Since the world+dog appears to be cutting my taxes at the moment, I thought I’d take the opportunity to put some numbers around it to see who’s making me richer and how much.
First up is Boris Johnson. I’m assuming for the sake of argument that he’ll freeze the Mayoral precept at current levels, that he won’t get any of my general taxation cash out of the government and I’m ignoring the effect of transport fares, which aren’t taxes. On the other hand, I’m ignoring things like beer duty rises which partly offset the VAT cut.
Now, assuming the 2% rise per year would have continued the Band D precept table looks like this:
Year 2% 0% Difference
2008/09 309.82 309.82
2009/10 316.02 309.82 6.20
2010/11 322.34 309.82 12.52
2011/12 328.78 309.82 18.96
2012/13 335.36 309.82 25.54
Total difference after four years: £63.22.
Now for Alistair Darling. We need an estimate of how much I spend a week in VAT, for which I go to Daniel Davies, who estimated that someone on minimum wage 40 hours a week who spends half their income on VAT liable goods is about £2 a week better off. Now, I’m not on minimum wage, but I’m not a big spender (having a kid, a lot of the money spent on him is VAT free, like clothes and food), so let’s say £3 a week better off. The VAT cut lasts 13 months, which is just over 56 weeks, and works out as nearly £170 better off.
So Alistair Darling is giving me £170 over the next 13 months. Boris Johnson, assuming he sticks to his freeze, is giving me £63 over four years.
Excuse me while I feel underwhelmed.
Tags: 6 Comments
6 responses so far ↓
Len Duvall takes a different, but similar approach:
Boris Johnson announced in September that Oyster Pay-as-you-go bus fares will rise by 11% in January 2009 from 90p to £1. A London couple travelling to and from work on the bus will therefore be paying around £48 extra a year each in fares.
The council tax precept freeze will save those living in a band D property 11p a week or £6 a year. An average London couple who gets the bus to and from work living in a band D property will therefore be £90 a week worse off under Boris Johnson.
http://www.labourmatters.com/london-assembly-labour/boris-scrooge-johnsons-fraud-on-londoners/
Poster #1 : You mean £90 per year, surely?
Yes, he does. Trust, but verify, eh?
In case anyone’s wondering, there’d have to be evidence of a secret profligate Livingstonian 5.5% precept rise every year to make Boris as generous as Alistair – the GLA suggests 3% this year, which would have been below inflation.
The main point that people amazingly seem to have spotted is that Boris is attempting to convince everyone that reducing costs for the well off while raising them for the rest of us is good for London. Hasn’t he noticed that he’s elected by PR, and not everyone who voted for him wants to drive a 4×4 in the WEZ? Scrapping the £25 charge and the WEZ will have no effect on my finances, freezing the precept will hardly be felt, but whacking 10p on the bus fare and 20p on the tube fare certainly will, and I’m not happy about it.
VAT cuts, on the other hand, do benefit the poor more, since VAT is regressive, so there is a problem for Boris in being demonstrably less generous to most Londoners in hard times than the rather unpopular government.
You are correct and I shall amend that. I didn’t write it however, that credit goes to London Assembly Labour!
Yes, I get their press releases, too, and pointed it out to them.