8 hours ago, lol-lol said:

Happy to pay a fair share and am proud to be British with a Free at point of need NHS, a not too bad road network and numerous other niceties living in the UK.

The two NI cuts the Conservatives made last year were so wrong giving most money to the already well off.

Wonder how the Heat Pump grant is being taken up as that is much bigger by comparison at £7500.

The real test would have been, take away the cheapness of being able to charge at home, overnight at great savings, and tax incentives for companies etc, would there be anywhere near as many EV's on the road today?

Strange, but you ask about heat pumps, I watched a video last night about that very topic, and an expert about heat pumps said that they were going so good, even with the massive grant, the cost of purchase and installation was still a considerable factor against them and I recall he was saying that the running cost was not that much cheaper, so there were little incentives for their uptake.

@lol-lol The Tax man will be having a nice amount off you once you get that State Pension & your Personal Pension.

They take from those with just a small personal pension.

Andrew Mountbatten Windsor will be getting the £230 a week from next February and he has his Naval Pension and as well to be getting taxed, and if there is justice in the world there might be more money they find that needs taxing.

5 minutes ago, Graham Butcher said:

The real test would have been, take away the cheapness of being able to charge at home, overnight at great savings, and tax incentives for companies etc, would there be anywhere near as many EV's on the road today?

Strange, but you ask about heat pumps, I watched a video last night about that very topic, and an expert about heat pumps said that they were going so good, even with the massive grant, the cost of purchase and installation was still a considerable factor against them and I recall he was saying that the running cost was not that much cheaper, so there were little incentives for their uptake.

Putting the vat off electricity supply and putting it on gas might give heag pumps a bit of a boost.

The technology is changing by the month and the need for large water tanks and legionnaire cycles seems to be sorted now.

Surprised a immersion element is not standard as to whack that on during the very cheap nighttime period sounds obvious to me.

Lots of so called heating engineers just get it very wrong it seems ie radiator sizes, pipe bore sizes. Brother has a heat pump house, no gas in his little cambirdeshire village. Not perfect and install an the setup not perfect. Has a seperate room for all the gubbins which it sounds like today would not be all needed.

13 minutes ago, Graham Butcher said:

The real test would have been, take away the cheapness of being able to charge at home, overnight at great savings, and tax incentives for companies etc, would there be anywhere near as many EV's on the road today?

Strange, but you ask about heat pumps, I watched a video last night about that very topic, and an expert about heat pumps said that they were going so good, even with the massive grant, the cost of purchase and installation was still a considerable factor against them and I recall he was saying that the running cost was not that much cheaper, so there were little incentives for their uptake.

Emerging tech that is beneficial to everyone always needs a helping hand to speed up bridging the gap from early adopters to mainstream.

Look at solar, it doesn't need any subsidies now. FIT helped the industry to mature and now it is cheapest form of energy generation.

If you really want the truth, write to your politicians to stop giving fossil fuels some of those $7 TRILLION subsidies:

https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2023/08/24/fossil-fuel-subsidies-surged-to-record-7-trillion

@wyx087 I still keep getting emails saying that I may be entitled to assistance in getting solar panels so maybe there is some assistance given towards having panels installed?

26 minutes ago, Evolution13 said:

@lol-lol The Tax man will be having a nice amount off you once you get that State Pension & your Personal Pension.

They take from those with just a small personal pension.

Andrew Mountbatten Windsor will be getting the £230 a week from next February and he has his Naval Pension and as well to be getting taxed, and if there is justice in the world there might be more money they find that needs taxing.

To pay tax is a privilege knowing one is still paying in and helping maintain the fabric of society.

^^^ Hoorah. Love it, the very person that has spent decades trying to reduce their personal taxes & boasting about it.

When people have more than enough and can pay more after a life of working towards managing when retired then great, they can carry on carrying on paying taxes.

2 minutes ago, Evolution13 said:

^^^ Hoorah. Love it, the very person that has spent decades trying to reduce their personal taxes & boasting about it.

When people have more than enough and can pay more after a life of working towards managing when retired then great, they can carry on carrying on paying taxes.

I have always worked and paid taxes due. Con party introduced salary sacrifice and encouraged companies and individuals to do so. It massively gives governments a massive market for the Gilts the need to sell to provide benefits like your state pension and disability benefits etc.

My company only adopted salary sacrifice about ten years ago or so. Before than I raised millions in tax assessments from those who were not paying their taxes and in other jobs, pwc and tax software, tje aim is always to be legally tax compliant eleven when using bonded warehouses, inward processing relief etc, all EU and now UK tax suspension schemes which promote uk jobs.

My conscious is clear and I have never sponged off the system but happy to help those less fortunate physically or less blessed with smarts. Life deals one a hand and one can be lucky or unlucky and one plays ones hand the best one can for oneself, ones loved ones and the society one lives in.

Edited 7 November, 20257 Nov by lol-lol

24 minutes ago, Graham Butcher said:

@wyx087 I still keep getting emails saying that I may be entitled to assistance in getting solar panels so maybe there is some assistance given towards having panels installed?

If you are interested or want the truth from this, it's worth look into those adverts?

They are most likely spam, and wrap solar package in a very high APR loan.

As far as I know, there is no longer any government support on solar. The only support was feed in tariff (FIT) that ended about 9-10 years ago. The smart export guarantee (SEG) payments are entirely market driven and paid by energy supplier.

edit: I'm speaking for available-to-all and in England. I've not looked into means-tested solar assistances.

