Labour and the Tories have disenfranchised me

Er Lizzie, everyone pays stamp duty up to £250k. Get your facts right!

And growstuff, I know from your posts the area in which you live, and housing there isn’t cheap. Don’t talk about my little bubble. You seem to have a log on your shoulder, not just a chip.

Er GSM I got my facts from “Complete Guide to Stamp Duty”. I quote:

“ First Time Buyer Stamp Duty
First Time Buyers don't pay Stamp Duty on properties worth up to £425,000. They pay 5% on the portion between £425,001 and £625,000. This means First Time Buyers who buy a property worth up to £625,000 will pay no Stamp Duty on the first £425,000 and only pay 5% on the remaining amount.” 12 Apr 2024

Happy to be proved wrong if you have better facts🤷‍♀️

Do first time buyers pay Stamp Duty?

Maximum property price.Stamp Duty rate

£0 to £425,000 0%

£425,00 to £625,000 5%

From NatWest.

Here’s another factual source for you GSM. Please feel free to disprove.

Er Lizzie, everyone pays stamp duty up to £250k. Get your facts right!

Nobody pays stamp duty on freehold residential property up to £250,000 in England and Northern Ireland

First time buyers are exempt up to £425,000 on freehold residential property that will be their home (in England and Northern Ireland).

Source: www.gov.uk/stamp-duty-land-tax/residential-property-rates

Exactly Siope.

According to GSM everyone pays stamp duty up to £250k

Germanshepherdsmum

Er Lizzie, everyone pays stamp duty up to £250k. Get your facts right!

And growstuff, I know from your posts the area in which you live, and housing there isn’t cheap. Don’t talk about my little bubble. You seem to have a log on your shoulder, not just a chip.

No logs here I can assure you! It's just that my life isn't dominated by the acquisition of wealth. I'm a very happy bunny!

PS. It is perfectly possible to buy a starter home here for less than £425.000, which is what people do.

Thanks for that information Lizzie
I had thought that Rishi's announcement was new but realise it won't affect 1st time buyers who won't be buying a house costing over 4½k unless they earn heaps and live in the SE.
DD &DSiL who are not high earners, are trying to buy their 1st house, in Scotland. They don't need to worry about stamp duty at least.

As for who to vote for. Here in Scotland it's between Labour and SNP. Tories have very few MPs.
Time for change?

I had thought that Rishi's announcement was new

You’re welcome Grammaretto

There’s been lots of very misleading figures thrown about during this election campaign so far. I had hoped that politicians might have moved on from such behaviour - but obviously not.

Good luck to your DD & DSiL with their house buying

Grammaretto I wouldn’t want to give out incorrect information, so I’ve just checked the stamp duty situation in Scotland and the thresholds are different.

Here’s a link to a useful website:
www.stampdutycalculator.org.uk/stamp-duty-scotland.htm

LizzieDrip

Exactly Siope.

According to GSM everyone pays stamp duty up to £250k

Apology, I meant to say over £250k, if not FTBs.

The focus of the discussion was first time buyers GSM.

My point being, Sunak announced that, under a new Tory government, first time buyers would be exempt from stamp duty up to £450k as if this were new.

First time buyers are already exempt from paying stamp duty on property up to £425k! (in England) So hardly a new tax cut - as he portrayed. Misleading!

He is raising their allowance, is he not?

Sure - a whole £25k!

The way he announced it (on one of the debates I think) was misleading IMO. He could have said ‘I’m raising the SD exemption allowance from A to B’ … but he chose not to.

GSM I don’t expect you to agree with me - I’m not trying to ‘convince’ you in any way. I’m merely stating things the way I see them. I fully expect you to see things differently.

😊

This election seems to be very poor if not the worst, in living memory. It’s been hijacked by opinion polls and the media and if we believe the hype, the Conservatives will be decimated. Well they might but who is pushing the narrative?
Local people are appalled by the way Labour is ramping up social class prejudices with a policy which will increase demand for State school places. Fully costed? I don’t think so.
The real issues facing young families are poor wages, high taxes and increasing prices on essentials- food, energy and fuel. How has the Labour Party tackled these in their 136 page manifesto? Great British Energy? Seriously expensive. We are in the hands of amateurs. Time for change - you bet - just start thinking for yourself and don’t believe the hype.

