500 vouchers for all.

At the risk of being seen as a killjoy, Rishi is just wallpapering over the cracks. With a bit of window dressing. And these cracks threaten the structural integity of the country...

Stamp Duty cut? Only until March 21, and will really benefit only those paying half a mill for a house...
“However, this measure is unlikely to solve the inherent issues in the housing market. The cut will most help buyers in high-value areas, which are mainly in London, the south-east and south-west of England. The average first home in northern regions is below £150,000 and around 90% of first-time buyers in England won’t see any benefit from this change.” (Yorkshire Building Soc).

Furthermore, what is likely to happen is that the house sellers will simply stick another 3-5% on their asking prices, so the buyers don’t really win. They will see the benefit of saving up to £15k in hard cash that won’t go the Govt in tax at the point of sale, which is satisfying though. As I say, only the rich south will really benefit and the rest of us will be subsidising their tax savings.

Hospitality discount...
The chancellor announces an “eat out to help out discount” to encourage consumers to spend at restaurants and cafes. Meals eaten at any participating businesses, from Mondays to Wednesdays in August, will be 50% off up to a maximum discount of £10 per head for everyone, including children.

It’s like some shitty standard Pizza Hut or Nando’s deal to fill a few tables on the quiet days of the week, not actually when you really want to go out... which are Fridays and Saturdays. You can always find deals like this normally (2 main meals for the price of one, free bottle of wine etc) for the unpopular evenings. The only difference is that you can now find them at all establishments, rather than just the crappy ones. And, again, restaurants will stick a few quid on the price of dishes.

Perhaps the worthwhile initiatives are the Green Benefits and Job Encouragement schemes for the young.

Green stuff...Vouchers worth £5,000 and up to £10,000 for poorer families will be made available out of a £2bn pot to retrofit homes with insulation, helping to cut carbon emissions. (There have plenty of these grant schemes over the years. How many will take this up now?).

Job schemes... “Sunak announces the “kickstart” job creation scheme for young people. The government will pay the wages of new young employees for six months. There will be an initial £2bn to fund hundreds of thousands of jobs. Sunak says there will be no cap on the number of places available.”

But these low wage jobs for the kids are not going to fully offset the hundreds of thousands of jobs lost through forced redundancies over the next year. And the time limit of 6 months means that the company can just fire them at the end of 6 months when the Govt pay is stopped, with no comeback as one has little job protection for the first year.

So... I am rather underwhelmed as none of Rishi’s schemes seem to be radical for the country and, personally, none seem to affect me, though I hope that I am not likely to be one in need of that help. What is concerning is that this might stoke up inflation.

Nice try, Rishi, but I think we might be heading for a real “winter of discontent”.

Just out of interest what would you do instead?

Genuinely interested to know as I wouldn't wish whats happened on any political party in power anywhere...
 
Just out of interest what would you do instead?

Genuinely interested to know as I wouldn't wish whats happened on any political party in power anywhere...

Good question. I think the only answer is “a lot more”. Of what? Don’t know. Everything?
My point is that I don’t think Rishi’s feeble kickstart is going to fire up the engine again.
In fact, it may have a few unintended and detrimental consequences that we cannot clearly see yet.

But, with the way that working life has become more remote, we could spend billions on IT infrastructure, and local support facilities such as print shops, online shopping and services, better delivery services etc.

Of course, roaring inflation could be Rishi’s friend if it devalues the huge government borrowings taken out for the CV. The only problem is that it could decimate people’s savings. So... best spend it all now on appreciating assets. Or having fun... for tomorrow we die. The rainy day has come and it’s here to stay. We are going to stumble along until the vaccine arrives (if it ever does).

As I said... nice try, Rishi.
 
Unless there’s some rules regarding continued employment, the job kickstart idea has all the hallmarks of the old YTS - young ‘uns being laid off everytime the date draws near for the employer to start paying.
 
So this green stuff, windows, insulation etc. Will this be another one of those schemes where you have to be on benefits to qualify?
 
In reply to what he could have done, this is an idea.
One thing that I heard mentioned earlier on but has not been implemented is a subsidy scheme to replace gas boilers with heat exchanging boilers (i.e. the government subsidises this work to some extent probably around 50% of the total cost). This is labour intensive stuff and good for the environment and is also a substantial undertaking so the work would go on for years rather than a few months. This scheme could go hand in hand with the home insulation scheme that he announced today.
 
At the risk of being seen as a killjoy, Rishi is just wallpapering over the cracks. With a bit of window dressing. And these cracks threaten the structural integity of the country...

Stamp Duty cut? Only until March 21, and will really benefit only those paying half a mill for a house...
“However, this measure is unlikely to solve the inherent issues in the housing market. The cut will most help buyers in high-value areas, which are mainly in London, the south-east and south-west of England. The average first home in northern regions is below £150,000 and around 90% of first-time buyers in England won’t see any benefit from this change.” (Yorkshire Building Soc).

Furthermore, what is likely to happen is that the house sellers will simply stick another 3-5% on their asking prices, so the buyers don’t really win. They will see the benefit of saving up to £15k in hard cash that won’t go the Govt in tax at the point of sale, which is satisfying though. As I say, only the rich south will really benefit and the rest of us will be subsidising their tax savings.

