"Indefinite industrial action is to be taken by thousands of civil servants working at the Land Registry in a dispute over office attendance.
Around 4,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) based in 14 offices across England and Wales will take part in the action from 21 January.
The PCS is also campaigning for a four-day week for workers at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government."
"Indefinite industrial action is to be taken by thousands of civil servants working at the Land Registry in a dispute over office attendance.
Around 4,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) based in 14 offices across England and Wales will take part in the action from 21 January.
The PCS is also campaigning for a four-day week for workers at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government."
Wait, what the land registry has 4,000 staff o_O ?!
Probably more because those are just the union members. In 14 offices too.
2 years and counting since the forms were submitted to voluntarily register my parents' house and still nothing... Though no doubt considerably quicker to fraudulently claim and transfer ownership
David Brindle @DavidJ_Brindle · 1h ‘I can’t think of any reason why [social care commission] should take three years, I simply can’t. The commission I was part of took a year from being commissioned to final reporting’ - Sir Andrew Dilnot on Casey social care inquiry at @CommonsHealth
Because Labour don't want to prioritise it. Things that Labour have prioritised are:
Giving Palantir the contract for NHS data Selling the Royal Mail to the Czechs Taking Winter Fuel Allowance from pensioners Giving Ed Miliband 22bn to extract gas from air and heat caves with it.
Wouldn't it be nice to have a left-wing government for a change? I mean yes they fuck up the economy, but at least you get some nice things, like less dead old people.
Increasing taxes on employers and farmers to fund huge bungs for GPs and train drivers and scrapping remaining hereditary peers is pretty leftwing
Landowners, not farmers, please.
Most of those hit are farmers
But not the same thing. And a lot of farmers aren't hit. You're giving the impression of manipulating words to slant the argument.
In any case - the taxes haven't begun. And any competent planning will sort much of the issue.
The average net worth across all farms was £2.2 million in 2022/23 and 49% of farms had a net worth of at least £1.5 million.
So large numbers of farms will be hit planning or not
B ut that is still not the same thing. Landowners, not farmers, is the key word.
No it isn't as it is agricultural property relief being removed over £1 million it is not specifically an extra tax on landowners otherwise it would hit all owner occupiers in the UK
Landowners whose land is used for farming, sure.
But it beginds with Landowners. Not Farmers. Farmers do not necessarily own their land, and that's what counts.
We're not brain dead on PB and it's an insult to all of us to have jejune propaganda on here.
No it doesn't, as landowners include someone who owns a 2 bed property and garden in Stoke.
This ending of agricultural property relief is primarily going to hit farmers
I said "Landowners whose land is used for farming". Not growing bloody chrysanthemums.
"Indefinite industrial action is to be taken by thousands of civil servants working at the Land Registry in a dispute over office attendance.
Around 4,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) based in 14 offices across England and Wales will take part in the action from 21 January.
The PCS is also campaigning for a four-day week for workers at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government."
"Indefinite industrial action is to be taken by thousands of civil servants working at the Land Registry in a dispute over office attendance.
Around 4,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) based in 14 offices across England and Wales will take part in the action from 21 January.
The PCS is also campaigning for a four-day week for workers at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government."
Wait, what the land registry has 4,000 staff o_O ?!
That seems reasonable to me. Complicated bit of the economy/legals, lots of unusual transactions. DWP is 85,000, HMRC 70,000.
Most private firms would have long ago offloaded such jobs to India etc. Not an option for the government, though it might be with AI coming along.
Also a fair amount of catching up to do in terms of the basic data, I expect. If it's like Scotland, quite a proportion of properties haven't been bought/sold recently enough to have the modern stuff on the database, especially an acceptable property map.
"Indefinite industrial action is to be taken by thousands of civil servants working at the Land Registry in a dispute over office attendance.
Around 4,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) based in 14 offices across England and Wales will take part in the action from 21 January.
The PCS is also campaigning for a four-day week for workers at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government."
Wait, what the land registry has 4,000 staff o_O ?!
Probably more because those are just the union members. In 14 offices too.
2 years and counting since the forms were submitted to voluntarily register my parents' house and still nothing... Though no doubt considerably quicker to fraudulently claim and transfer ownership
The fact non standard things take so long is why such fraud is possible
Just got the quarterly magazine through from the council. In it it has a page on the financial pressures it faces with a breakdown of spending
Total spending £135.8m Adult social care £52.9m (39% of spending) Children’s social care £37.2m (27% of spending)
So 66% of the whole budget is going on social care
For those that don’t know me, that’s Darlington council small unity authority of about 115,000 residents
Is that gross or net of service income? The story on social care changes depending on that, and it's also why splitting it between children, adults and old-age is important. You often find councils spend most on severely disabled adults on a net basis.
On topic. Here is my idea - Every 5 years, local authorities should be allowed to hold an auction for the de-listing of 2% of their Grade II listed buildings. This would re-generate urban areas and provide an income stream to the councils independent of central government.
Yet would not be worth it if it led to historic buildings being knocked down or altered beyond recognition
Far too many buildings are grade 2 listed. This would improve housing availability without affecting genuinely important historic buildings.
Follow Scotland's example. We have no Grade 2 listed buildings at all.
Scotland has Category C buildings which are similar
"REFORM UK’s entrance into Scottish politics will “split the pro-Union vote” and help the SNP stay in power, a senior Tory MSP has said.
Murdo Fraser, the Scottish Conservative’s economy spokesperson, pointed to polling in recent weeks which has shown Nigel Farage’s party are likely to emerge with at least 10 MSPs from the Holyrood elections in around 16 months."
*watches float bob in the water*
Seriously, it's a slightly odd argument as splitting doesn't help the winner so much as in FPTP. What he really means is the Tories get fewer MSPs.
