| Topic: | Re:Re:It's more than just one quarter | |
| Posted by: | Thomas Barry | |
| Date/Time: | 25/04/12 16:02:00 |
| "So what is the solution Thomas?" Full Communism? More seriously - announce you're going to target a specified level of growth rather than a specified level of inflation or deficit, and make this a priority across government as a whole. Spend immediately on construction - there's a market failure there where there's a demand for housing and surplus capacity in the construction industry. Pick two or three standard designs of social housing (tenement flat, 2 bed terrace, 3 bed town house) and assign targets to the major housebuilders to build on publicly owned or brownfield land in the major cities (got a disused government office? Pay someone to knock it down, then pay someone else to put up housing). Involve the provision of education and medical services for new developments from day one - kill the insane ideology that all co-ordinated planning is evil. Address rip-off Britain - landlords, public transport fares, energy costs - there's an imbalance of companies making and retaining large profits they can't reinvest because people have been impoverished paying the prices that create the profits. That has to be stopped. Any school should be able to put in a bid for capital expenditure on refurbishment and maintenance with a decision in six weeks and the money in eight with a presumption that local building firms will get priority in the work. Zero rate VAT on refurbishing buildings. Offer school leavers who don't want to do A-levels or university a six month apprenticeship straight from school in industries funded by the stimulus scheme rather than getting stuck straight into the dole spiral. Order 200 rail carriages of existing design from Bombardier in Derby to keep their lines open and to augment crowded services and deal with the EU competition complaints later. Cut VAT to 15%. Permanently. Fill the gap with a wealth tax and a 60% top rate of income tax. Tax the rich rather than suppress demand. Hire better people to work in HMRC on a revenue neutral basis (pay big bucks to people who'd bring in big bucks) - target tax avoidance, aim to treat business fairly, not offer sweetheart deals to the likes of Vodafone. Put capital controls on money transfers to tax havens to stop people avoiding the higher taxes (do this internationally). Extend the £5000 electric car scheme to a general money-off small fuel-efficient cars when you trade in an old one. Bring in an industrial policy that targets green industries, high tech, aerospace, automotive - the stuff with a future that the UK is good at. Offer tax breaks, match funding for investment in areas of high unemployment and funding colleges to train people up. |