would it apply to you though Smudgie as the house is technically not empty it is undergoing refurbishment, same for holiday homes which are empty at certain time, I think they need to clarify what "empty" means..

Empty usually means unvisited/unoccupied for an extended period, like more than 3 weeks. If work is actually ongoing making a home habitable, i don't see that counting.

I would have thought that too, a house isn't empty if it is undergoing a refurb

The bungalow could be empty for a good 5/6 months.
As our local ruling stands, it can be empty up to two years before a 50% premium is charged, if this goes up to 100% that is fine, just as long as the two year rule still applies. It is if the two year rule alters that bothers me.
Unless the bungalow is substantially furnished and lived in it will be classed as empty.
It is literally a three minute drive away, so it will be lived in one way or another.:hehe:

It is a budget that highlights if nothing else the failure of the Cons to achieve near all their targets.
Their promises on clearing the deficit.
Now expected not to be cleared,if even then,by 2030,instead of 2015.

The continued,as Labour never did enough here too,neglect as to a looming housing crisis.
Earnings not expected to just be in real terms back to 2007 levels until the mid 2020s.

Utter failure after over 7 years of hard austerity.
No compassion,no real vision of substance and growth in the UK expected to remain lagging behind most other major Countries.

Not a bad budget,what on earth is good about 7 years of failure,near across the board.
Which is all that this budget is now hoping to just begin to start to address.
I say hoping because it's no way certain that will be its effect at all.

It was not a bad budget in the sense that it was not filled with deferred, misleading stealth taxes familiar in Gordon Brown's day. It was not a bad budget in the sense that new money is being found for some areas, as distinct to labour counting the same money several times and implying greater help than was actually given. It was a better budget in that pension funds haven't been robbed, gold reserves haven't been sold off, crown property hasn't been sold. Telecoms companies haven't been forced to bankrupt themselves to compete in the market at the governments gain.

So yes, not a bad budget :shrug:

Are we in a world wide recession?..... No,
It was a bad budget for anyone just about managing, and if you aren't managing tough!
How can you read it any other way?

I have to agree.
Not exactly a sack of Christmas presents but no major changes for the worse either.

They are saying that vacant up to a year without penalty but second properties won't get that same privilege. The main people this should affect are the offshore property investors but that's not going to happen because foreign property investors often don't bother filling in the required forms with Her Majesties Revenue and Customs and at this moment in time, nobody bothers chasing them and they don't bother chasing them because they often don't have any record of who they are.

Come off it! Cameron invented tax competition for the filthy rich. He spent his entire time in office lining his family fortunes and trying to make Britain into a tax haven and to a great extent he succeeded. Thanks to Cameron, tax avoidance, from privately owned wealth and large corporations is greater than its ever been.

Before Cameron came to office he wrote to every newspaper in the land and was even included in Murphy’s book, “The Joy of Tax” hammering on about the unfairness of Gordon Browns stealth taxes on the poor and how we had to get tough with tax avoidance. And he said all that with the full knowledge that Viscount Astor (Cameron’s step-father) had and still does have a 20,000 acre estate in Scotland that’s owned by a company registered in the BVI’s and has avoided £hundreds of thousands in tax. Not only did Cameron pave the way for Viscount Astor and Osbornes family wallpapering business by drastically reducing corporation tax but he carried on as normal with Browns stealth tax on the poor.

This budget has been cleverly engineered. Most of the giving ideas were Labour ideas, though Labour had much bigger figures in mind. It just amazes me that some people aren't questioning these figures.

This stamp duty idea was nicked from Labour in 2015!

Fancy you making this a Left v Right issue

The budget is a left v right issue Cherie :/

Budget Meltdown

The Resolution Foundation has calculated that the past decade has actually been the worst for the UK’s productivity growth since 1812. https://twitter.com/TorstenBell/stat...40782128603136

Our national debt stood at £700billion in 2010. It now heading towards £2trillion because this government has been driving austerity in a false economy.

Its not a good budget because there are no drastic measures to save our economy.

What did dimblebore say on QT worst budget for decades?.... shame the 'glass half full' guys can't see that Hammond took their glass, tipped out what was in it, smashed it and stuck it in their face!

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...-a8074911.html

What did that tory shout out again (they blanked out who it was shouting) Oh yeah... NOTHING ON SOCIAL CARE!!!!!

This 'social care' issue is a real problem. There are massive plans to cut back on this industry early next year. Temps who were promised permanent employment are now being told they are probably going to lose their jobs. Every lost job thats seen as surplus to requirement filters down to the end user.

I really don't know what's going to happen but one things for clear, its reached crisis levels.

We know what will happen, more people will die that's the goal, if you can't work ...Die.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/poli...-a3699386.html


Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell refuses to answer questions on how Labour would handle national debt because 'that's why we have iPads'


because everything would be so much better under Labour, none of the parties have answers unfortunately

I am sure this will be controversial and not very popular as it means we might have to put our hands in our own pockets, but whatever happened to looking after our own rather than expecting the State to cough up, if more of us who are in a position to, looked after our elderly relatives and spent some time/money supporting their needs in addition to what the state can provide, maybe we wouldn't have a social care crises

Hang on Mcdonnell has answers ... can the solution to an issue of this magnitude be addressed in a soundbite though? I shouldn't think so.
I'm sure that interviewer had a vast knowledge of macroeconomics, we are already after 7yrs of austerity in debt to the tune of £800billion....Time to try something else.

While we are on this subject of interviewers have a look at this jumped up stuffed shirt Andrew Neil taking on a kings college economics professor ... it's tragic

https://www.thecanary.co/uk/2017/11/...o-well-tweets/

Isn't that what income tax is for? we do pay for our own...During a recent survey it was found that people are in favour of tax rises to save the NHS, and yet Hammond just lifted millions out of tax... so how are they being funded?

Unless you mean your own as in you pay for your own granny/disabled family member/ mentallly ill relative and screw anyone else?

if you read my post carefully and digest it you will see that is not what I am saying at all

I thought lifting the poorest low income earners out of tax was a good thing? no? I should have known that it would become a negative at some point.

NI and now council tax is what pays for social care and everyone pays that..