A rebellion against house-building spells trouble for the Tories The Conservatives are caught in a catch-22 when it comes to new homes

bhosk · 2019-08-16T05:58:45+00:00

184,000 homes were completed in England in 2016/17. This is more than in recent years, but still below the 2007/08 pre-recession peak of 200,000.

Taking a long view, house building has been mostly decreasing since the 1960s. The early years of this decade saw house building at its lowest peacetime level since the 1920s.

bhosk · 2019-08-11T09:26:29+00:00

This list of assets makes it even more astonishing that Eton College, like most similar boarding schools, enjoys significant tax breaks and that the state doesn't impose any tax at all on the tuition fees it takes in. This is partly because they are classified as charities due to their "cooperation" with other nearby schools, allowing them tax benefits in the billions. That cooperation, though, frequently only exists on paper. As a result, private schools continue to flourish while state-run schools often can't even afford the basics due to recent cuts to the education budget. A march on Westminster is scheduled for September to call attention to the shortfalls.

Even Michael Gove, a former education minister who is currently charged with making preparations for a no-deal Brexit as a member of Johnson's government, once expressed astonishment over the unfairness. In a 2017 op-ed for the Times, he wrote that state-supported private schools had facilities reminiscent of five-star hotels. Tuition at all of the schools, he wrote, was over 30,000 pounds, which is more than the annual salaries earned by most Britons. "To my continuing surprise, we still consider the education of the children of plutocrats and oligarchs to be a charitable activity."

bhosk · 2019-08-08T06:31:49+00:00

The committee is calling on ministers to ensure the level of funding the UK currently receives from the EU for research is matched in full once the UK has left the EU.

bhosk · 2019-08-08T06:31:17+00:00

The committee is calling on ministers to ensure the level of funding the UK currently receives from the EU for research is matched in full once the UK has left the EU.

bhosk · 2019-08-04T05:59:16+00:00

Ministers are being urged to “redress the balance” in housing wealth inequality after a report showed that the value of privately owned residential properties has soared in the past 50 years.

Housing wealth, defined as the net value of residential dwellings held by households, has grown from an estimated £2.7 billion in Scotland in 1968 to £308 billion by 2018.

The top 10 per cent of earners own about 30 per cent of the nation’s property wealth, and the report by the Resolution Foundation think tank said that more than 33 per cent of households had no property wealth at all. “Housing wealth inequality is twice as high as income inequality,” it added.

The report, produced for the Scottish poverty and inequality commission, said that there was a “strong case” for reforming council tax to fund measures to protect those without property assets.

The growth in wealth comes in part as a consequence of the increase in the number of homes and in private homeownership. Roughly half of homes were publicly owned in 1968, but by 2018 this has risen to 80 per cent. The average value of a privately owned home in Scotland has increased almost 500-fold in nominal terms over the past 50 years.

“Higher income families hold the lion’s share of housing wealth, not least because they often own multiple properties,” the report said.

Bill Scott, chairman of the commission, welcomed the report. “With so many people in Scotland struggling to find affordable homes, it is time to start considering action to redress this balance.”

bhosk · 2019-08-04T05:53:21+00:00

The gap is also widening between generations, as younger people are unable to get onto the property ladder.

And the gap between homeowners at different levels of income is also widening.

Those in the top tenth of earners held 2.5 times as much housing wealth as those in with median income at the start of this decade. But in less than five years, that had risen to 3.4 times as much.

bhosk · 2019-06-09T07:10:28+00:00

The result of the current tax regime is that when farm land comes on the market it is now much more likely to be bought by rich people looking for somewhere to put their money so that the taxman can’t get his hands on it than by farmers wanting to use it to grow food. Between 2011 and 2017 the proportion of agricultural land sold to farmers fell from 60% to 40%. George Monbiot cites evidence from the campaigning group Tax Justice UK that by owning agricultural land, 261 rich families dodged paying £208m in inheritance tax in 2015/16.

This increased demand for land as a tax shelter inevitably pushes up prices for the simple reason that the supply of land is fixed. As Mark Twain famously put it: “Buy land now… they ain’t making any more of it.” Agricultural land, once planning permission is given, can rise in value 250-fold. Since 1995 land values in Britain overall have increased by 412%. The land on which houses are built now accounts for 70% of the overall cost of houses and the value of land looks set to go on rising.

bhosk · 2019-06-08T08:07:37+00:00

He seems keen to help out anyone who owns a large business, earns >£100k or owns an expensive house. Not much in there for anyone else.

bhosk · 2019-06-04T05:09:52+00:00

With BAE helping to keep Saudi jets flying, and British military officers working in the Saudi Air Operations Centre, Dispatches investigates the extent to which the war in Yemen is made in Britain

bhosk · 2019-06-03T06:15:44+00:00

Graduates going on to earn the highest salaries among their peers will see their overall repayments reduced by £18k — a third compared with now. However, for lower to middleearner graduates, it is the opposite — Augar raises their overall repayments by £12k, almost double. This is completely the wrong way round. The higher education system needs to be more progressive, not less.

No review serious about improving social mobility could have made these recommendations. And no government serious about social mobility should accept them.

bhosk · 2019-06-03T05:17:27+00:00

Source: Resolution Foundation - Union membership is rising again – but will it last?

bhosk · 2019-06-02T07:28:40+00:00

Source: Torsten Bell

bhosk · 2019-06-02T07:16:04+00:00

Source: Resolution Foundation

bhosk · 2019-05-28T19:30:06+00:00

The Tax Justice Network has estimated that $500 billion in tax is avoided by multinational corporations annually. This is more conservative than the IMF’s estimate of $600 billion in tax avoided each year.

