Scottish Government must not mimic UK changes in bid to solve homes crisis

Wednesday’s budget announced a package of stamp duty relief for first-time buyers south of the Border on properties of up to nearly half a million pounds. Apart from the fact a first-time buyer buying such a property can hardly be regarded as suffering the sort of hardship that would merit a tax break, such a relief would be very quickly capitalised into the selling price, much as the Mortgage Interest Relief at Source tax relief was.

As a result, the net effect of this giveaway, far from helping the first-time buyer, will only push up the price of property and result in a windfall to the seller. It will do little or nothing to solve the housing crisis and we would urge the Scottish Government not to try to mimic Westminster merely to avoid the criticism of the fairly well-to-do.

The problem of the housing shortage is no more or less than a lack of supply and we believe that rather than considering a reduction in Land and Buildings Transfer Tax the Scottish Government should focus on a programme of council house building and any available resources should be directed to this aim rather than a stunt designed to make it seem as if the problem can be addressed by purely fiscal measures. We must not allow ourselves to have our policies dictated by comparisons with what happens south of the Border. We have different priorities and we should address them differently.

JOHN MILLER Scottish Socialist Party

Renfrewshire Branch Gleniffer Court, Paisley

The ink has barely settled on Philip ham mon d’ s budget and already the wheels are falling off. The Office for Budget Responsibility has warned that the abolition of stamp duty for first time-buyers on houses over £300,000 will push up prices. This will benefit those who already own homes. According to political economist Professor Richard Murphy, the £3 billion could have been used to build 40,000 socially rented houses

The Scottish block grant faces a real-terms cut of £293 million. The Chancellor finally relented and abolished VAT on Police scotland and the ambulance services. He then credited this to the 13 new Tory MPS. This must be the first time in history that a government policy has been changed and the alleged architects of it had not spoken up for it a single time in Parliament.

The Scottish budget has been cut since 2010. The Scottish resource budget is 5 per cent lower than it was in 2010 and capital spending is down 12 per cent for the same time period. Wages have suffered a decade of stagnation. The drop in living standards is 10.8 per cent. Only Greece has seen anything comparable. All of this will be small change compared to the economic tsunami of Brexit that is coming.

The Budget again shows the power of propaganda over reality. The UK is afflicted with false news, because false news is the way the ruling oligarchy controls the explanations given to the public. The public must be kept in the dark about their exploitation, or they might revolt against the handful that rule them.

Essentially, the City, the Tories and New Labour have deindustrialised the country. They have destroyed the ladders of upward mobility. The Budget is merely a propaganda statement on behalf of the oligarchy.

ALAN HINNRICHS Gillespie Terrace, Dundee

There is a widely held view that the current housing crisis results from a failure to build enough new houses, causing a restricted supply and inflated prices.

Increase the supply of houses, so the theory goes, and housing will inevitably become more affordable, so build, build, build. It is a view shared by organisations as diverse as Shelter, the Town and Country Planning Association, Policy Exchange, and Generation Rent. However, not everyone shares that view.

In an article last year in The Land, an occasional magazine covering issues relating to land rights, rural life, agriculture, sustainable development and land access, Tom Chance, Anne Chapman and Maya de Souza explained why building more houses is not the answer to tackling our housing crisis.

I cannot explain all their reasoning here but their solution includes making better use of housing stock, rent control (removed by the Thatcher government in the 1980s), alternative investment options, property and wealth taxes, deterring foreign investors, rebalancing regional economies, credit control and providing more affordable homes. Are they right?

STEUART CAMPBELL Dovecot Loan, Edinburgh

Women born in the 1950s who are suffering disproportionately as a result of pension age equality were deafened by the silence of the chancellor on the issue of their state pensions.

It is a massive issue for thousands of women and an issue which has cross-party support for mitigating measures, yet one the Chancellor did not see fit to mention.

However, SNP parliamentary leader Ian Blackford, in his reply to the budget, gave mention as he illustrated the plight of those women, in that for every one month in age, those women are having three months added to their pension age – an outrage.

Mr Blackford gave those women some hope in that a private member’s bill is forthcoming on this matter and with cross party support, the Chancellor may have to re-calculate his budget! CATRIONA C CLARK

Hawthorn Drive Banknock, Falkirk