UK News

What did you think of the Budget?

Chancellor Alistair Darling has made his second annual Budget speech to parliament. Among the measures announced to the House were an increase in petrol duty of 2p per litre in September and a 2 percent increase in alcohol and tobacco duties from tonight.

Darling also announced a scrappage scheme offering £2,000 to people trading in cars older than 10 years for a newer vehicle. From next April there will be a new top tax rate of 50 percent for those earning more than 150,000 pounds a year.

Meanwhile, the annual limit on individual savings accounts has been raised to 10,200 pounds and the Stamp Duty holiday on properties sold for less than 175,000 was extended until the end of the year. There was also money for wind farms and an extra 1 billion pounds to help homeowners and the construction industry.

Darling also forecast that the UK economy will shrink by 3.5 percent in 2009, saying “No country could insulate itself from the world downturn.”

David Cameron, leader of the opposition Conservative party, said: “He is planning to borrow 348 billion pounds over the next two years, that is more — over just two years — than every previous government put together, not just every government since World War Two … but since the Bank of England was first founded more than 300 years ago. This budget does not do enough to bring the public finances under control.”

What did you make of the Chancellor’s Budget speech? Will you benefit from any of the measures? What are your thoughts on the increase in fuel, alcohol and tobacco duties? Do you think the scrappage scheme and new tax rate are a good idea? Finally, do you think it will have a positive effect on the UK economy?

Web round-up: the ups and downs of investment ISAs

With ISA season coming to an end in less than a month, investors need to act sooner rather than later to make the most of the tax-free benefits on offer. You can not carry your annual allowance of 7,200 pounds into the next tax year, so it is a simple case of ‘use it or lose it’.

But with interest rates plummeting to an all time low, returns on cash individual savings accounts are miserly. So are stocks and shares ISAs a better home for your money? Financial experts certainly seem to think so – and so it would appear do investors.

A report by Barclays Stockbrokers says that the Bank of England’s decision to cut interest rates to 0.5 percent has led to a change in outlook for savers, with 63 percent saying that equities will provide the best returns this year. Of those planning to invest in a stocks and share ISAs in the 2009 tax year, 74 percent say they intend to maintain the same level of investment as 2008 and 20 percent plan to increase their investment.

Barbara-Ann King, Head of Investment Strategy at Barclays Stockbrokers said the report shows that “cash is no longer king.”

Dan Clayden, independent financial adviser from Clayden Associates, agrees: “The FTSE is around 40 percent down on its peak, so to me the equities market looks very appealing.”

Meanwhile, Tamsin Brown on whatinvestment.co.uk writes that investors looking to gain any serious returns from their ISA allowance will have to move out of their comfort zone. “Those looking to invest in a cash ISA at the moment will be lucky to find one offering much above the rate of inflation. Therefore, ISA investors seeking tax-free income this year have to be prepared to take on a little risk if they want their yield to do more than just keep up with the increase in the cost of living.”

However, Jennifer Hill at timesonline.co.uk writes that investors should be wary of the pitfalls. “Supposed ‘safe havens’ are not as low risk as they might seem. Money is pouring into corporate bond and equity-income funds, which can both be held within a stocks and shares ISA, since some are yielding up to 10 percent against an average of only 1.99 percent for cash ISAs. However, advisers said many savers may not appreciate the risks.”

Consumers go it alone as storm clouds gather

The dust has settled on Alistair Darling’s first Budget and consumers have been given little reason for celebration. The Chancellor, though announcing various measures designed to increase housing affordability, has done nothing to help the masses.

There were no moves to give a helping hand to hard-pressed householders, already struggling amid rocketing mortgage, food, fuel and tax costs, to ride out an impending recession. Darling did pledge to introduce a savings scheme targeted at low and moderate earners, often least able to save: the “saving gateway” will attract government matching for savings over the duration of people’s participation in the scheme. This has the potential to introduce up to eight million people into mainstream savings in the UK who otherwise might not make thrift a priority.

But the level of take-up of such a scheme, amid record personal debt levels and huge pressure on people’s purse-strings, is debatable. Other such government schemes to encourage the nation to save have hardly been a runaway success: think stakeholder pensions and child-trust funds (CTF). One fifth of parents currently let their CTF expire — the government can’t even give money away.

Individual savings accounts (ISAs), on the other hand, have flourished. They are one of the government’s true success stories. More than one in three adults hold an ISA and almost 215 billion pounds has been invested — making them far more popular than other savings initiatives.

Yet, the limits that savers can squirrel away into these tax-efficient vehicles have sorely failed to keep pace with inflation. The allowance will increase to 7,200 pounds from 7,000 pounds (3,600 pounds of which can be held in cash, up from 3,000 pounds) in the coming tax year — but that means the total threshold has risen by less than 3 percent since the accounts were introduced almost a decade ago. “Failing to increase ISA allowances further is a poke in the eye of savers who need encouragement to put away money,” says David Kuo, head of personal finance at Fool.co.uk.

Other changes to the ISA regime mean people will be able to switch cash holdings into stocks and shares — but the reverse will not be possible. And, once the switch has been made, there’s no turning back. The new rules raise the spectre of “another ghastly financial scandal”, according to Cliff Husband, research director at AWD Chase de Vere. “People could switch their ISA cash savings into investments unaware that they can’t switch back. This looks like another poorly delivered initiative from the government; it would be far fairer to all taxpayers if the switch between cash and investment within an ISA could be easily reversed.”

On pensions, too, there is little to encourage saving. While scrapping the 10 pence income tax rate and reducing the basic rate by 2 pence has done next to nothing to increase people’s take home pay, it has reduced the amount of tax relief they’ll get on their pension savings. The Chancellor has maintain higher level tax relief on gifts to charities, so why not for pensions?