:

“When Parliament is in session, the most important announcements of Government policy should be made in the first instance in Parliament.”

I have always upheld the right of this House and its Members to be treated with respect, and to be the first to hear major Government policy announcements on behalf of their constituents. As Chairman of Ways and Means, I have responsibility for overseeing the House’s consideration of the Budget statement and the ensuing resolutions; that is described in paragraph 36.33 of “Erskine May” as

“the most important business of Ways and Means.”

I want hon. Members on both sides of the House to have adequate opportunity to hold the Chancellor to account, rather than their hearing and reading about new policies daily in the media. Like many, I expected better.
 
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Topological

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I would like a simple world where the only tax was PAYE, either at the point of salary or at the point of profit distribution. The problem with that is you end up with a much much smaller HMRC.
 

Bletchleyite

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I would like a simple world where the only tax was PAYE, either at the point of salary or at the point of profit distribution.

I think there are too many indirect taxes, but I do think some are needed, e.g. health related ones to fund the cost to the NHS of given vices (which would in a commercial system be handled by higher insurance premiums for those making poor health choices) and car related ones to fund the cost of roads.
 

Bletchleyite

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Does anyone know what exactly the Landlord tax is?

An increase to income tax as levied on the income from rents of a couple of percentage points.


The basic, higher and additional rates will increase to 22%, 42% and 47% respectively, a move that could add between £20 and £25 per month to typical rents in England.

I don't totally understand the rationale behind this - her speech said "we want to move towards taxing all income the same" (paraphrased) then she introduced a change that, er, makes rental income taxed at 2p/£ higher than other income. It might have been as a proxy to applying national insurance to rental incomes as that is 2% above a certain cap?
 

brad465

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Does anyone know what exactly the Landlord tax is?

From BBC:


Hoping my rent is going to go up too much!
They said "burden", so it won't be one specific tax. If I had to guess the enhanced council tax for £2m+ homes will be an increased burden on any landlord renting out a property of that value, plus the savings-related tax band increases and ISA allowance, if that's where the rent they're paid goes.
 

Topological

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I think there are too many indirect taxes, but I do think some are needed, e.g. health related ones to fund the cost to the NHS of given vices (which would in a commercial system be handled by higher insurance premiums for those making poor health choices) and car related ones to fund the cost of roads.
Maybe we can keep some point of sale stuff :)

Roads is a difficult one, but it is only domestic electricity for charging EVs that does not have a point of sale. The answer is in the services where charges can be added as point of sale.

I appreciate that what I am saying leaves huge room for the cash economy, for small business and for any organisation that does not need to file accounts. However, the whole point there is to encourage people to do more "side hussles", instead of the current HMRC campaign which explains how you should register these for tax.
 

Topological

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An increase to income tax as levied on the income from rents of a couple of percentage points.




I don't totally understand the rationale behind this - her speech said "we want to move towards taxing all income the same" (paraphrased) then she introduced a change that, er, makes rental income taxed at 2p/£ higher than other income. It might have been as a proxy to applying national insurance to rental incomes as that is 2% above a certain cap?
Politics with this one.

Any landlord who could has already moved their property to a limited company when the mortgage relief ended. Cannot imagine how anyone could make money renting out as a private individual now.
 

RT4038

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Then accept this change and pay the tax! :)
If the tax was arranged in that way then I would be quite happy! But it is not.
I would like a simple world where the only tax was PAYE, either at the point of salary or at the point of profit distribution. The problem with that is you end up with a much much smaller HMRC.
That would result in a much larger black employment market, trying to avoid PAYE. HMRC wouldn't get any smaller - employment there would shift towards catching those working but not doing PAYE. It also encourages people not to work at all. Perhaps it would be better to have all tax on VAT, to encourage everyone to work and earn money to be able to afford to buy things.....
 
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They said "burden", so it won't be one specific tax. If I had to guess the enhanced council tax for £2m+ homes will be an increased burden on any landlord renting out a property of that value, plus the savings-related tax band increases and ISA allowance, if that's where the rent they're paid goes.

An increase to income tax as levied on the income from rents of a couple of percentage points.




I don't totally understand the rationale behind this - her speech said "we want to move towards taxing all income the same" (paraphrased) then she introduced a change that, er, makes rental income taxed at 2p/£ higher than other income. It might have been as a proxy to applying national insurance to rental incomes as that is 2% above a certain cap?

Thanks guys
 

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