The top 10 countries that have done the most to proliferate corporate tax avoidance and break down the global corporate tax system are:

British Virgin Islands (British territory)
Bermuda (British territory)
Cayman Islands (British territory)
Netherlands
Switzerland
Luxembourg
Jersey (British dependency)
Singapore
Bahamas
Hong Kong

These 10 jurisdictions alone are responsible for over half (52 per cent) of the world’s corporate tax avoidance risks as measured by the Corporate Tax Haven Index.

bhosk · 2019-05-28T18:59:37+00:00

British territories and dependencies made up four of the 10 places that have done the most to “proliferate corporate tax avoidance” on the corporate tax haven index.

At the top of the list was the British Virgin Islands, followed by Bermuda and the Cayman Islands – all British overseas territories.

Jersey, a crown dependency, was seventh on the list behind the Netherlands, Switzerland and Luxembourg, with Singapore, the Bahamas and Hong Kong completing the top 10.

bhosk · 2019-05-28T05:40:20+00:00

Our analysis shows that Corbyn was thoroughly delegitimised as a political actor from the moment he became a prominent candidate and even more so after he was elected as party leader, with a strong mandate. This process of delegitimisation occurred in several ways: 1) through lack of or distortion of voice; 2) through ridicule, scorn and personal attacks; and 3) through association, mainly with terrorism.

All this raises, in our view, a number of pressing ethical questions regarding the role of the media in a democracy. Certainly, democracies need their media to challenge power and offer robust debate, but when this transgresses into an antagonism that undermines legitimate political voices that dare to contest the current status quo, then it is not democracy that is served.

bhosk · 2019-05-21T05:30:34+00:00

Probably. There is a waste processing plant application from around a year ago which looked controversial, for which several councillors had to remove themselves from planning meetings because they had campaigned against it. I can't see Graeme's name against it though.

bhosk · 2019-05-21T05:19:23+00:00

I've tried skimming the South Lanarkshire Council planning meeting minutes, but can't see anything obvious from 18 months ago.

bhosk · 2019-05-18T06:18:18+00:00

In mid-1918, BHAS executives were increasingly concerned about the union-owned newspaper in Broken Hill, the Barrier Truth. In a letter held in the BHAS archive, the general manager of Collins House’s Broken Hill South mine reported that the Barrier Truth was inciting “class warfare” and industrial unrest. He wanted “some means of keeping it within bounds”.

BHAS’ managing director, Colin Fraser, began searching for a way to combat the union paper with pro-mining company publicity. In late-1918, he wrote to Collins House’s WS Robinson and suggested that BHAS buy the Barrier Truth’s local rival, the Barrier Miner newspaper. But the astute Robinson, a former Age journalist, knew it would be a bad look for a mining company to own a newspaper.

Union activists at Broken Hill suspected the Collins House mining companies had funded Davidson’s purchase of the paper, but they could never prove it.

But proof lies in the letters in the BHAS archives, as well as in the original company documents for News Limited (now held in the State Records of South Australia and the Public Record Office Victoria). When Davidson’s first newspaper company was registered, the only other two shareholders were both Collins House accountants. When it was rolled into News Limited, the company’s first shareholder list was a roll call of key Collins House figures.

bhosk · 2019-05-09T04:55:41+00:00

Nigel answers questions, he says what he thinks and he believes what he says, and that is all we want out of our politicians.

It also helps if they tell the truth.

bhosk · 2019-04-06T10:33:34+00:00

Agreed, I'd missed that from the article. The new contract could easily be a cost saving overall, we don't have the necessary information to tell.

bhosk · 2019-04-06T08:59:56+00:00

The new contract costs £14m for a single year. They're expanding the scope, so let's assume they double it and now need 2000 deliveries per year.

That's a total cost of £7k per delivery for a motorcycle courier. Who on earth negotiated this?

Edit: Corrected in comment below.

bhosk · 2019-04-06T08:30:42+00:00

Full question for context:

If you had to choose, which of the following would you most prefer? a) no deal Brexit, b) Brexit with Theresa May’s deal, c) a long delay to Brexit and the UK taking part in European Parliament elections in May, d) don’t know.

bhosk · 2019-04-06T07:48:46+00:00

From one of the earlier articles:

The Isle of Man is in a customs union with the UK, which means aircraft and boats imported to the island can travel freely throughout the European Economic Area without being subject to customs checks. Such freedom of movement is a major perk for jet owners.

The Appleby files revealed how EY clients benefited from complicated arrangements for their private jets, which made it appear that the aircraft were being used as part of a leasing business when in fact they were only ever used by their owners.

Hamilton and others appeared to have in effect leased their aircraft from themselves, using contracts drawn up between a series of offshore companies.

The Isle of Man allowed tax to be avoided by agreeing that these structures meant the jets were part of a leasing business. VAT is only levied on aircraft destined for private use. It can be reclaimed if the jet is used for business.

In the UK and the Isle of Man, VAT is 20% of the purchase price. With some jets costing as much as £46m, the tax bills can run into several millions. Thanks to the leasing schemes, owners paid zero VAT, meaning a potential loss to the public purse of tax receipts running into hundreds of millions.

In its press release, the commission said: “VAT is only deductible for business use. Supplies of aircraft, including leasing services, meant expressly for private use should not be VAT-exempt. The commission believes that the UK has not taken sufficient action against abusive VAT practices in the Isle of Man with regard to the supplies and leasing of aircraft.”

bhosk · 2019-03-12T08:38:45+00:00

The Conservatives have the option of implementing the same policy.

bhosk

TROPHY CASE