Hospitality discount...
The chancellor announces an “eat out to help out discount” to encourage consumers to spend at restaurants and cafes. Meals eaten at any participating businesses, from Mondays to Wednesdays in August, will be 50% off up to a maximum discount of £10 per head for everyone, including children.

It’s like some shitty standard Pizza Hut or Nando’s deal to fill a few tables on the quiet days of the week, not actually when you really want to go out... which are Fridays and Saturdays. You can always find deals like this normally (2 main meals for the price of one, free bottle of wine etc) for the unpopular evenings. The only difference is that you can now find them at all establishments, rather than just the crappy ones. And, again, restaurants will stick a few quid on the price of dishes.

Perhaps the worthwhile initiatives are the Green Benefits and Job Encouragement schemes for the young.

Green stuff...Vouchers worth £5,000 and up to £10,000 for poorer families will be made available out of a £2bn pot to retrofit homes with insulation, helping to cut carbon emissions. (There have plenty of these grant schemes over the years. How many will take this up now?).

Job schemes... “Sunak announces the “kickstart” job creation scheme for young people. The government will pay the wages of new young employees for six months. There will be an initial £2bn to fund hundreds of thousands of jobs. Sunak says there will be no cap on the number of places available.”

But these low wage jobs for the kids are not going to fully offset the hundreds of thousands of jobs lost through forced redundancies over the next year. And the time limit of 6 months means that the company can just fire them at the end of 6 months when the Govt pay is stopped, with no comeback as one has little job protection for the first year.

So... I am rather underwhelmed as none of Rishi’s schemes seem to be radical for the country and, personally, none seem to affect me, though I hope that I am not likely to be one in need of that help. What is concerning is that this might stoke up inflation.

Nice try, Rishi, but I think we might be heading for a real “winter of discontent”.
Good analysis Archie. That said, I think the retrofit idea has legs. For what it's worth I think the Government should be pulling to the left some of its major infrastructure projects that it has in mind. Get them moving and put guaranteed jobs in there for people laid off because of Covid. If those projects really do exist then don't wait for an autumn statement to announce them, get them moving now.
For instance, the retrofitting of home insulation should not be an additional plan for Covid but an embedded part of Govt policy. Hmmm, what if that is part of existing Tory plans and they've announced it now as if it's a new idea?...Or is that too Machiavellian of me?
 
Wow untie your knickers Lala, I’m not having a go.

I realise it’s only a story at the minute. But it is a fact that the Government will roll this out, if anyone does. That’s an indisputable fact.

I’m not left or right. I think both parties are truly dreadful, and I’m not even sure these labels even apply anymore which I was trying to highlight in my first post.

I need a block on the politics and Covid forum it gets you no where. I tell mySelf every time to avoid but just can’t help my self. 😂

How on earth do you know the Labour Party is dreadful...based on WHAT? We know the Tories are based on the last 10 years!
 
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As Milton Friedman said there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
This is absolute madness.
I’m not sure what the Conservative party actually conserve anymore.

We’re in a strange place where the tories have occupied the space of New Labour and Stanmer is probably going to have to drag the Labour Party from the far left to centre right.

what weird times we live in.
I think you've inadvertently hit on a fantastic composite leader: Sir Kier Thomas Stanmer. A combination of a man newly elected as leader of the Labour Party, a radical Party that needs to overthrow the years of heretical Tory orthodoxy, and the brilliant C16th Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, a man who threw his mind, body and (yes) soul into the reformation of the English Church. And please, forego the inclination to suggest that Starmer be burnt at the stake.
 
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Trouble is not jump starting the economy will cause much more pain. It's speculate to accumulate and these initiatives are the right thing to do and actually a decent idea.

Well done to the government for the tenner off voucher.
Firstly apologies for spelling - was on a train and not concentrating- agree probably right thing to do but every new initiative is usually met with " not enough" and again maybe a fare point
However it is all going to be paid - I'm fully expecting a hike in income tax ,NI contributions and end of triple lock pensions- if so we need to fo something about multinationals and individuals avoiding paying a fare share
Saying that my double glazing is 20 years old and fkt .....

Was not meaning to criticise but just aware of the enormous costs
 
Firstly apologies for spelling - was on a train and not concentrating- agree probably right thing to do but every new initiative is usually met with " not enough" and again maybe a fare point
However it is all going to be paid - I'm fully expecting a hike in income tax ,NI contributions and end of triple lock pensions- if so we need to fo something about multinationals and individuals avoiding paying a fare share
Saying that my double glazing is 20 years old and fkt .....

Was not meaning to criticise but just aware of the enormous costs
Totally agree about the multinationals, get them taxed!
 
Unless there’s some rules regarding continued employment, the job kickstart idea has all the hallmarks of the old YTS - young ‘uns being laid off everytime the date draws near for the employer to start paying.
Exactly. Six months free labour then bring in a fresh batch to claim against. At least Boohoo pay £3.50. They won't have to do that with this scheme.
 
I am liking the surreal aspects of the public’s response to Rishi’s Restaurant Discount... the Safari Supper... whereby you visit a different restaurant for each of your starter, main and desert and can claim the maximum £10 discount at each establishment. It reminds me of the Window Tax in the 18th C.
 
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