Will Taxes Rocket in Britain?

[Andy]

Now Tony Blair is standing down and the tax-loving chancellor Gordon Brown is likely to take over, do you think taxes will shoot up?

Tidying the mess left behind by a parting prime minister is often a good excuse to up taxes. I don't think there is much scope for extra taxes, just higher rates of tax.

Also, Gordon delegated his decision making to the bank of England so does this mean that the bank will end up running the country or some management consultancy?

[12noon]

Now Tony Blair is standing down and the tax-loving chancellor Gordon Brown is likely to take over, do you think taxes will shoot up?

I don't think they will shoot up, but they will go up. Also it looks like home owners will lose out with the interest rates and the cost of repaying a mortgage.

[Andy]

Also it looks like home owners will lose out with the interest rates and the cost of repaying a mortgage.

Maybe if people offered less than the asking price for homes, the prices would fall and the mortgages would reduce in size? If everybody keeps being greedy and pushing prices up I think younger people will decide not to buy houses anymore and cause a collapse in the market. But I suspect that the growing divide between bad and good areas to live will widen keeping prices in the desireable areas high.

One solution may be to create desireable areas in inner cities by creating castle-like housing areas e.g. surrounded by a wall/moat? Maybe have tunnels leading to the motorways so people can avoid driving through the rough areas?

I was pleasantly suprised to learn that my bank has put up interest rates for savers to 5% this is very good news