Edited 7 November, 20257 Nov by wyx087

@lol-lol Now there is the Champagne Socialists in Government and they couldn't care a jot about the least well off or in need.

There are the donors and sponsors to get payback for the clothes, glasses, accommodation & holiday accommodation etc that went to those in the cabinet and front bench.

PS.

Cabinet Ministers and others in Parliament seem to 'Forget or fail to know about taxes or Council Taxes they might be due to pay'. That's what comes from not paying attention to your Local Council, or maybe having various properties in areas or towns that are not your constituency.

No idea why when they get a Grace & Favour home their rental income profits for another property they have does not go to The Treasury after Fair Wear and tear and overheads, legal costs.

Edited 7 November, 20257 Nov by Evolution13

Remember when a Politician in England says This Country, that might be England only and not all regions / countries in the UK.

2 minutes ago, Evolution13 said:

@lol-lol Now there is the Champagne Socialists in Government and they couldn't care a jot about the least well off or in need.

There are the donors and sponsors to get payback for the cloths, glasses, accommodation etc that went to those in the cabinet and front bench.

I hope that is not true for most Labour MPs.

It is very difficult to keep grounded if one is a high flying lawyer with a charge out rate in the thousands per day and then dealing with affairs of state national and international dealing with billions of pounds and vagaries of dealing with Trump etc makes the whole thing surreal.

Hard to stay grounded in such rarified circumstances. Hope new Deputy leader and recent bielections like Caerphilly do keep their feet on the ground.

Edited 7 November, 20257 Nov by lol-lol

10 hours ago, lol-lol said:

proud to be British with a Free at point of need NHS, a not too bad road network and numerous other niceties living in the UK.

Can you please explain why on earth you consider the NHS something to be proud of?

And our road network is light years behind some countries.

8 minutes ago, Dieselgate said:

Can you please explain why on earth you consider the NHS something to be proud of?

And our road network is light years behind some countries.

It's creation in 1948 by Labour government was a phenomenal event.

What the nurses and doctors did during covid was also immense, it must be that hundreds lost their lives performing their duties caught covid and died.

NHS needs to be rebiult after 14 years of conservative bad management abd solving the pay issue after the staff gave been so devalued.

There are big structural issues but compared to so many countries that require private health care the UK is better off them some but we should be aiming to be where tge vest of other European countries are but that is going to cost and take some years to get there.

Roads have similar issues ie big under investment but tjere have been some notable big improvements. The A14 Huntington upgrade improved my journey time to Cambridge and Felixstowe by over quarter of an hour.

Too much population in the SE of England abd not enough biulding of towns etc in the Midlands. As with NHS it is going to takes years if not decades to go from good in places to good all over.

Really really when talking NHS & NHS in England that needs saying.

As to GB Energy. Now odd that is not UK Energy. It is 'The UK taking control of it's energy future.

(The United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland.)

Guys, this is slipping again into politics and although it did start to be about electric cars, it is getting off track now.

At least it is not just about how different or superior ICE vehicles were & still are.

Or, How the future might be brighter when technology gets even better than a £40,000 Passenger EV that can do 500 miles without recharging.

I do not see a Renault Twingo going 6 miles on a kWh which could be free or maybe just 6.7 pence.

Edited 7 November, 20257 Nov by Evolution13

1 hour ago, lol-lol said:

I hope that is not true for most Labour MPs.

Don't talk daft - you've seen the list of those on the take that includes many Labour MPs - especially those at the highest levels...

6 minutes ago, skomaz said:

Don't talk daft - you've seen the list of those on the take that includes many Labour MPs - especially those at the highest levels...

Please provide specifics or withdraw the statement

1 hour ago, lol-lol said:

Please provide specifics or withdraw the statement

https://members.parliament.uk/members/commons/interests/publications?SessionId=39

Feel free to review the above

6 hours ago, lol-lol said:

Were hoping for 0% on home electricity, maybe 5% for public charger VAT and perhaps VAT on gas to go to 20% or perhaps an intermediate figure like 8% or 10% or 12.5 % or 15% or 17.5%, all figures that have been used for VAT in the past in the UK.

Why would you want to put 20% VAT on gas?

5 hours ago, Dieselgate said:

Can you please explain why on earth you consider the NHS something to be proud of?

And our road network is light years behind some countries.

Try living in the USA and then get seriously ill.

4 hours ago, moley said:

Why would you want to put 20% VAT on gas?

It's probably about closing the "spark gap"

https://www.lowcarbonhub.org/p/spark-gap/

But I personally think closing the spark gap should be about re-structure wholesale electricity bidding backend, ensure electricity price isn't tied to gas price, rather than making an essential energy source unaffordable.

5 hours ago, moley said:

Why would you want to put 20% VAT on gas?

Not 20%, start eith raising just by just 1% and then 1% more each year to nudge people in to moving to heat pumps.

Winter fuel allowance should increase accordingly.

Edited 8 November, 20258 Nov by lol-lol

15 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

Not 20%, start eith raising just by just 1% abd then 1% more each year to nudge people in to moving to heat pumps.

Winter fuel allowance should increase accordingly.

For as long as I can remember gas has always been promoted as the cheapest way to heat your home, from 'town' gas to the introducing of 'natural' gas in the early 70's. Around 85% of UK households use gas to heat their homes as it is still the cheapest option. Heat pumps are good when installed in a new well insulated home, but are not always practical in some older properties and the cost of a really good installation could be beyond many homeowners budgets.

Imposing a tax burden on energy prices would be political suicide.