The Budget

[lupestripe]

I'm a bit of a masochist when it comes to The Budget. I know watching it will do little good for me but I am fascinated about such things and so will probably be viewing it at work. My boss certainly knows this is what I will be doing and seems to understand. For some reason I need to watch it live rather than catch up on it at a later time. As I say, fascinated.

I guess there will be the usual rises of tax on alcohol and travel but the raise of income tax threshold could benefit me. Aside from that, this year seems to be about public sector pay, taxing (or not) the rich or changes to benefits, all categories I don't fall into although I know people who will be affected by this. And no doubt I will unlikely be a net beneficiary overall this year, the devil is often in the detail.

I hope The Budget is good for you or at least neutral which I imagine is all you can hope for in this age of austerity. Not much is going to change for a while but there could be a few nasty surprises from that nice man Mister Osborne. I guess all will be revealed at lunchtime. Masochistically, I'm looking forward to it.

ADDENDUM: I can't really complain with that. Raising of income tax thresholds, dropping of corporation tax and investment in northern infrastructure, both Internet and railways, are all good moves. Freezing alcohol duty will also benefit me while the laws on gambling were not a surprise (and indeed are necessary). The planned 3.1p rise in fuel duty is still to go ahead in August though, although a lot can happen in the next four months.

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Comments

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

I am expecting to be punished for having the audacity to work in the public sector and yet live in a "poor" area.

[lupestripe.livejournal.com]

Were you punished?

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

Woah! Take it easy! The regional pay thing takes time to work it's magic you know? Honestly, that is the problem with people these days. Everyone after instant gratification! ;)

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

Funny thing is..I don't think it;s necessarily a bad idea in itself. The UK DOES have huge disparities of living costs within it's borders. In fact in the university debating society back in 99 I fell out with a fellow student of the conservative persuasion because I was advocating a policy of graduated minimum wages depending on where in the country you were. He claimed that to do so would "disrupt the operation of the free market, and no right thinking Tory would use standard of living as a yardstick to set pay by."

What irks me about the current proposals is the double standards. The Conservative party are now proposing JUST THAT, but of course rather than bringing the standard of living of the rich areas up to meet our (admittedly higher), we are probably going to be knocked down to theirs.

So it seems interference in the market is justified when it goes one way, but not when it goes the other.

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

Did not explain that very well, but you got the idea.

[emejn.livejournal.com]

So if your regional pay is reduced relative to other regions, that means the public sector is spending less, which means either that it can choose to spend more on services which benefit you, or can choose to lower your taxes. Either way, you claw back some benefit. The effect is progressive, in the sense that it if you are in a region with lower cost of living, and so higher disposable income, you lose out slightly, and if you are in a region with higher cost of living, and so lower disposable income, you gain. Or you might call that the opposite of progressive, if you think prefer to define it in terms of absolute rather than disposable income.

Of course, if we do the opposite, and raise the pay in regions with higher cost of living, everyone ends up paying more tax, or having reduced services, so... you lose out still, and they gain a little, still. So 'raising' or 'lowering' amounts to exactly the same relative effect - although raising comes with bonus inflation.

The interference argument is difficult - you can argue that flat salary is the interference, and that regional salaries would remove the interference, so your conservative chap's argument is not particularly strong on that basis. It's much stronger when applied to minimum wage limits, rather than actual wages, however, as these remove the collective ability of employers and employees to set wages (or, rather, if the minimum wage is set too high, it removes the ability for the market to adjust it downwards - so it would be fair to say that it does indeed interfere with the market's natural corrective mechanisms) - so he might have had a point in this particular case.

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

The economic crisis which has forced this re-evaluation was created by the excesses of an industry which not many in the regions (at least up here) support. To ask them to "suffer" for it will be a bitter pill to swallow; especially on the back of the previous pension reform, pay freeze etc etc.

MY worry is that it will be viewed as the arrogant South once again lording it over the regions. As I said I am broadly in favour of the aims of the idea. But half of the battle with public opinion is timing. I think now is the wrong time to phase it in. If they waited for the economy to pick up a bit, which would have people in a less protecting mindset with the accompanying hoarding mentality, I think they'd encounter fat less opposition to the idea.

The biggest single problem with the otherwise good idea of regionalised pay scales is single the biggest problem with this entire budget overall; that there is a perception (be it correct or incorrect) that those who caused this crisis are once again getting away with it. And it is not just public sector workers like myself who think this, either.

The budget was probably the best we were going to get in the circumstances, but the government has taken some pretty big gambles with public opinion on it, low rate tax thresh hold give away or not.

[rma-reborn.livejournal.com]

Highlighters? Check. Index tabs? Check. Printer paper? Check. Hole punch? Check. Fresh biros? Check.

...

Damn I need Treasury tags! D:

[lupestripe.livejournal.com]

Lols Treasury tags, the most apt kind of tags of them all.

[moth-wingthane.livejournal.com]

Even though the only thing that really affects me are decisions on fuel, I'm like you. I have to know! ^^

[lupestripe.livejournal.com]

Not the best on fuel, 3.1p increase in fuel levy still planned for August. A lot can change until then though.

[shep-shepherd.livejournal.com]

I'm not at all happy with the fuel duty increase, but freezing the duty on alcohol can only be a Good Thing™ :)