Lynne
House prices may well have a big correction if interest rates go up. And it'll be due to all those defaulting on their mortgages because their salaries won't have kept up with the cost of living!
http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/Housing-prices-set-rocket-7-2014/story-20337829-detail/story.html
Or inflation may rise and so could interest rates. Either one could easily eat up any monies gained from tax cuts. And tax cuts do not necessarily mean an increase in disposable income - if, for example, an increase in income results in a drop in Housing Benefit/Tax credit entitlement.
Yes Paul I agree the ONS is independent. Did you note the opening paragraphs of that Huffintong Post link I gave? Here they are: "British workers are still seeing their wages eaten into by soaring inflation as the latest figures showed salaries increased by 0.9% over the last year, while inflation rose by 2%, over double the amount. The latest news from the Office for National Statistics ...
@burneside - re mortgages. I was quoting from Mel Stride's (Conservative MP) column in the Dawlish Gazette. And whilst I agree with you about savers losing out (I'm a saver you see) I agree even more with what Verbatim has written. Wages are rising slower than prices. Wages rising at 0.9%. Inflation is at 2.00%. (source: Channel 4 news) ...
Mortgages: apparently just a 1% rise in the interest rate would result in an extra £1,000 a year outlay for the average household.
Hmm......well now, here's the thing. If the unemployment rate keeps dropping (howsoever that drop is arrived at............) then at some point the Bank of England is gonna have to raise interest rates (or find some reason for readjusting the % unemployment rate before an interest rate rise is triggered) given as its Governor has said interest rates will rise only when unemployment falls to ...
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/cost-living-crisis-82-britons-no-better-off-despite-uk-recovery-1433076
I agree with you about issues that were once controversial becoming less so or even indeed not so at all over the passage of time, but surely it is only by looking at the past and the disagreements found there that we can judge what progress (or not) has been made.
@Stephen - Anne Marie Morris is the MP for Newton Abbot. The name of the constituency got changed from Teignbridge to Newton Abbot (as did the boundaries a little) for the last general election. Does that help?
