REMEMBER THE ROCHDALE CHIPPY CHANCELLOR!

 

THE BUDGET AND BUSINESS RATES.

The coverage of the row over the hike in business rates has shown once again that the media generally sees things from a London and south of England perspective.

There are rumours that the Chancellor is going to take steps to soften the blow of this overdue review of business rates. If he does, it will mean he is not listening to the wise and under reported views of the leader of Rochdale Council. Richard Farnell has pointed out that he knows a chippy in Rochdale that is paying more per square metre than Harrods and says the south is squealing because it is being asked to pay its fair share. Farnell claims that most businesses in greater Manchester will be better off. Spot on Richard. Not before time this review is reflecting the soaring value of property in the overheated south eastern economy whereas some parts of the North have seen property values decrease. That should be reflected in what firms have to pay.

It is true that southern businesses shouldn’t be subjected to huge rises all at once, but the answer to that is for gutless politicians to review business rates more regularly irrespective of whether there is an election on the horizon. It is also true that we need to review the whole system to reflect the growth of on-line businesses that pay nothing, but that is for the future. If the Chancellor gives concessions next week it will be a victory for the effective southern Tory lobbying exercise and for south centric reporting by the media.

MAJOR BUDGET TASKS.

As we saw in his first autumn statement, Chancellor Philip Hammond is not inclined to dramatic and colourful gestures. Indeed, his most surprising announcement in November was to say that this will be the last spring Budget. Signals have been sent out that rebadged austerity is to continue with departments told to find savings in the run up to the next election.

It is true that the national debt stands at £1.8 trillion and the deficit is on track to be £68bn this year, but if this means we are set for a cautious budget then major problems facing the nation will continue to get worse.

Leaving the enormous uncertainties of the Brexit negotiations to one side there is a widespread belief that the government’s recent announcements on housing and skills are not adequate. The crisis in the NHS and particularly social care are laid bare on a daily basis. On the latter point, will we see the Chancellor break with caution and raise the possibility of dipping into people’s assets after they die to fund the rising cost of social care? The political problem is that, in opposition in 2007, the Tories denounced the suggestion, proposed by Labour, as a “death tax” and unveiled posters with the slogan “RIP OFF”.

However, some courage is required and with all the opposition parties so weak at the moment, there is no excuse for a lack of political courage in the budget.

GORTON PARLIAMENTARY SELECTION.

If Labour is serious about having MPs who reflect the area, then an Asian candidate should be chosen for the Gorton seat left vacant by the death of Sir Gerald Kaufman.

Although North West MEP, Afzal Khan, is the frontrunner, don’t be surprised if someone from outside that constituency or even Greater Manchester is chosen to avoid internal rivalries.

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THE COST OF BREXIT

 

THE EXIT FEE.

Extreme Brexiteers may rail against the figures, but the fact is we are going to pay a heavy price if we exit the European Union. That is the most important message from the Autumn Statement Some of us hope public opinion will change and we can yet halt this madness. But as it stands we are heading out and the Chancellor has spelt out the consequences of Brexit.

£59bn of the staggering £122bn of extra borrowing is directly attributable to Brexit according to the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR). Because of that borrowing our debt to gross domestic product is set to peek at 90% in 2017-18. The weaker pound caused by the Brexit shock is forecast to lead to a 5% increase in food prices next year. A real problem for the Just About Managing.

AT LAST A MOVE AGAINST PENSIONERS ?

Perhaps it has been lost a little amidst the analysis of the immediate impact of the Autumn Statement but Philip Hammond this week flagged up a major area of controversy for the next parliament. The triple lock on pensions is to come under review. Rightly so, whilst some pensioners still struggle, most have never had it so good, to coin a phrase. In any case it is the young burdened by tuition fees, job uncertainty and the inability to buy a home that must be top priority for government in the third decade of this century, if not before. The problem is that up to now the elderly vote in larger numbers than the young. In the next parliament ministers will have to be courageous. I think pensioners will get the point but well done Mr Hammond for preparing the way for a change of policy.

NORTHERN POWERHOUSE.

At one point it looked as if George Osborne’s pet project was going to be quietly forgotten by his successor. However there was enough support for devolution to force the Chancellor to input significant funds into the Northern economy. £3bn for northern local enterprise partnerships in growth deals, a £400m investment fund to support smaller businesses and £60m in development funding for Northern Powerhouse Rail.

Areas about to elect city region mayors like Liverpool City Region and Greater manche4ster will get new borrowing powers. There is talk of a municipal bond to aid infrastructure investment. The continuing failure of Leeds to resolve the elected mayor issue and avail itself of these incentives is notable.

Specific road improvements include the highly congested part of the M60 near Worsley, the Waterfront Link in Warrington and dualling the A66 in the North Pennines.

MIXED PICTURE FOR BUSINESS.

The big challenge for business in the North is productivity. Nationally we are 30% less productive than the Germans and the North lags well behind London. A Productivity Investment Fund will help. There was relief that the increase in the Living Wage was modest and a welcome for the further cut in corporation tax. Some wanted a VAT cut to mitigate rising inflation but that wasn’t going to happen, nor apparently reform of business rates.

HAMMOND’S DEBUT.

