 Print this page |
Budget: your views
Families and housing
|
A slowdown in the economy will affect many people, but what did the Budget do to help us? Child benefit will be up £20 for the first child, from 2009, a year earlier than planned. £125m will be spent over the next three years fighting child poverty. But fuel will rise by 2p a litre from October, six months later than planned, and will be up 0.5p per litre from 2010
There were some ideas specifically for the poor: energy companies must spend £150m on social tariffs, up from £50m, but there was no windfall tax; £8bn is to be made available for affordable housing; and stamp duty abolished on shared ownership although the threshold wasn’t raised. Will you be better off?
Nothing for pensioners. As for petrol, I have seen my monthly petrol bill go up by £40 and I only do short journeys. How does the Government think people can enjoy a reasonable standard of living on about £90 per week. It would have been nice to see old age pensions brought into line with all the rises that have taken place in council tax, petrol, food etc. - Posted on the blog by ellden | 12 March 2008 at 15:41
Get home help
I would have liked to have seen an increase in the stamp duty threshold. This would have made the lower end of the housing market more affordable without reducing the wealth of home owners and sellers. I am worried the requirement that new homes be carbon neutral could result in increased costs of building new homes. This may result in a shrinking of the new home market and put inflationary demand pressure on the second hand market reducing affordability. - Leal Shorney, a member of our reader panel
As a (nearly ) pensioner, I will have to pay full council tax out of my pitiful pension, which has not been increased, having paid into the system all my life, while those who have never worked, get the same pension, and do NOT pay full council tax. Well they cant' really increase the pension of the ordinary person, as they have to ensure the money is in the trough for themselves and the hundreds of thousands of non jobs created by this bunch of clowns. - Posted on the forum by bertiewoo | 12 March 2008 at 3:58 PM
It is a joke!Middle income families and pensioners are going to feel the pinch even more than before. - Posted on the blog by angelique | 12 March 2008 at 17:25
