Budget March 2023.

[adam2]

This thread is for reports, debate, and other talk about today's budget.
Please confine posts about the budget to THIS thread.

[adam2]

My views are ;

Increase defence spending to 2.25% of GDP, With a future increase to 2.5% "when the time is right" GOOD IMHO, I consider strong defences to be vital for our future security in an increasingly uncertain world.

Various kind words said about wind and solar energy, but rather lacking in detail. MEDIUM GOOD IMHO.

Freeze on duty on draught beer etc. Very good in my view. Supports pubs, and is greener than throwaway cans and bottles from a supermarket.

Freeze in road fuel duty extended yet again. BAD IMHO encourages more car use.

[clv101]

And the really big one, pension reform.

Pension changes will cost £800m a year. That's a huge £800m of public money going to the very rich, those able to pay £60k a year into their pension and amass pension pots well over £1 million. Of all the folk deserving of public money only a Tory would target these.

[BritDownUnder]

Pensions ... and the very rich... is something that is being discussed in Australia too.

It turns out that one particularly lucky Australian has managed to invest AU$533 million in their personal pension. Not bad work since it is all meant to be paid from contributions of 10% of your salary.

[PS_RalphW]

20 billion to be sunk into nuclear and carbon capture. Nuclear is by far the most expensive low carbon energy source and carbon capture simply does not work. Also, long term we still have no safe method of storing nuclear waste and in the low energy future entropy will guarantee that large amounts of it will escape into the environment. Probably true of carbon capture as well, but I suspect that we are now locked into tipping points that make it a mute point.

Think how much wind and storage we could fund with 20 billion.

[automaticearth2]

And the really big one, pension reform.

Pension changes will cost £800m a year. That's a huge £800m of public money going to the very rich, those able to pay £60k a year into their pension and amass pension pots well over £1 million. Of all the folk deserving of public money only a Tory would target these.

I was a bit torn on the pensions reforms TBH. A pot limit of over just a million roughly equates to around £43k a year in retirement (probably enough for a lot people, but not a huge amount). I've got plenty of friends and colleagues who are on course (as I am myself) to totally bust that limit, and are considering leaving the labour market as a result.

The mainstream media would have you believe that it's just NHS consultants and other highly paid public sector workers that are affected by this limit; it isn't. Plenty of workers in the life sciences, green, tech, defense, and other industries (i.e. ones who actually design and make stuff) get hit and leave work as a result. This reduces productivity, as the jobs they leave behind don't get filled by via the traditional means (succession of younger workers working their way up etc.; they got disenfranchised for a whole host of reasons).

Hunt's move is as clever as it is cynical. By removing the pension pot limit, he is aiming to bring back 'small - c' conservatives who were looking to lend their vote to Labour, as the limit was on course to be a sure-fire vote loser. Saying that, the Torygraph is running a story this morning that Labour will row back the reforms, possibly ensuring that 'small c' conservatives will not be voting for them at the next GE.

Personally, I'd like to know who someone on c£125k a year can claim child tax credits? I'd suggest that we have more pressing concerns than tinkering with pensions IMHO.

[clv101]

And the really big one, pension reform.

Pension changes will cost £800m a year. That's a huge £800m of public money going to the very rich, those able to pay £60k a year into their pension and amass pension pots well over £1 million. Of all the folk deserving of public money only a Tory would target these.

I was a bit torn on the pensions reforms TBH. A pot limit of over just a million roughly equates to around £43k a year in retirement (probably enough for a lot people, but not a huge amount). I've got plenty of friends and colleagues who are on course (as I am myself) to totally bust that limit, and are considering leaving the labour market as a result.

Nothing to stop people saving more for their retirement, making investments in other assets etc. But I think it's perfectly reasonable to limit the tax breaks. Situation with this budget announcement is that wealthy people, with a million already in the pot, maybe already in the 50s so only a few years from accessing it, can 'save' £60k into their pension and avoid paying 40 or 45% income tax, a £27k tax cut for millionaires.

That seems unreasonable to me.

[Potemkin Villager]

20 billion to be sunk into nuclear and carbon capture. Nuclear is by far the most expensive low carbon energy source and carbon capture simply does not work. Also, long term we still have no safe method of storing nuclear waste and in the low energy future entropy will guarantee that large amounts of it will escape into the environment. Probably true of carbon capture as well, but I suspect that we are now locked into tipping points that make it a mute point.

Think how much wind and storage we could fund with 20 billion.

Are we surprised, did we expect anything else?

A lot of scarce resources, lobbied for by the usual suspects, dedicated to making it someone else's problem.

The someone else being future generations. So what is new?

[clv101]

Ha this pension thing is much more ridiculous than I thought.

Two aspects. Firstly, it's being sold to as as a solution to senior doctors retiring or cutting hours early. The exact same thing happened with judges to there's judges got a special exemption. The same scheme could have been extended to senior doctors. No need to make it universal.

The second and more serious problem is that the abolition of the lifetime allowance is a huge inheritance tax dodge. If you have an estate worth, say £5 or £10 million, you're meant to be hit with a hefty inheritance tax bill. However, if you transfer it into your private pension your millions become exempt from inheritance tax!

[Potemkin Villager]

[quote=clv101 post_id=331230 time=1678975729 user_id=10

The second and more serious problem is that the abolition of the lifetime allowance is a huge inheritance tax dodge. If you have an estate worth, say £5 or £10 million, you're meant to be hit with a hefty inheritance tax bill. However, if you transfer it into your private pension your millions become exempt from inheritance tax!
[/quote]

Cor blimey mate, you could knock me over with a feather, you'd never adam and eve it. What a devilishly cunning plan!