Indeed, Reform will get MSPs largely proportionate to voteshare unlike MPs under FPTP and their MSPs will vote down indyref2 as much as Tory MSPs would
Good afternoon everyone. 'Went' to an interesting Zoom on Weird Geology this morning; all sorts of odd geological features.
On topic, until the mid-fifties a small town in the this area had in it's centre a collection of 14th, 15th, 16th and 19th buildings. One of them, quite a large one, burned down. To be fair it wasn't in good repair. It was replaced with a horrible Stalinist/Brutalist block of five shops with flats over. Looks wildly out of place. Local folklore has it that architecture and planning students are brought to the town to be shown what NOT to do.
I fear we're heading for a pretty nasty sovereign debt crisis despite 3x cover on 5y bonds sold today. The government is going to have to get real about the national finances and cut spending.
I don't think it is inevitable but what is clear is that our margin of safety is being eroded. If something else were to occur that really spooked the market raising funds may rapidly become prohibitively expensive. Given recent history (Covid, Ukraine, gas prices, election of Trump etc etc) these are not risks that a government supposedly committed to stability should be taking. What we absolutely must not do is make the situation worse, as we did in the last budget.
UK 10 year gilt prices just reached 4.724%. A few weeks before the budget, they were in the 3.7%'s.
Will be interesting to see where the cuts are going to come from, as the government runs out of fiscal headroom. Or what tax increases will be imposed, despite a promise not to. Not looking good.
A lot of that move reflects inflation and base rate expectations. We could really do with a downward move in inflation.
The frustrating thing is that we all know the long term will be deflationary, as global population ages and shrinks. Deflation will be a huge problem. Yet we have a short to medium term inflation bump to deal with.
Sky analysis referred to the huge debt piles worldwide and Trump's inflationary policies, but did also say that Reeves budget has made it worse for the UK by prioritising above inflation public sector wage rises
It is becoming fairly obvious that due to world events, and Reeves poor judgment, she will have no option but to reduce spending including pay awards and probably seek more tax rises
The stark truth is we are all living beyond our means, pain is coming down the line for everyone and those hoping for a boost for Labour are likely to see quite the opposite
Are we living beyond our means or is wealth being syphoned off by those that seek control of resources - whether it be Ukraine's food basket, or Greenland's minerals, or Taiwanese technology. Here's an idea...
Why Bezos, especially?
(That's his suborbital rocket)
The problem is not so much the billionaires, but the lack of interest in the state actually doing stuff.
If you want to run a country on a basis of having enquiries about enquiries about doing something... Now, you may believe that is Good Government. But in reality, you are vacating the functions of Government.
Don't be surprised if the result of a justice system that doesn't deliver justice, is private security. This happens in every country where the police and courts don't work
Don't be surprised if the result of a health care system that doesn't deliver is private healthcare.
Don't be surprised if the result of an education system that doesn't deliver is private education.
Don't be surprised if the result of a national space program is less and less - to the point of collapsing - is that private companies start delivering stuff to orbit.
Don't be surprised if the result of not building roads is that the wealthy start buying/building the new drone/automated electric helicopters. Watch them fly overhead - quite soon, now.
Don't be surprised. It's what you asked for.
It is not necessarily what people ask for per se, it is simply that the public sector generally works primarily in the interests of it's workforce and bugger what the end user asks for. Most private companies (some utilities being an exception) have to respond to what the end user asks for or the shareholders lose money.
Basically, capitalism largely works. Statism largely does not. Anyone who thinks that trains, or anything else for that matter, will be better run by a civil servant than by a business person is fundamentally stupid.
"Indefinite industrial action is to be taken by thousands of civil servants working at the Land Registry in a dispute over office attendance.
Around 4,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) based in 14 offices across England and Wales will take part in the action from 21 January.
The PCS is also campaigning for a four-day week for workers at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government."
Wait, what the land registry has 4,000 staff o_O ?!
That seems reasonable to me. Complicated bit of the economy/legals, lots of unusual transactions. DWP is 85,000, HMRC 70,000.
Most private firms would have long ago offloaded such jobs to India etc. Not an option for the government, though it might be with AI coming along.
Also a fair amount of catching up to do in terms of the basic data, I expect. If it's like Scotland, quite a proportion of properties haven't been bought/sold recently enough to have the modern stuff on the database, especially an acceptable property map.
Yup. Just had this for an elderly relative. If a house hasn’t sold since 199X it won’t be on the system so everything needs doing. And away from big cites there’s always random pockets of land and stuff that turn up.
Just got the quarterly magazine through from the council. In it it has a page on the financial pressures it faces with a breakdown of spending
Total spending £135.8m Adult social care £52.9m (39% of spending) Children’s social care £37.2m (27% of spending)
So 66% of the whole budget is going on social care
For those that don’t know me, that’s Darlington council small unity authority of about 115,000 residents
Is that gross or net of service income? The story on social care changes depending on that, and it's also why splitting it between children, adults and old-age is important. You often find councils spend most on severely disabled adults on a net basis.
It’s listed as spending - I would need to ask.
If someone cares to work out exactly what they need to know I will add it to a FoI request as I doubt any of it is identifiable
Good afternoon everyone. 'Went' to an interesting Zoom on Weird Geology this morning; all sorts of odd geological features.
On topic, until the mid-fifties a small town in the this area had in it's centre a collection of 14th, 15th, 16th and 19th buildings. One of them, quite a large one, burned down. To be fair it wasn't in good repair. It was replaced with a horrible Stalinist/Brutalist block of five shops with flats over. Looks wildly out of place. Local folklore has it that architecture and planning students are brought to the town to be shown what NOT to do.
That depends I know a set of planners who love brutalist architecture - not so much adding new bits but keeping the rapidly reducing number that is left as is.
