Spring Statement

"There's no doubt that the Chancellor faces some incredibly tough choices. Yet he seems determined that the people least able to take the economic hit will be the ones to do exactly that. I think he should delay the National Insurance hike for a year. It's completely the wrong time to be introducing it, with the huge jump in energy bills, interest rates rising, and food and petrol prices going through the roof. The energy companies are making billions in profit every month, yet many lower income people are struggling to keep themselves warm or put food on the table. It's a disgrace, frankly. In these exceptional times, it's clear that imposing a one-off windfall tax on the North Sea oil producers is the right thing to do. Will Rishi Sushak do it? I'm not holding my breath."

"I’d love to see Rishi Sunak bring capital gains tax in line with income tax rates, scrap the ill-timed National Insurance hike, abolish VAT and council tax and replace it with a land value tax. He could also increase corporation tax to 50% to force businesses sitting on huge piles of cash to either pay their workers more or invest in growing their business or productivity. There’s trillions of pounds slushing around the city not put to work in a productive capacity."

"The property market has already had considerable support and doesn't show signs of lagging just yet, primarily as a result of the severe lack of housing. The Chancellor could make moves to increase the number of new houses being built, but then how many Chancellors and housing ministers have tried and failed with that over the years? Another topical point could be the Help to Buy scheme, which is currently set to end in March 2023. Government support for first-time buyers, particularly those with a small deposit, will drop off or cease altogether, with no viable replacement or extension agreed as yet."

“The single best thing the Chancellor could do for the property market in the Spring statement, is make it easier to create new homes. A massive scrapping of cumbersome planning rules and red-tape, along with widening of permitted development rules. It costs nothing, it helps the economy and it helps first-time buyers. A win win for everyone.”

The best thing would be to simply scrap stamp duty and review the capital gains taxes as the mortgage and housing market has had plenty of help In the past 8/9 years the biggest issue is supply of housing and anything to free up housing stock and incentives for sellers to allow mobility within the housing ladder.

The Chancellor has a difficult job to do, cover the cost of the Government’s spending in light of the pandemic and on going crisis internationally and at home. Right now, the challenge is getting people on the housing ladder, but instead of making it easier and cheaper to borrow, which has lead us into this mess with inflation, it should be making it easier to save, so that people can get the deposit they need to buy a house in the first place. Most of us still need to drive to work, the increase in costs of fuel has all been passed onto us as consumers. Perhaps the government can show it’s support by reducing fuel duty and VAT on fuel, to make it cheaper. They could increase the nil-rate band on inheritance so many wouldn’t need to incur those extra death duties. They could even look to increase the tax free allowance but that would really be pushing it. Another area of potential benefit, would be to allow for the purchase of residential properties within SSAS and SIPP pensions, instead of needing to use convoluted expensive structures to get around this. Being able to buy residential investment properties within our pensions, which are generally cheaper and more profitable would allow us to build a larger pot to support ourselves in retirement. Something I’ve also been thinking about for a long time relates to tax brackets as a whole. Right now there is not much motivation to push upwards in income for many people, for fear of the 40% and 45% rates. So they stay in jobs up to £50,270 to stay on that 20% bracket. It’s not particularly motivating for entrepreneurs either. Perhaps instead of punishing those who want to grow, we rewarded them with a progressive-regressive tax scale. I.e. Over £300,000 it drops to 40%, over £500,000 to 30% and over £1,000,000 it drops to 20% etc. Now it’s certainly not amounts most of us will make in our lifetime, but it may just push more people to aim for the sky, and it would also mean those that are earning such high amounts won’t need to go to the effort of concealing it, moving it offshore, or moving overseas. That additional income flowing into No 11 might just help provide for those at the bottom of the scale.

"The Chancellor shouldn't do anything to support the property and mortgage market, other than increase the number of homes being built. Sadly, no housing minister has ever managed to achieve that. A lot of people are debating whether Rishi Sunak will reverse April's National Insurance tax hikes, but the Government seems to be digging its heels in on that front. The main challenge the Government and Bank of England have right now is inflation, which is spiralling out of control, eroding people's spending power and has the ability to trigger a recession. The best thing the Government can do is find ways to build more houses and support people through what is fast becoming an unprecedented cost of living crisis."