Cost of living crisis.

[RoboFox]

The entirety of the Tory cabinet whooping and hollering at Sunak's budget like they're saving the country from collectively nosediving into financial oblivion when they've spunked billions from the public purse on contracts for their mates.

 

 

Edited 23 March 2022 by RoboFox

[Sly]

To put it bleakly ….

Knocking 5p off fuel is like throwing a deck chair off the titanic. It achieves very little.
 

We’re in for a tough grind and we just need to knuckle down and get through it. 

 

Costs are going up, some companies are going to put prices up, as let’s be honest, it’s supply and demand. Anyone with commercial acumen knows that’s how it works. Morally whether that’s right is another question. 
 

Labour would also be no better, despite what they state. We don’t have a bloody money tree, so if it’s given with one, it’s got to be taken from the other. 

 

As I stated earlier in this thread. We can all make choices to benefit ourselves, some people just don’t like making sacrifices and blame the government.

[Sly]

5 minutes ago, RoboFox said:

The entirety of the Tory cabinet whooping and hollering at Sunak's budget like they're saving the country from collectively nosediving into financial oblivion when they've spunked billions from the public purse on contracts for their mates.

 

 

In fairness, it’s all been swept under the carpet and largely forgotten like party gate. It still needs reviewing and something doing about it. No doubt it’ll get forgotten about. 

[Bellend Sebastian]

Sunak could have averted an ongoing environmental disaster and made a real difference to one of the UK's hardest working citizens by simply buying me a new car.

 

Lack of vision in my view

[Dahnsouff]

3 minutes ago, Sly said:

...

 

As I stated earlier in this thread. We can all make choices to benefit ourselves, some people just don’t like making sacrifices and blame the government.

Its a middle ground.

Whilst there are no doubt people who honestly feel that any need to change their behaviour or lifestyles will view it as outrageous, but at the same time this government has done little to engender (or deserve) a collective spirit or response.

[Strokes]

6 hours ago, kenny said:

We seem to be limited to wind and solar which isn't the solution.

 

The government need to be looking at nuclear, tidal and geothermal power. We can't be relying on Russia or the weather forecast for our power.

We aren’t limited to those, and they could be enough if proper provisions were made to reduce demand and increase storage.

Why haven’t all new homes for the last 15 years had solar panels fitted and ground loops? That could have easily been legislated.

We’ve been staring down the barrel of a gun for 30 years and just waited for the trigger to be pulled and are now bemoaning our options.

Successive governments haven’t done enough but this one in particular has taken the piss and clipped the wings of the booming solar industry in 2010-2012. 
They carry the blame for this and they should pay for us to get out of it.

[Innovindil]

Well that was pretty underwhelming. 

[leicsmac]

25 minutes ago, Lako42 said:

He needs to be paying people to install them, not charging them a bit less. 

 

Heat pumps in particular should be looked at as a possible widespread source of heating. 

On that I would agree.

 

5 minutes ago, Strokes said:

We aren’t limited to those, and they could be enough if proper provisions were made to reduce demand and increase storage.

Why haven’t all new homes for the last 15 years had solar panels fitted and ground loops? That could have easily been legislated.

We’ve been staring down the barrel of a gun for 30 years and just waited for the trigger to be pulled and are now bemoaning our options.

Successive governments haven’t done enough but this one in particular has taken the piss and clipped the wings of the booming solar industry in 2010-2012. 
They carry the blame for this and they should pay for us to get out of it.

Seven hells, who are you and what have you done with Strokes?

[FoxesWalk]

Taxes still rise for me, just a bit less. 
 

the proposed change in income tax is being paid for by increasing student loan payments… so graduates screwed over again. Marginal effective tax rate after going to university is getting a bit out of control. 

[Sly]

19 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

Its a middle ground.

Whilst there are no doubt people who honestly feel that any need to change their behaviour or lifestyles will view it as outrageous, but at the same time this government has done little to engender (or deserve) a collective spirit or response.

Oh, I agree. 
 

They’ve done some good stuff but the amount of foot in mouth situations, illegal and outright stupid stuff they’ve done, will always be remembered. 

[Lako42]

3 minutes ago, FoxesWalk said:

Taxes still rise for me, just a bit less. 
 

the proposed change in income tax is being paid for by increasing student loan payments… so graduates screwed over again. Marginal effective tax rate after going to university is getting a bit out of control. 

I still see NI go up and increase in student loan payments

[Sly]

37 minutes ago, Lako42 said:

He needs to be paying people to install them, not charging them a bit less. 

 

Heat pumps in particular should be looked at as a possible widespread source of heating. 

Agree. 
 