I suspect Billingham town Centre will be an interesting argument this year - it’s classic 60s and still functional in ways that other examplessuch as Newton Aycliffe aren’t (Aycliffe town Centre is too big nowadays).
"Indefinite industrial action is to be taken by thousands of civil servants working at the Land Registry in a dispute over office attendance.
Around 4,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) based in 14 offices across England and Wales will take part in the action from 21 January.
The PCS is also campaigning for a four-day week for workers at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government."
Wait, what the land registry has 4,000 staff o_O ?!
That seems reasonable to me. Complicated bit of the economy/legals, lots of unusual transactions. DWP is 85,000, HMRC 70,000.
Most private firms would have long ago offloaded such jobs to India etc. Not an option for the government, though it might be with AI coming along.
Also a fair amount of catching up to do in terms of the basic data, I expect. If it's like Scotland, quite a proportion of properties haven't been bought/sold recently enough to have the modern stuff on the database, especially an acceptable property map.
Yup. Just had this for an elderly relative. If a house hasn’t sold since 199X it won’t be on the system so everything needs doing. And away from big cites there’s always random pockets of land and stuff that turn up.
There are bits of Scotland that have never made it on to the Sasines Register which was established in 1617. Short of compulsory registration it is going to take a very, very long time for the Land Register to be complete.
I fear we're heading for a pretty nasty sovereign debt crisis despite 3x cover on 5y bonds sold today. The government is going to have to get real about the national finances and cut spending.
The problem is what can be cut?
For example as my post above shows local government is social care with other items optionally on top.
The problem is equating MaxPB's fear with reality. We're not heading for a sovereign debt crisis.
Why should we take your word for it over Max's ?
I mean I hope you are right but, as I say, what is your expertise compared to his knowledge ?
Show me some evidence we’re facing a sovereign debt crisis. Present some rationale based on standard macroeconomic theory. Where are the citations to the economic literature? All I’m seeing is “Labour bad”.
I fear we're heading for a pretty nasty sovereign debt crisis despite 3x cover on 5y bonds sold today. The government is going to have to get real about the national finances and cut spending.
I don't think it is inevitable but what is clear is that our margin of safety is being eroded. If something else were to occur that really spooked the market raising funds may rapidly become prohibitively expensive. Given recent history (Covid, Ukraine, gas prices, election of Trump etc etc) these are not risks that a government supposedly committed to stability should be taking. What we absolutely must not do is make the situation worse, as we did in the last budget.
Nothing is inevitable, it needs for the government to cancel spending rises and immediately reduce borrowing. We have no more wiggle room and Labour are driving the nation to bankruptcy and an IMF bailout to keep external creditors happy.
"Indefinite industrial action is to be taken by thousands of civil servants working at the Land Registry in a dispute over office attendance.
Around 4,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) based in 14 offices across England and Wales will take part in the action from 21 January.
The PCS is also campaigning for a four-day week for workers at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government."
Wait, what the land registry has 4,000 staff o_O ?!
That seems reasonable to me. Complicated bit of the economy/legals, lots of unusual transactions. DWP is 85,000, HMRC 70,000.
Most private firms would have long ago offloaded such jobs to India etc. Not an option for the government, though it might be with AI coming along.
Also a fair amount of catching up to do in terms of the basic data, I expect. If it's like Scotland, quite a proportion of properties haven't been bought/sold recently enough to have the modern stuff on the database, especially an acceptable property map.
Yup. Just had this for an elderly relative. If a house hasn’t sold since 199X it won’t be on the system so everything needs doing. And away from big cites there’s always random pockets of land and stuff that turn up.
Exactly my position. They had to inspect the sketch map in the old deeds to see if it made sense on their maps, which fortunately it did. I had already noticed whoever had been the lawyer for the sale of the property next door had however screwed up and in a recent transaction left a plot of land "vacant", as I could tell from comparing sasine records and OS maps. But not my problem so I left it alone ...
"Indefinite industrial action is to be taken by thousands of civil servants working at the Land Registry in a dispute over office attendance.
Around 4,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) based in 14 offices across England and Wales will take part in the action from 21 January.
The PCS is also campaigning for a four-day week for workers at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government."
Wait, what the land registry has 4,000 staff o_O ?!
Probably more because those are just the union members. In 14 offices too.
2 years and counting since the forms were submitted to voluntarily register my parents' house and still nothing... Though no doubt considerably quicker to fraudulently claim and transfer ownership
"Indefinite industrial action is to be taken by thousands of civil servants working at the Land Registry in a dispute over office attendance.
Around 4,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) based in 14 offices across England and Wales will take part in the action from 21 January.
The PCS is also campaigning for a four-day week for workers at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government."
Wait, what the land registry has 4,000 staff o_O ?!
That seems reasonable to me. Complicated bit of the economy/legals, lots of unusual transactions. DWP is 85,000, HMRC 70,000.
Most private firms would have long ago offloaded such jobs to India etc. Not an option for the government, though it might be with AI coming along.
Also a fair amount of catching up to do in terms of the basic data, I expect. If it's like Scotland, quite a proportion of properties haven't been bought/sold recently enough to have the modern stuff on the database, especially an acceptable property map.
Yup. Just had this for an elderly relative. If a house hasn’t sold since 199X it won’t be on the system so everything needs doing. And away from big cites there’s always random pockets of land and stuff that turn up.
There are bits of Scotland that have never made it on to the Sasines Register which was established in 1617. Short of compulsory registration it is going to take a very, very long time for the Land Register to be complete.
I was rereading the Krugg Syndrome the otyher day (originally acquired on your recommendation) ...
Good afternoon everyone. 'Went' to an interesting Zoom on Weird Geology this morning; all sorts of odd geological features.