We would indeed be in the hands of amateurs with Labour. Do they seriously think that electricity prices are the biggest factor in most people’s fuel bills? Many millions rely on oil and gas to heat their homes and cook, and of course run petrol and diesel vehicles - but whilst saying that we must be independent of foreign powers for fuel, they will grant no new licences for North Sea exploration. Too many are being taken in by the hype and seemingly cannot think it through. I would love the opportunity to grill Labour on their plans.

Time for change towards what? Reform?

DiamondLily

growstuff

I'm absolutely fine about taxes on alcohol and tobacco being increased.

I’m not fine about tax on alcohol and tobacco being increased, if I’m honest.

As for £425,000, you would barely get a starter home around here for that.🤷‍♀️

Even an ordinary 2 bed flat in a non-smart SW London postcode is very often priced at £500k+ now.
Exceptions are those which need a LOT of updating.

Perhaps that's why this Conservative govt has been so dreadful. They were out of power for 13 years so were complete amateurs when the eventually got back in. It's a bit of a problem isn't it?

Wyllow3

Time for change towards what? Reform?

Goodness, they really would be a lot of amateurs. Farage should have some experience from his days as an MEP but I don't think he actually turned up that often.

foxie48

Perhaps that's why this Conservative govt has been so dreadful. They were out of power for 13 years so were complete amateurs when the eventually got back in. It's a bit of a problem isn't it?

People keep saying this but just look at what they’ve had to contend with! Labour left us penniless so they had to sort that for a start which wasn’t a five minute job.

For much of that time we have had a massive increase in the numbers of people arriving here both legally and illegally. The illegals have to be looked after which has cost us billions.

Then along came Covid. Something no government has ever had to deal with. It was so rapid and they had to follow what their advisors were telling them as it was an unknown quantity. I believe they did their very best to look after us but people seem to have forgotten that. People were off work on furlough for about 6 months and most people I know were very pleased about that! Small businesses were given generous grants which they didn’t have to pay back. We were much better looked after than many countries.

Then we had the war in Ukraine and, again, it was all so rapid and we were taking in thousands of Ukrainian people, most of whom we still have.

I voted Labour for many, many years but did not like the way they were heading and so many of their ideas did not sit right with me so I started voting Conservative. This was a big thing as I was raised in a Labour home, a Labour road, a Labour neighbourhood and everybody we knew voted Labour.

I wouldn’t trust Labour to run a bath now, let alone this country.

foxie48

Perhaps that's why this Conservative govt has been so dreadful. They were out of power for 13 years so were complete amateurs when the eventually got back in. It's a bit of a problem isn't it?

That’s depressing foxie48 and it doesn’t bode well for Labour. They’ve been out of power for longer.

I think Labour have and are prepared for power. (As an insider, the meetings I'v gone to, what I;ve read, local MP etc who is in the shadow cabinet

However.....we use the word "trust" a lot.

I think times have passed where we felt we could put total trust in any party, I think there was a time when we did. (although a bit of an illusion?)

It's relative to best information we can get and natural political inclinations, I think we now are looking at "good enough" or "trust enough" in making choices.

Perhaps people are expecting too much, but its needful to do that without descending into "they're all the same".

Well said, Primrose.

Wyllow, how many members of the shadow cabinet have any experience of government, and how long ago was that? I don’t trust them an inch because they are keeping very quiet about how they are really going to raise the money to pay for their grandiose plans. How much are they going to pay the doctors to get them back to work? How are all these extra hospital and GP appointments going to come about? How are the waiting lists going to be drastically cut? As an ‘insider’, I would expect you to have the answers. And they are not going to cut immigration, are they? I am fed up with hearing Starmer say that as DPP he worked with law enforcement agencies to smash terrorism - total rubbish, he was given the necessary evidence and stood up in court to deliver it.

Primrose53

I rarely talk Politics with some friends but had coffee this morning with my friend who spent her whole adult career as a nurse in the Army, then NHS. Her husband has the same background. They are now retired.

She brought it up and I was quite surprised when she said they would both be horrified if Labour got in. She had just spent a lovely long weekend away with a large group of former nurses and none of them want Labour in either.

As I said yesterday I have not met a single person who wants Labour in and there are no Labour posters up anywhere around here.

I suspect that is because they are comfortably off. An aside - the 40 year old son of a friend and his wife are both nurses. Apparently they each have holiday entitlement of 11 weeks per year. How can that be?