All new homes should be built with them as standard. It just makes us self sustainable with greener energies. I’m guessing they weren’t getting the kickbacks they required to push the agenda. Similar to cars now. How will they find the network, as petrol consumption will go down as people move to EVs. No doubt we’ll just see an overall increase in energy taxation in years to come. 

[Leicester_Loyal]

48 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

If he has done that then it's not a bad thing at all.

 

Buying and using such solutions has got to be incentivised pronto or things are going to happen that will make people long for the present times, hard as they are.

Will take me about 15 years to ensure solar panels pay for themselves, within 5-10 I’ll be moved and in a different property, so pointless installing them. 

[Strokes]

16 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

On that I would agree.

 

Seven hells, who are you and what have you done with Strokes?

Tbf mate, I’ve always talked about the need for renewables in homes. Probably not enough but I promise you it’s not inconsistent.

[Leicester_Loyal]

40 minutes ago, RoboFox said:

The entirety of the Tory cabinet whooping and hollering at Sunak's budget like they're saving the country from collectively nosediving into financial oblivion when they've spunked billions from the public purse on contracts for their mates.

 

 

Yep. 
 

Honestly **** them. 

[Strokes]

1 minute ago, Leicester_Loyal said:

Will take me about 15 years to ensure solar panels pay for themselves, within 5-10 I’ll be moved and in a different property, so pointless installing them. 

You’ll get your money back much sooner if you use them smarter.

Remove all gas appliance and replace for electric.

Use the daytime as economy 7 because that’s when you generate.

[Dahnsouff]

1 minute ago, Strokes said:

You’ll get your money back much sooner if you use them smarter.

Remove all gas appliance and replace for electric.

Use the daytime as economy 7 because that’s when you generate.

The other side though is that its not that easy to get a heat pump in! We have been trying for at least 3 months!

[leicsmac]

5 minutes ago, Leicester_Loyal said:

Will take me about 15 years to ensure solar panels pay for themselves, within 5-10 I’ll be moved and in a different property, so pointless installing them. 

Looking at it purely through the lens of short-term self-interest, yes.

 

But fair point: such solutions do need to be made all-around more affordable to the consumer to be truly viable. Mind you, Strokes gives some good advice above.

 

5 minutes ago, Strokes said:

Tbf mate, I’ve always talked about the need for renewables in homes. Probably not enough but I promise you it’s not inconsistent.

I do remember you advocating for green solutions as part of Brexit and also we had a chat around COP26 last year concerning what should be done, so fair enough.

 

TBH the solution is multifaceted - these kinds of solutions in homes and then larger plants using either renewable w/storage or Gen III/IV fission power.

[foxes1988]

2 hours ago, Strokes said:

We aren’t limited to those, and they could be enough if proper provisions were made to reduce demand and increase storage.

Why haven’t all new homes for the last 15 years had solar panels fitted and ground loops? That could have easily been legislated.

We’ve been staring down the barrel of a gun for 30 years and just waited for the trigger to be pulled and are now bemoaning our options.

Successive governments haven’t done enough but this one in particular has taken the piss and clipped the wings of the booming solar industry in 2010-2012. 
They carry the blame for this and they should pay for us to get out of it.

100% this. 

 

Last 15 years successive governments have dropped the ball on this and renewables in general.

 

The problem we have now is that this cost of living crisis has followed years of austerity during which most people have been in real terms having wage cuts for years.  This on top is just the straw that broke the camels back.  In hindsight (plenty would argue its not hindsight) austerity measures were a terrible, terrible idea especially considering the underperforming/uncompetitive economy.  Maybe we should have focussed more on economic growth with some proper investment in certain areas to drive economic growth.

Edited 23 March 2022 by foxes1988

[Fazzer 7]

Yes and successive pi$$ poor chancellors, Osborne and Hammond just swan off with a trail of destruction in there wake and no consequences for their actions.

[kenny]

4 hours ago, Strokes said:

We aren’t limited to those, and they could be enough if proper provisions were made to reduce demand and increase storage.

Why haven’t all new homes for the last 15 years had solar panels fitted and ground loops? That could have easily been legislated.

We’ve been staring down the barrel of a gun for 30 years and just waited for the trigger to be pulled and are now bemoaning our options.

Successive governments haven’t done enough but this one in particular has taken the piss and clipped the wings of the booming solar industry in 2010-2012. 
They carry the blame for this and they should pay for us to get out of it.

By limited I mean in the eyes of the government. People like solar and wind because it's visible and it keeps the shit munchers happy.

 

The reason not much solar is used on new builds is because you gain more benefit from improving air tightness or increasing insulation values. So developers choose the option that costs the least but complies with the current environmental legislation.

