Posts Tagged ‘Chancellor’

Car tax changes to leave 9 million paying more

Friday, July 11th, 2008

Almost half of all car owners will be up to £245 worse off under plans for massive increases in road tax, the Treasury admitted yesterday.  And fewer than one in five will benefit from the controversial move, which was sold as a way to cut greenhouse gas emissions.  More than 1m drivers of cars registered between 2001 and 2006 will see road tax jump from £210 to either £430 or £455 depending on emissions, while others face hikes of between £10 and £155.  Only 18% of motorists will see the price of a tax disc fall, 39% will pay the same and 43% to pay more.

The Chancellor Alistair Darling, has given strong signals that he will ‘fix’ the problem this autumn, probably by phasing in a retrospective element of the change which applies to vehicles registered between 2001 and 2006.  The new regime starts to kick in next year but the biggest changes will hit in 2010 - weeks before the likely date of the next General Election.

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Posted in Finance, Government, Politics, Taxation | No Comments »

£50k savings protection proposed

Monday, July 7th, 2008

Chancellor Alistair Darling aims to raise the amount of money protected from the current £35,000 to a new ceiling of £50,000.  Savers who lose money when a bank goes under will be given compensation within a week, instead of months.  However, banks said making them pay up-front would divert vital capital away at a time when they were already under pressure from the credit crunch.  So instead, the new scheme will borrow money from the public sector, if necessary, to enable quick payments.  The Chancellor believes more generous protection will cut the risk of panic if a bank is rumoured to be in trouble.

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Posted in Credit crisis, Credit crunch, Government, Savings | No Comments »

Inflation rockets to a record 3.3% high

Wednesday, June 18th, 2008

The Consumer Price Index (the cost of living) rose by 0.3 percentage points to 3.3% during May - the highest reading since the measure was first reported in January 1997. Previous comparable annual inflation readings were last as high in July 1992. The rise above 3.0% meant the Bank of England Governor, Mervyn King had to write an open letter to the government explaining how the central bank would bring inflation back to its 2% target. Mr King added that inflation should peak to around 4% by the end of the year and begin to fall back towards its target “in the absence of further unexpected increases in oil and commodity prices”.

Read the letter from the Bank of England and the Chancellor’s response for more details.

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Posted in Bank of England, inflation | No Comments »

Government rakes in £31bn in stamp duty

Thursday, February 21st, 2008

Homebuyers have forked out £31.5bn in stamp duty over the past ten years.  Last year alone, the figure reached £6.5bn - a staggering 675% increase since Labour came to power.  In 1997-1998, just £830m in stamp duty was paid.  Increases introduced by Gordon Brown when he was Chancellor, which were widely criticised at the time, are forcing record numbers of homebuyers to pay stamp duty.  Before Labour came to power, the tax was charged at just one per cent on all properties sold for £60,000 or more.  Today, it is charged at 1% on houses costing between £125,000 and £250,000, 3% on those worth from £250,000 to £500,000 and 4% for those sold for more than £500,000.  In London, the average asking price for a home is £402,000, which would mean stamp duty of more than £12,000.  The majority of first-time buyers are now forced to pay the tax, which - coupled with the recent property boom - makes finding enough money to buy a home even harder.

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Posted in Consumer, Finance, First-time buyers, Government, House prices, London, Politics, Property, Property Market, Property Prices | No Comments »