On topic, until the mid-fifties a small town in the this area had in it's centre a collection of 14th, 15th, 16th and 19th buildings. One of them, quite a large one, burned down. To be fair it wasn't in good repair. It was replaced with a horrible Stalinist/Brutalist block of five shops with flats over. Looks wildly out of place. Local folklore has it that architecture and planning students are brought to the town to be shown what NOT to do.
That depends I know a set of planners who love brutalist architecture - not so much adding new bits but keeping the rapidly reducing number that is left as is.
I suspect Billingham town Centre will be an interesting argument this year - it’s classic 60s and still functional in ways that other examplessuch as Newton Aycliffe aren’t (Aycliffe town Centre is too big nowadays).
There unquestionably some town centres where such building would be appropriate and indeed pleasing. Basildon is an example.
I fear we're heading for a pretty nasty sovereign debt crisis despite 3x cover on 5y bonds sold today. The government is going to have to get real about the national finances and cut spending.
The problem is what can be cut?
For example as my post above shows local government is social care with other items optionally on top.
The problem is equating MaxPB's fear with reality. We're not heading for a sovereign debt crisis.
Why should we take your word for it over Max's ?
I mean I hope you are right but, as I say, what is your expertise compared to his knowledge ?
Show me some evidence we’re facing a sovereign debt crisis. Present some rationale based on standard macroeconomic theory. Where are the citations to the economic literature? All I’m seeing is “Labour bad”.
I said why should we take your word for it over Max. Something you have failed to answer.
I am not offering an opinion either way because I do not know. But it is something I am interested in due to the impact, or potential impact, and I am retiring shortly.
UK 10 year gilt prices just reached 4.724%. A few weeks before the budget, they were in the 3.7%'s.
Will be interesting to see where the cuts are going to come from, as the government runs out of fiscal headroom. Or what tax increases will be imposed, despite a promise not to. Not looking good.
A lot of that move reflects inflation and base rate expectations. We could really do with a downward move in inflation.
The frustrating thing is that we all know the long term will be deflationary, as global population ages and shrinks. Deflation will be a huge problem. Yet we have a short to medium term inflation bump to deal with.
Sky analysis referred to the huge debt piles worldwide and Trump's inflationary policies, but did also say that Reeves budget has made it worse for the UK by prioritising above inflation public sector wage rises
It is becoming fairly obvious that due to world events, and Reeves poor judgment, she will have no option but to reduce spending including pay awards and probably seek more tax rises
The stark truth is we are all living beyond our means, pain is coming down the line for everyone and those hoping for a boost for Labour are likely to see quite the opposite
The default option for Labour is to borrow more. Clearly that is going to be difficult to sell to the markets to put it mildly, but that is where their instinct lies. Obviously that holds a big risk of backfiring spectacularly.
Spending cuts are more likely, imo, should it come to the crunch.
Be interesting to see how public sector pay goes, Labours client vote, the sainted Nurses are already saying 2.8% is not enough.
Labour set a precedent by rolling over and caving in without getting anything for it last year. You cannot blame the Public sector for trying the same again.,
I may be a stuck record but wages have to go up - significantly.
If you have nurses on in-work benefits or food banks, the taxpayer is paying indirectly through payments from the DWP or from grants from Local Authority Rates. Also it drives directly employed nurses to become agency nurses at much higher cost to the Trusts. Just have a look at the Annual Accounts of your local NHS Trust as to the amounts paid out in Agency fees. Yes the 'sainted' NHS is expensive but it could be less expensive if it were not a plaything of ignorant politicians pandering to their particular niche voters.
If you think health costs, then try existing on the amounts paid out for those on ill-health.
"Indefinite industrial action is to be taken by thousands of civil servants working at the Land Registry in a dispute over office attendance.
Around 4,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) based in 14 offices across England and Wales will take part in the action from 21 January.
The PCS is also campaigning for a four-day week for workers at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government."
Wait, what the land registry has 4,000 staff o_O ?!
Probably more because those are just the union members. In 14 offices too.
2 years and counting since the forms were submitted to voluntarily register my parents' house and still nothing... Though no doubt considerably quicker to fraudulently claim and transfer ownership
"Indefinite industrial action is to be taken by thousands of civil servants working at the Land Registry in a dispute over office attendance.
Around 4,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) based in 14 offices across England and Wales will take part in the action from 21 January.
The PCS is also campaigning for a four-day week for workers at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government."
Wait, what the land registry has 4,000 staff o_O ?!
That seems reasonable to me. Complicated bit of the economy/legals, lots of unusual transactions. DWP is 85,000, HMRC 70,000.
Most private firms would have long ago offloaded such jobs to India etc. Not an option for the government, though it might be with AI coming along.
Also a fair amount of catching up to do in terms of the basic data, I expect. If it's like Scotland, quite a proportion of properties haven't been bought/sold recently enough to have the modern stuff on the database, especially an acceptable property map.
Yup. Just had this for an elderly relative. If a house hasn’t sold since 199X it won’t be on the system so everything needs doing. And away from big cites there’s always random pockets of land and stuff that turn up.
Exactly my position. They had to inspect the sketch map in the old deeds to see if it made sense on their maps, which fortunately it did. I had already noticed whoever had been the lawyer for the sale of the property next door had however screwed up and in a recent transaction left a plot of land "vacant", as I could tell from comparing sasine records and OS maps. But not my problem so I left it alone ...
I wonder if there’s a business model for a really focused solicitor with access to the right systems to buy up ransom strips nobody knew existed all over the country and make a mint when the local housing plan gets drawn up?
NEW: UK govt has offered to frontload a tranche of payments to Mauritius in a bid to finalise Chagos islands deal, acc to people familiar with talks
I don't understand why the government is so desperate for a deal. If Mauritius won't play ball, they can hardly invade the place.
