Thursday 20th March

George Osborne has delivered his fifth budget.  On the surface it sounds quite generous, but dig a little deeper and this is a budget for people who have some money, or assets.  For the unemployed, for those on benefits it is poor wages.  Not that pensioners and those coming up for retirement or those with a few thousand pounds of savings do not need some help, I am sure it will be most welcome.

But we are in a strange never land, where people are suffering because of the bedroom tax, because of poor assessments on the sick, because of draconian changes to benefits – these people are not deemed worthy of help.  And we are told that these cuts, to say nothing of the continuing cuts to local councils and with a NHS struggling to make ends meet, are because the country cannot afford it.  And yet we can apparently afford to allow (much welcomed) increased childcare allowances and higher tax-free allowances and less tax on savings and increasing the ‘help to buy scheme’ – all policies which will help rich and middle class and poorer workers alike.

The truth is that all changes to taxes or public spending are down to political choice.  The choice being made is that the poor will be paying down the deficit, while the rich are allowed to keep more of their money.  There is some truth in the argument that if people can keep more of their own money then the economy will benefit.

But many of these changes will simply be poured into housing or the stock market.  For example – one of the changes will be that from July on retirement you won’t necessarily have to take out an annuity with very poor rates at present but can have a lump sum tax free.  What would you do with £200,000 for instance.  Buy a house and trouser £500 in rent every month, while still leaving the asset to your kids when you die – or take an annuity paying much less than that and dying when you die.  Durghh…..

And if suddenly pensioners are buying houses the house price will go up again and push buying your own house out of the reach of even more young people.  Mind you those oldies do vote, whereas the youngsters don’t.