 

I had solar panels installed last year. They have been fairly rubbish for bringing down our bills as the feed in tariff is too low to be effective.

[SecretPro]

5 hours ago, Sly said:

To put it bleakly ….

Knocking 5p off fuel is like throwing a deck chair off the titanic. It achieves very little.
 

We’re in for a tough grind and we just need to knuckle down and get through it. 

 

Costs are going up, some companies are going to put prices up, as let’s be honest, it’s supply and demand. Anyone with commercial acumen knows that’s how it works. Morally whether that’s right is another question. 
 

Labour would also be no better, despite what they state. We don’t have a bloody money tree, so if it’s given with one, it’s got to be taken from the other. 

 

As I stated earlier in this thread. We can all make choices to benefit ourselves, some people just don’t like making sacrifices and blame the government.

Apparently we do, but not for the normal people, or infact the people.

 

37bn spent on Test & Trace.
£11.8bn Covid fraud written off.
£8.7bn on wasted PPE & dodgy contracts.
£160bn on unnecessary & environmentally destructive HS2.

BP and Shell make RECORD profits and don't get a windfall tax.

 

But we are really sorry, we don't have any money and we must all knuckle down and take it on the chin. 
 

[Beechey]

31 minutes ago, SecretPro said:

Apparently we do, but not for the normal people, or infact the people.

 

37bn spent on Test & Trace.
£11.8bn Covid fraud written off.
£8.7bn on wasted PPE & dodgy contracts.
£160bn on unnecessary & environmentally destructive HS2.

BP and Shell make RECORD profits and don't get a windfall tax.

 

But we are really sorry, we don't have any money and we must all knuckle down and take it on the chin. 
 

You can call HS2 environentally destructive, but the alterantive is either domestic air travel or more cars. Unnecessary? Our existing rail lines are at capacity and haven't been meaningfully expanded in a century. HS2 should absolutely go ahead and should never have been cut off at EM Parkway. We need more infrastructure spending in this country, not less. If we want to lower congestion and pollution, we should be building high speed rail to every major city.

Edited 23 March 2022 by Beechey

[Sly]

44 minutes ago, SecretPro said:

Apparently we do, but not for the normal people, or infact the people.

 

37bn spent on Test & Trace.
£11.8bn Covid fraud written off.
£8.7bn on wasted PPE & dodgy contracts.
£160bn on unnecessary & environmentally destructive HS2.

BP and Shell make RECORD profits and don't get a windfall tax.

 

But we are really sorry, we don't have any money and we must all knuckle down and take it on the chin. 
 

They should have made some sort of payback scheme for the covid fraud, similar to the student loan repayments. Ultimately it’s been abused and more should be done at reclaiming that. 
 

We’ll ultimately tip into recession at some point I think, when the construction industry slows down. HS2 will be driving some of that workload now. High speed rail is required, however I think we could all pick holes in the current HS2 project. It’ll go way over budget and let’s be realistic, it’ll have been mismanaged. Can I’m not sure what the direct nett cost will be from it, once we take in to account tax recouped from the building of it. It’s tragic what it’s doing to the landscape of the country but the rail infrastructure has been severely underfunded for years. 
 

I’m not convinced taxing private companies on profit is the way forwards. All they’ll do is hike the price higher to reclaim it, or cover for it in future years. I come back to my original

point on oil / petrol. We all

know we need fuel to run vehicles etc. I’m not sure why companies making profit is a dirty term. That’s what they’re setup to do.

 

If it’s costing us all more to get to work and you’re required in a certain destination, people should be asking their place of work to compensate them. Some will, some won’t. We’re all free to change jobs etc if we aren’t happy though. 
 

The economy is in a situation very few of us will have seen on our lifetime. This feels far more volatile than 2008 / 2009 and to get through it, people will need to adapt. 
 

When the housing market stops, that’s when it’ll all start to tumble like a house of cards I’d imagine. It’ll be the people that have pushed the outgoing finances to the limit on things like mortgages, car leases, credit and loans that they’re tied into which will feel the pinch as the expendable income will become much less.

[rachhere]

1 hour ago, Beechey said:

You can call HS2 environentally destructive, but the alterantive is either domestic air travel or more cars. Unnecessary? Our existing rail lines are at capacity and haven't been meaningfully expanded in a century. HS2 should absolutely go ahead and should never have been cut off at EM Parkway. We need more infrastructure spending in this country, not less. If we want to lower congestion and pollution, we should be building high speed rail to every major city.

This exactly. The whole narrative around HS2 is so frustrating - it’s been portrayed about just saving time for travellers on those lines when in reality its so much more.

 

agree about the rest of the government waste in spending though.