They think they have to obey "international law".
At a time when almost everyone involved in “international law” is now highly political and pushing a very specific anti-West agenda.
Everyone is complaining about Elon Musk getting involved in international politics, albeit with a loud megaphone rather than with money and meetings behind the scenes at Davos, yet never mention the likes of Goerge Soros and Bill Gates getting involved in international politics.
Possibly because they approach it from a philanthropic perspective rather than making absolute twats of themselves in a pathetic desire to say "look at me".
I fear we're heading for a pretty nasty sovereign debt crisis despite 3x cover on 5y bonds sold today. The government is going to have to get real about the national finances and cut spending.
The problem is what can be cut?
For example as my post above shows local government is social care with other items optionally on top.
The problem is equating MaxPB's fear with reality. We're not heading for a sovereign debt crisis.
Why should we take your word for it over Max's ?
I mean I hope you are right but, as I say, what is your expertise compared to his knowledge ?
Show me some evidence we’re facing a sovereign debt crisis. Present some rationale based on standard macroeconomic theory. Where are the citations to the economic literature? All I’m seeing is “Labour bad”.
It's my read of it after an 11 year career in the city starting as a Junior Investment Analyst and ending as VP of Analytics and Insight. I don't need macroeconomic theory or some paper written by zero real world experience professor to validate my opinions. People are free to agree or disagree with my opinions, you disagree which is fine, you appealing to authority to try and shut down conversations about it is less fine but very much in line with everything you've ever written here. As you may or may not remember, I made the same predictions when Liz Truss decided to go on a borrowing binge, I'm pretty sure I was right about that too.
"Indefinite industrial action is to be taken by thousands of civil servants working at the Land Registry in a dispute over office attendance.
Around 4,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) based in 14 offices across England and Wales will take part in the action from 21 January.
The PCS is also campaigning for a four-day week for workers at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government."
Wait, what the land registry has 4,000 staff o_O ?!
Probably more because those are just the union members. In 14 offices too.
2 years and counting since the forms were submitted to voluntarily register my parents' house and still nothing... Though no doubt considerably quicker to fraudulently claim and transfer ownership
Has anyone any idea how those cases have turned out? Or are they still grinding on?
Jesus.
"Where possible, we will restore ownership to the original owner, but in cases where the original owner was not living in the property at the time of the fraudulent sale (perhaps because they were renting it out), and an innocent party has purchased and then occupied the property in good faith, it is more likely we will allow the current occupier to continue to live in their new home and to offer financial compensation to the original owner”.
"Indefinite industrial action is to be taken by thousands of civil servants working at the Land Registry in a dispute over office attendance.
Around 4,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) based in 14 offices across England and Wales will take part in the action from 21 January.
The PCS is also campaigning for a four-day week for workers at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government."
Wait, what the land registry has 4,000 staff o_O ?!
Probably more because those are just the union members. In 14 offices too.
2 years and counting since the forms were submitted to voluntarily register my parents' house and still nothing... Though no doubt considerably quicker to fraudulently claim and transfer ownership
UK 10 year gilt prices just reached 4.724%. A few weeks before the budget, they were in the 3.7%'s.
Will be interesting to see where the cuts are going to come from, as the government runs out of fiscal headroom. Or what tax increases will be imposed, despite a promise not to. Not looking good.
A lot of that move reflects inflation and base rate expectations. We could really do with a downward move in inflation.
The frustrating thing is that we all know the long term will be deflationary, as global population ages and shrinks. Deflation will be a huge problem. Yet we have a short to medium term inflation bump to deal with.
Sky analysis referred to the huge debt piles worldwide and Trump's inflationary policies, but did also say that Reeves budget has made it worse for the UK by prioritising above inflation public sector wage rises
It is becoming fairly obvious that due to world events, and Reeves poor judgment, she will have no option but to reduce spending including pay awards and probably seek more tax rises
The stark truth is we are all living beyond our means, pain is coming down the line for everyone and those hoping for a boost for Labour are likely to see quite the opposite
The default option for Labour is to borrow more. Clearly that is going to be difficult to sell to the markets to put it mildly, but that is where their instinct lies. Obviously that holds a big risk of backfiring spectacularly.
Spending cuts are more likely, imo, should it come to the crunch.
Be interesting to see how public sector pay goes, Labours client vote, the sainted Nurses are already saying 2.8% is not enough.
Labour set a precedent by rolling over and caving in without getting anything for it last year. You cannot blame the Public sector for trying the same again.,
I may be a stuck record but wages have to go up - significantly.
If you have nurses on in-work benefits or food banks, the taxpayer is paying indirectly through payments from the DWP or from grants from Local Authority Rates. Also it drives directly employed nurses to become agency nurses at much higher cost to the Trusts. Just have a look at the Annual Accounts of your local NHS Trust as to the amounts paid out in Agency fees. Yes the 'sainted' NHS is expensive but it could be less expensive if it were not a plaything of ignorant politicians pandering to their particular niche voters.
If you think health costs, then try existing on the amounts paid out for those on ill-health.
Nursing payrates are low when compared with doctors. Perhaps the media and politicians should kowtow less to the BMA and ask them why it is that doctors think they are so entitled to earn more than double what a nurse earns at a similar point in their respective careers? No-one seems to question this disparity or the medical profession's sense of entitlement, or that hefty compensation rises for doctors have to be at the expense of other clinical professionals.
"Indefinite industrial action is to be taken by thousands of civil servants working at the Land Registry in a dispute over office attendance.
Around 4,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) based in 14 offices across England and Wales will take part in the action from 21 January.
The PCS is also campaigning for a four-day week for workers at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government."
Wait, what the land registry has 4,000 staff o_O ?!
