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New Blackmore Vale, 10 June 2022
blackmorevale.net
Letters Currently nearly half of the population is in need of help with economic and social problems. Referring to Budget Statements since 1963, income and tax bands, as well as indirect taxation data, I now present 11 proposals. First, raising the personal allowance to £15,000, paid for by an increase in direct taxation for those earning above £200,000 of 5 pence in the pound. Second, repealing parts of the 1988 Housing Act and reinstating the 1977 Fair Rent Act. Third an immediate reduction of £20 a week in rents on private rented housing costing more than £700 a month. Fourth, ending the current buy to let scheme. Fifth, zero-rated VAT on gas and electric bills. Let us remember Government resistance when the EU tried to introduce it at 20 per cent then set at 5 per cent as a compromise. Sixth, a variable charge on gas and electric bills setting a much lower rate for the first five units a day, followed by higher rates based on the quantity of power used. Seventh, a reduction of VAT on all goods and services to 18 per cent, costing about £12.1bn, and would be paid for by a 2 pence increase in taxation for all those whose income is above £100,000. Eighth, the abolition of VAT on all sanitary products. This measure would cost about £9 million, paid for by increasing the tax on the income to oil companies, whose quarterly profit this year was more than 1,000 times as great. This could also mean a reduction in the price of petrol by 10-20 pence a litre, so that no filling station
would be allowed to charge more than £1.50 a litre. Ninth, increasing the cost of borrowing in steps of 0.2 per cent staged at twomonthly intervals up to an overall increase of 1 per cent. This would help those relying on interest from savings, particularly the elderly. The effects of this policy would need to be carefully watched. Tenth, empty properties to be made habitable by their owners and if this is not achievable after 12 months then they must be sold to a housing association and let at a Fair Rent, say about £100 a week – the Joseph Rowntree Foundation currently lets flats in parts of London for much less. Eleventh, introduce a £2,000 Corporation Tax break to help small business. If you doubt the efficacy of any of these policies, then I will take you back to the late 1960s. Then the basic rate of income tax was 30 per cent, the top rate 90 per cent and purchase tax on basic goods 7.5 per cent. My childhood family lived on about £23 a week – we always had food on the table, never owed any money and were able to pay all bills. The rent was about £3 a week. There was no such thing as a food bank, although I do have a memory of two boys pocketing some left-overs at the school kitchen hatch at a wellknown local school – there was no stigma with that and, looking back, they were growing fast. Above all we had plenty of fun. These proposals would make many households more than £40 a week better off. Unlike the recent Government announcements, they would be permanent, not sticking plaster measures, funded by more borrowing.
I therefore challenge all members of Parliament to either agree with these proposals or to produce more effective ones. I also call upon all New Blackmore Vale readers to do the same and to write to their MP to get these or other more effective proposals enacted in the next six weeks at the latest. Failure to do this will lead to tragic consequences, illness and loss of life. Professor Kate Pickett, co-author of ‘The Spirit Level’ (2009) made a convincing case that better health comes when there is greater equality among the population, the main reasons being changes in body biochemistry and the effect on psychology. If you care about other people, and civilisation in general, please act now. Dr Colin Clark Via email I was surprised by the letter from Tony Eldridge regarding David Warburton MP and his apology for what had appeared in the press rather than for anything he may have done. Of course, I don’t know the true details like everyone else but perhaps Mr Eldridge knows more than the rest of us. Was the article in The Sunday Times true? Who knows but until we do know maybe it would be better to hold our counsel. It was after all, The Sunday Times which printed The Hitler Diaries! Mr Eldridge goes on to praise the standing of Liberal Democrat David Heath and Tim Carroll. I didn’t know David Heath but I did know Tim Carroll and agree he was an honourable man who worked hard for his community. But I would counsel Mr
Eldridge against personal attacks because I also remember Sir Cyril Smith and the Rt Hon Jeremy Thorpe who definitely were not. I also remember, and knew, Cllr Rik Pallister, who replaced Tim Carroll as the Liberal Democrat Leader of South Somerset District Council and is currently serving at Her Majesty’s Pleasure. It does seem to me that for such a small party the Liberal Democrats have a high proportion of miscreants! I was also surprised to learn that the Liberal Democrats have chosen as their candidate for the Somerton & Frome Constituency a current member of the ruling district executive of South Somerset District Council who have presided over the most shameful period in the council’s history, racking up huge debts, the debacle over the appointment on the chief executive, police investigations into fraud by senior officers and a damming auditors’ report. David Norris Wincanton I would like to point out to Greg Williams that when he talks about bus services and tells us to ‘use them or lose them’ some of us have already lost this service some years ago. Which makes our bus passes a bit of a white elephant. Pauline House Via email I can help your correspondent Allan Robson (New Blackmore Vale, 15 May) with his question ‘why are the builders of all new houses not being made to put solar panels on the roofs?’