There is widespread dismay that the Chancellor did not address the growing adult social care crisis but overall Philip Hammond showed himself to be a safe pair of hands on his début. He is not as close to the Prime Minister as George Osborne was to David Cameron but nor is there the ruinous rivalry of the Blair/Brown years.

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WHITTINGDALE: PERCEPTION IS ALL.

 

 

THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES.

When John Whittingdale was offered the Cabinet post which involved press regulation, why did he not disclose to the Prime Minister that some papers knew of his previous relationship with a woman who had tried to sell her story to said papers?

The government, and Whittingdale in particular has gone soft on press regulation. The Secretary of State is “not convinced” of the case to incentivize papers to sign up to a regulation panel under Royal Charter by exposing them to high costs in civil libel cases if they do not. Nor is there any sign of the second part of the Leveson Inquiry into the original failed police investigation into phone hacking at the News of the World.

The code of conduct for Ministers speaks of the need, not only for there to be no conflict of interest, but no “perceived” conflict of interest. The perception is certainly clear and the actual conflict possibly too. The press clearly had this embarrassing piece of information on Whittingdale and we can “perceive” that he may consider it wise to treat the press gently for fear of exposure.

His fear could be justified by the current press fury and frustration that they are injuncted from reporting on the affairs of a well known entertainer. That sits curiously with their decision that there was no public interest in publishing the story of Whittingdale and the dominatrix. Certainly Max Mosley, the former motor racing chief, thinks it’s odd bearing in mind how he was done over in a similar situation.

Whittingdale may have resigned by the time you read this, otherwise he must be moved in the post referendum reshuffle.

DEFENDING DAD.

David Cameron made a horlicks over his tax affairs but the explanation that that was because he was trying to defend his late father, I found refreshingly frank.

The government need to take account of the growing public clamour for the fat cats not to be allowed to get away with it. If that means trimming the freedom of our overseas territories, hiring more tax officials and voting for tougher European Union action, then so be it.

Labour will be wise to concentrate on those measures and not imply that if Jeremy Corbyn became Prime Minister, they would threaten normal legal tax planning.

PEOPLE’S HISTORY MUSEUM.

The Labour leader was in his element at a House of Commons event I attended this week. It was to celebrate the People’s History Museum (PHM) in Manchester and their fund-raising, Radical Heroes, campaign. On the banks of the Irwell in the centre of town, it is a great resource for telling the story of the struggle of people in the North for economic and political equality.

It is not just a Labour Party institution. Liberal Democrat MPs like John Pugh from Southport was at the event and in the nineteenth century Bury’s Robert Peel was the radical who abolished the Corn Laws and created the modern Conservative Party.

But most of the people there were Labour including former leader Neil Kinnock, who told me he thinks the party is in a worse position now than when he took over in 1983. He had previously told the New Statesman that he found it “difficult to see” Corbyn being elected.

We won’t have to wait long now for the new leader’s first nationwide test in May’s elections.

 

DON’T ROCK THE REFERENDUM BOAT CHANCELLOR!

 

PETROL TAX IS TEMPTING TARGET FOR OSBORNE.

George Osborne is in danger of being caught in an ambush of his own making when he presents his budget next week.

He needs to keep voters sweet ahead of the EU referendum but recently announced that the optimistic note he struck at the time of the autumn statement has now gone flat. There was always a danger that mid term unpopularity might lead people to vote against the government for reasons unrelated to Europe. At the moment the Conservatives hold a healthy lead over Labour, but an unpopular budget with new cuts and tax rises could change that before June.

The Chancellor was too bullish in the autumn and now that the economic headwinds are beginning to blow, he is thrashing around for answers to keep his pledge of a budget surplus by 2020 intact. The suggestion of a major reform of pensions was a spectacular example of this. The idea was floated to remove tax relief on pension contributions rather than taxing withdrawals later in life. This would have been a complete reversal of the current position but would have given Mr Osborne more tax revenue now. The plan met severe criticism, not least because a future Chancellor might be tempted to tax withdrawals as well.

That pledge of a budget balance by 2020 is crucial if George Osborne is going to make a bid for the premiership, but it certainly restricts his room for manoeuvre as uncertainty persists on the international front. With growth forecasts cut and average earnings rising more slowly, tax revenues are not what he expected as recently as November.

Reaching for more cuts in public services is going to prove very difficult. The well reported difficulties faced by councils like Lancashire clearly show there is no low hanging fruit on the public spending tree. Indeed the Chancellor will need a long neck to munch much more. So let’s nickname any more economies in this area, the giraffe cuts!

It is always difficult to predict what Chancellors will do, but I would be surprised if petrol duty remains frozen as it has been since 2011. With the drop in forecourt prices to around a pound a litre, this would be a relatively pain free area to raise tax. He ought to do something about taxing the amount of sugar we consume but there seems to be a reluctance to do so.

With virtually zero interest rates the climate remains favourable for investment and consumer growth remains strong. However the latter familiar development in the UK economy may be storing up trouble in the future. If only the manufacturing figures were as healthy.

Osborne will be entitled to say that his campaign to make multinationals pay their UK taxes is beginning to work. This is an essential development as people grow weary of the austerity agenda.

Wednesday’s budget will be both a temporary distraction from debate on the EU referendum, whilst also potentially affecting its outcome. Osborne has been in post nearly six years now. He will need all his political skills to get through this Budget.