That seems reasonable to me. Complicated bit of the economy/legals, lots of unusual transactions. DWP is 85,000, HMRC 70,000.
Most private firms would have long ago offloaded such jobs to India etc. Not an option for the government, though it might be with AI coming along.
Also a fair amount of catching up to do in terms of the basic data, I expect. If it's like Scotland, quite a proportion of properties haven't been bought/sold recently enough to have the modern stuff on the database, especially an acceptable property map.
Yup. Just had this for an elderly relative. If a house hasn’t sold since 199X it won’t be on the system so everything needs doing. And away from big cites there’s always random pockets of land and stuff that turn up.
Exactly my position. They had to inspect the sketch map in the old deeds to see if it made sense on their maps, which fortunately it did. I had already noticed whoever had been the lawyer for the sale of the property next door had however screwed up and in a recent transaction left a plot of land "vacant", as I could tell from comparing sasine records and OS maps. But not my problem so I left it alone ...
I wonder if there’s a business model for a really focused solicitor with access to the right systems to buy up ransom strips nobody knew existed all over the country and make a mint when the local housing plan gets drawn up?
I’ll invest…
They'd need to do detailed comparisons of the blanks with the relevant entries in the sasine registers. A heroic job.
I already knew aboiut the problem I had because there was some need for maintenance of the party boundary wall and did some DIY research to add to my family history styff. In the end I just paid a little extra for the other side to be quietly mended as well so it didn't fall down and cost a lot more ... but if I were moving into that house, I'd be looking at that much more actively and lawyered up.
David Brindle @DavidJ_Brindle · 1h ‘I can’t think of any reason why [social care commission] should take three years, I simply can’t. The commission I was part of took a year from being commissioned to final reporting’ - Sir Andrew Dilnot on Casey social care inquiry at @CommonsHealth
Because Labour don't want to prioritise it. Things that Labour have prioritised are:
Giving Palantir the contract for NHS data Selling the Royal Mail to the Czechs Taking Winter Fuel Allowance from pensioners Giving Ed Miliband 22bn to extract gas from air and heat caves with it.
Wouldn't it be nice to have a left-wing government for a change? I mean yes they fuck up the economy, but at least you get some nice things, like less dead old people.
Increasing taxes on employers and farmers to fund huge bungs for GPs and train drivers and scrapping remaining hereditary peers is pretty leftwing
Landowners, not farmers, please.
Most of those hit are farmers
But not the same thing. And a lot of farmers aren't hit. You're giving the impression of manipulating words to slant the argument.
In any case - the taxes haven't begun. And any competent planning will sort much of the issue.
The average net worth across all farms was £2.2 million in 2022/23 and 49% of farms had a net worth of at least £1.5 million.
So large numbers of farms will be hit planning or not
B ut that is still not the same thing. Landowners, not farmers, is the key word.
No it isn't as it is agricultural property relief being removed over £1 million it is not specifically an extra tax on landowners otherwise it would hit all owner occupiers in the UK
Landowners whose land is used for farming, sure.
But it beginds with Landowners. Not Farmers. Farmers do not necessarily own their land, and that's what counts.
We're not brain dead on PB and it's an insult to all of us to have jejune propaganda on here.
No it doesn't, as landowners include someone who owns a 2 bed property and garden in Stoke.
This ending of agricultural property relief is primarily going to hit farmers
I said "Landowners whose land is used for farming". Not growing bloody chrysanthemums.
I can see @Carnyx that you need some educating on this simple matter rather than simply swallowing the propaganda from Starmer et al.
Here is an explanation that even people in the public sector might understand:
Imagine you are the Principal of a Higher Education College. It isn't very well paid, but you get by, and you love the work even though it is often challenging. The buildings and the grounds are worth a lot of money, but you don't intend to sell them even though some of the governors would like you to. The HE college has been around for 100 years, but all of a sudden a new government comes in and says that whether the property that is used for the college is sold or otherwise, there will be a tax every time there is a change of the Principal.
"But we don't have any spare cash" says the Principal "Sell some of the buildings" says the heartless minister. In fact sell 20% of them. You can afford it." "But then we will have to have 20% less students!" "Tough, just get on and sell. The college is rich enough in terms of assets"
Now the college now has 20% less students. 20% less income and subsequently closes.
This is the reality for a large number of family farms and family businesses. These businesses are asset rich but income poor. It is not difficult for a farm to have assets over 3M, anymore than it would be for an HE college.
As @malcolmg said, if a farmer sells their assets and realises this value, then they would and should pay CGT, but not simply for continuing to farm it.
"Indefinite industrial action is to be taken by thousands of civil servants working at the Land Registry in a dispute over office attendance.
Around 4,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) based in 14 offices across England and Wales will take part in the action from 21 January.
The PCS is also campaigning for a four-day week for workers at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government."
Wait, what the land registry has 4,000 staff o_O ?!
That seems reasonable to me. Complicated bit of the economy/legals, lots of unusual transactions. DWP is 85,000, HMRC 70,000.
Most private firms would have long ago offloaded such jobs to India etc. Not an option for the government, though it might be with AI coming along.
Also a fair amount of catching up to do in terms of the basic data, I expect. If it's like Scotland, quite a proportion of properties haven't been bought/sold recently enough to have the modern stuff on the database, especially an acceptable property map.
Yup. Just had this for an elderly relative. If a house hasn’t sold since 199X it won’t be on the system so everything needs doing. And away from big cites there’s always random pockets of land and stuff that turn up.
There are bits of Scotland that have never made it on to the Sasines Register which was established in 1617. Short of compulsory registration it is going to take a very, very long time for the Land Register to be complete.
I don't see how it will ever be complete. Quite near me there is a small piece of land the owner of which is lost in the mists of time. A legal nightmare every time anyone needs to do anything. But there must be lots of pieces like that.
