Darling’s stamp duty cut will do nothing to help Runnymede families

Thank you very much to my friend Paul Bristow over at Hammersmith and Fulham for drawing my attention to the government’s Land Registry Database.

Alasdair Darling’s announcement that first-time buyers are to be exempt from stamp duty on properties valued at less than £175,000 for the next twelve months will, Paul says, benefit only two families per month in Hammersmith and Fulham.

The effect on first-time buyers in Surrey, another area with extremely high house prices, will be similarly small.

Here’s why:

The average price for a flat or maisonette in the county is just a shade under £200,000. For a terraced house, the average price rises to exactly £250,000. The average cost of all property in the county stands at around £320,000 – £145,000 above the exempt level.

The majority of those buying flats and maisonettes, the most likely type of properties to fall under the £175,000 level, are either single or couples. The average cost of a two-bedroom house in Englefield Green – ideal, say, for a young couple who have just had their first child – is £283,723.

I’ll end by quoting Paul: “[the Chancellor's announcement] is pure window dressing and it will have zero impact in our neighbourhood”.

Shadow Chancellor George Osborne has already announced that an incoming Conservative government will raise the stamp duty threshold to £250,000.

Need more proof we’re in a recession?

According to the front page of The Times yesterday “just 63,225 new cars” were sold last month, making for the “worst figures since 1966”. Manufacturers have warned that job losses and plant closures may lie ahead.

In Runnymede, we’re also feeling the pinch.

According to the ’Corporate and Business Services Financial Monitoring Statement’ presented to the Corporate Management committee on Thursday, the £127,000 we could have expected to have earned as a result of local land charges at this point in the financial year has, to date, only amounted to £77,000 in the period ending July 31st – a shortfall of £50,000.

Need more proof we’re in a recession?

Supporting local charities and volunteers

There’s moments you really do feel proud to be a councillor and last night was certainly one of them.

At a meeting of the Corporate Management committee I was delighted to have the opportunity, as the Vice-Chairman of the committee, to move the recommendation approving the Council’s ‘Community Services Core Grant’ for the 2009 to 2014 period.

A package of funding totaling £264,200 was unanimously approved by the committee, with the following charities benefiting:

Age Concern Runnymede – £ 99,100
Citizens Advice Bureau – £78,700
Runnymede Association of Voluntary Services – £ 31,000
Runnymede Mental Health Association – £ 25,500
Runnymede Care Assistant Scheme – £ 12,600
Runnymede Rentstart – £8,600
Relate – £6,000
Runnymede Community Forum – £1,000
Surrey Community Action – £1,000
Surrey Community Development Unit – £700

The work of these charities in our local community cannot be underestimated. Without wanting to leave out any particular group, let me give you two examples these groups do in Runnymede.

The £12,600 in funding provided to the Runnymede Care Assistance Scheme, which enables carers to have a much needed break from caring for frail elderly relatives, people with Alzheimer’s and dementia, children with special needs and adults with learning disabilities, has facilitated a total of 10,652 hours of care in the community in the past year at a ‘cost’ to the Council taxpayer of around £1.20 per hour. Having seen the pressures upon my grandmother of caring for my great-grandmother in the years before she passed away, the importance of such life-lines is impossible to explain.

The Citizens’ Advice Bureau, who were granted £78,700 in funding, have helped residents solve more than 11,000 in the past year, providing advice on welfare benefits, relationship breakdown, employment, consumer rights and housing and legal advice. In total, the CAB has generated more than 30,000 hours of volunteer hours in the Borough over the past three years with residents being able to access in excess of £700,000 in welfare benefit applications, debt write offs, court action being avoided, charitable payments and a variety of other financial gains as a result of their work.

Whilst the Council is facing significant financial burdens in the years ahead, the committee voted for grants to be provided for a fixed five year period in order to guarantee charities in the Borough financial security in the years ahead.

I’m delighted that some of the representatives of the charities receiving grants from the Council were present in the public gallery to hear the generous words councillors had for the work they do in the community.

The 136th happiest place to live

After a “blogging holiday” during the political graveyard that is August, I will now return to blogging on a regular basis. Welcome back…!

According to research presented at the annual conference of the Royal Geographical Society and the Institute of British Geographers, Runnymede is the 136th happiest place to live in the United Kingdom out of 273 areas and (jointly with Spelthorne), the happiest in Surrey.

The Survey put the following questions asking people to grade their answers to the following questions on the basis of “better than usual”, “same as usual”, “less than usual” and “much less than usual.

1. Been able to concentrate on whatever you are doing?
2. Lost much sleep over worry?
3. Felt that you are playing a useful part in things?
4. Felt capable of making decisions about things?
5. Felt constantly under strain?
6. Felt you could not overcome your difficulties?
7. Been able to enjoy your normal day-today activities?
8. Been able to face up to your problems?
9. Been feeling unhappy and depressed?
10. Been losing confidence in yourself?
11. Been thinking of yourself as a worthless person?
12. Been feeling reasonably happy all things considered?

The most cheerful places? Powys, Manchester, West Lothian, Cumbernauld, Kilsyth, Monklands and Macclesfield.

The least cheerful places? Edinburgh, Cynon Valley, Rhondda, Amber Valley, North East Derbyshire, Clydesdale, Cumnock, Doon Valley, Kyle, Carrick and Swansea.

Happiness is hugely subjective, so I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions from the survey. It does appear, however, that the connection between wealth and happiness is, at best, a tenuous one with the top hundred ‘happiest places’ including both very wealthy and poorer areas.

A PDF of the full rankings can be download by clicking here.