And what on Earth would happen if Trump invaded Panama? Such an act would be an illegal war of aggression under international law. It would have as much justification as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Would the UK and Europe respond with full economic sanctions? Would they kick US forces out of Europe? Is that the end of NATO?
No, see Iraq etc
You presumably mean the second Gulf war. Good point. However, I note GW Bush’s administration spent time and effort building up an argument for a just war and establishing a plausible casus belli. There was a lot of sympathy for the US after 9/11. While many countries opposed the action, the US was joined by the UK, Australia, Spain, Poland, Japan, Italy, Turkey etc. (Indeed, I note the “coalition of the willing” included both Panama and Denmark, both currently threatened by Trump, although not Canada.)
US action against Panama is not going to have support from any of these additional countries. There is no jus ad bellum. It’s not comparable with the second Gulf war, the invasion of Afghanistan, the invasion of Grenada or any other US action since WWII I can think of.
The only way to take the Panama Canal back is through investment to cure its lack of freshwater. Water levels in 2024 were at 110 year lows. This means the largest vessels are at risk of grounding.
It would be very Trumpian for Panama to be invaded - for an asset whose time has been and gone. Just the threa will likely spur attempts to build alternatives, such as through Nicaragua
or (perhaps less likely to be intimidated by threat of invasion), through Mexico's Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (CIIT). This is a much cheaper option (US $7.5 billion), by rather than building a canal that dries up, instead building rail links to transport cargo containers across this narrow point of Mexico.
There’s a nice sort of symmetry with our own Suez adventure here.
Panama = Suez Greenland = the Falklands
Both spelled disaster for the invading government.
I find it staggering that the Tory administration of 2010-2015 was so unprepared for all this.
Not only was Trump already in view in 2015 when the Referendum was called, but its campaign.was conducted in tandem with Trumpites. Now not only does Trump want to remove the last vestiges of British and French influence in North America and occupy an EU nation, but his sidekick also wants to take.more immediate control over Britain itself. It was the biggest British strategic blunder in 75 years.
I think we'll all chuckle if we hear Trump described as an 'isolationist' again. He's surely planning the greatest land conquests in US history.
Texas? Louisiana Purchase?
Canada, Panama, Greenland
and now a hint at the UK by his sidekick and he has mentioned invading Mexico not that long ago.
And he isn't in office yet. I think that wins on both area and population.
Look out Australia I think he is after you next.
Off course it will all come to nought. I expect his presidency will be a shambles of infighting, lots of noise and nothing will actually happen. I hope so anyway.
Is there any chance we can persuade him to take NI off our hands? “Our” in this context is probably the UK and the RoI….
Take Scotland pretty please
So Trumpian ownership is preferable to English ownership. I thought you were an advocate of independence rather than "a new boss who is the same as the old boss".
Independence would be best option, but being 51st state would be better than being in UK in my humble opinion.
Interesting. I thought you would be more pro-european than u.s.
He literally doesn't care as long as Scotland is independent from England.
Just like any Scottish "nationalist".
Don’t care if the ultimate power is in Brussels or Washington, so long as it isn’t in “Westminster”.
Some quality Scotch Nat experting from the Brit Nats.
I guess even the non Scottish “nationalist” might be questioning why the wise oversight of Westminster has resulted in an energy rich nation having highest power bills in the UK which in turn has the highest energy bills in Europe.
"Indefinite industrial action is to be taken by thousands of civil servants working at the Land Registry in a dispute over office attendance.
Around 4,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) based in 14 offices across England and Wales will take part in the action from 21 January.
The PCS is also campaigning for a four-day week for workers at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government."
And what on Earth would happen if Trump invaded Panama? Such an act would be an illegal war of aggression under international law. It would have as much justification as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Would the UK and Europe respond with full economic sanctions? Would they kick US forces out of Europe? Is that the end of NATO?
No, see Iraq etc
You presumably mean the second Gulf war. Good point. However, I note GW Bush’s administration spent time and effort building up an argument for a just war and establishing a plausible casus belli. There was a lot of sympathy for the US after 9/11. While many countries opposed the action, the US was joined by the UK, Australia, Spain, Poland, Japan, Italy, Turkey etc. (Indeed, I note the “coalition of the willing” included both Panama and Denmark, both currently threatened by Trump, although not Canada.)
US action against Panama is not going to have support from any of these additional countries. There is no jus ad bellum. It’s not comparable with the second Gulf war, the invasion of Afghanistan, the invasion of Grenada or any other US action since WWII I can think of.
The only way to take the Panama Canal back is through investment to cure its lack of freshwater. Water levels in 2024 were at 110 year lows. This means the largest vessels are at risk of grounding.
It would be very Trumpian for Panama to be invaded - for an asset whose time has been and gone. Just the threa will likely spur attempts to build alternatives, such as through Nicaragua
or (perhaps less likely to be intimidated by threat of invasion), through Mexico's Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (CIIT). This is a much cheaper option (US $7.5 billion), by rather than building a canal that dries up, instead building rail links to transport cargo containers across this narrow point of Mexico.
There’s a nice sort of symmetry with our own Suez adventure here.
Panama = Suez Greenland = the Falklands
Both spelled disaster for the invading government.
I find it staggering that the Tory administration of 2010-2015 was so unprepared for all this.
Not only was Trump already in view in 2015 when the Referendum was called, but its campaign.was conducted in tandem with Trumpites. Now not only does Trump want to remove the last vestiges of British and French influence in North America and occupy an EU nation, but his sidekick also wants to take.more immediate control over Britain itself. It was the biggest British strategic blunder in 75 years.
I think we'll all chuckle if we hear Trump described as an 'isolationist' again. He's surely planning the greatest land conquests in US history.
Texas? Louisiana Purchase?
Canada, Panama, Greenland
and now a hint at the UK by his sidekick and he has mentioned invading Mexico not that long ago.
And he isn't in office yet. I think that wins on both area and population.
Look out Australia I think he is after you next.
Off course it will all come to nought. I expect his presidency will be a shambles of infighting, lots of noise and nothing will actually happen. I hope so anyway.
Is there any chance we can persuade him to take NI off our hands? “Our” in this context is probably the UK and the RoI….
Take Scotland pretty please
So Trumpian ownership is preferable to English ownership. I thought you were an advocate of independence rather than "a new boss who is the same as the old boss".
Independence would be best option, but being 51st state would be better than being in UK in my humble opinion.
Interesting. I thought you would be more pro-european than u.s.
I assume our Malc already has private health insurance.
I do indeed and Dental
What passes for health insurance in the U.K. is nearly always a long, long way from US insurance.
Bet yours doesn’t cover serious, long term hospital stays.
Not aware of any limits on it, obviously there will be some but and any time used they have always paid up no issues
"Indefinite industrial action is to be taken by thousands of civil servants working at the Land Registry in a dispute over office attendance.
Around 4,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) based in 14 offices across England and Wales will take part in the action from 21 January.
The PCS is also campaigning for a four-day week for workers at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government."
@taz just what you expect when Labour in power, they expect it will be rubber stamped. What a joke they could sack them all and no-one would ever notice a difference.
I fear we're heading for a pretty nasty sovereign debt crisis despite 3x cover on 5y bonds sold today. The government is going to have to get real about the national finances and cut spending.
The problem is what can be cut?
For example as my post above shows local government is social care with other items optionally on top.
Headcount.
If people in local govt can do the same work in 80% of the time,as they claim, then cull 20% of the workforce or give them 4 day weeks and cut their wages proportionally.
Comments
Mind you it would be nice if they updated the register to reflect that Twin A has owned her house since May and the council charge has been settled
Though no doubt considerably quicker to fraudulently claim and transfer ownership
'Went' to an interesting Zoom on Weird Geology this morning; all sorts of odd geological features.
On topic, until the mid-fifties a small town in the this area had in it's centre a collection of 14th, 15th, 16th and 19th buildings. One of them, quite a large one, burned down. To be fair it wasn't in good repair.
It was replaced with a horrible Stalinist/Brutalist block of five shops with flats over. Looks wildly out of place. Local folklore has it that architecture and planning students are brought to the town to be shown what NOT to do.
Basically, capitalism largely works. Statism largely does not. Anyone who thinks that trains, or anything else for that matter, will be better run by a civil servant than by a business person is fundamentally stupid.
CDU/CSU 29%
AfD 21%
SPD 16%
Green 14%
BSW 6%
FDP 5%
Left 3%
Others 6%
https://www.wahlrecht.de/umfragen/
If someone cares to work out exactly what they need to know I will add it to a FoI request as I doubt any of it is identifiable
I suspect Billingham town Centre will be an interesting argument this year - it’s classic 60s and still functional in ways that other examplessuch as Newton Aycliffe aren’t (Aycliffe town Centre is too big nowadays).
Will have a hunt for odds.
I said why should we take your word for it over Max. Something you have failed to answer.
I am not offering an opinion either way because I do not know. But it is something I am interested in due to the impact, or potential impact, and I am retiring shortly.
If you have nurses on in-work benefits or food banks, the taxpayer is paying indirectly through payments from the DWP or from grants from Local Authority Rates. Also it drives directly employed nurses to become agency nurses at much higher cost to the Trusts. Just have a look at the Annual Accounts of your local NHS Trust as to the amounts paid out in Agency fees. Yes the 'sainted' NHS is expensive but it could be less expensive if it were not a plaything of ignorant politicians pandering to their particular niche voters.
If you think health costs, then try existing on the amounts paid out for those on ill-health.
NEW THREAD
I’ll invest…
"Where possible, we will restore ownership to the original owner, but in cases where the original owner was not living in the property at the time of the fraudulent sale (perhaps because they were renting it out), and an innocent party has purchased and then occupied the property in good faith, it is more likely we will allow the current occupier to continue to live in their new home and to offer financial compensation to the original owner”.
I already knew aboiut the problem I had because there was some need for maintenance of the party boundary wall and did some DIY research to add to my family history styff. In the end I just paid a little extra for the other side to be quietly mended as well so it didn't fall down and cost a lot more ... but if I were moving into that house, I'd be looking at that much more actively and lawyered up.
Here is an explanation that even people in the public sector might understand:
Imagine you are the Principal of a Higher Education College. It isn't very well paid, but you get by, and you love the work even though it is often challenging. The buildings and the grounds are worth a lot of money, but you don't intend to sell them even though some of the governors would like you to. The HE college has been around for 100 years, but all of a sudden a new government comes in and says that whether the property that is used for the college is sold or otherwise, there will be a tax every time there is a change of the Principal.
"But we don't have any spare cash" says the Principal
"Sell some of the buildings" says the heartless minister. In fact sell 20% of them. You can afford it."
"But then we will have to have 20% less students!"
"Tough, just get on and sell. The college is rich enough in terms of assets"
Now the college now has 20% less students. 20% less income and subsequently closes.
This is the reality for a large number of family farms and family businesses. These businesses are asset rich but income poor. It is not difficult for a farm to have assets over 3M, anymore than it would be for an HE college.
As @malcolmg said, if a farmer sells their assets and realises this value, then they would and should pay CGT, but not simply for continuing to farm it.
I guess even the non Scottish “nationalist” might be questioning why the wise oversight of Westminster has resulted in an energy rich nation having highest power bills in the UK which in turn has the highest energy bills in Europe.