How To Fix The Broken UK Economy

[@stanisawfraczek1567]

I find your efforts underappreciated, you deserve 10 times subscriptions. You remind us of the basics of economic policy, which are almost non-existent in mainstream discussion. People tend to forget about those basics for some reason and someone must remind them. And you are doing this so efficiently, I'm amazed :D Your videos also brutally show how obscurant mainstream discussion in matters of the economy is. The economy as science is developing backward :( Your work is important, keep it up :D Thank you :D

[@newsoftheday420]

In 35 years since I have lived here, they have done nothing apart from make most of us poorer and more miserable. I doubt that is going to change now.

[@CosmosChill7649]

Thats not by accident. The socialism that lasted through the mid 20th century and brought in NHS, was largely due to the challenge posed by Hitler to the "then" ( and now ) world order Poorer people are easier to control and thats why the UK was kept poor until the middle of the 20th century

[@terryj50]

So you were poorer while the uk was in the eu. Funny every remainer has told me the uk was a utopia in the eu and we were all richer.

[@Anti-Peaceforce]

What do you expect when you voted thieves and liars into power.

[@mrantipatia1872]

​@@terryj50the UK has always wanted to do whatever it wanted. The EU is not a federation yet, unfortunately, moreover the UK had special privileges it won't EVER get back. Tell me how's going without the EU

[@giansideros]

​@@terryj50don't be ridiculous, it's well known that Thatherite conservative/rightwing politics has been driving this country into the ground since the 80s, leaving EU would only make managing the UK even more difficult with a poorer economy, rejoining the EU won't fix the fundamental conservative born problems that this video is highlighting but it wouldn't hurt to have more efficient trade with our neighbours and less bureaucracy to deal with in our economy to pay for rightwing kleptocracy and incompetence.

[@sijohnson5632]

I keep pausing to absorb every graph! Fascinating to see under the bonnet of what political parties are working with. Thank you

[@baronburch6702]

I t will never get better here so long as FPP is not replaced by Proportional representation, so long as there is an upper house that is not elected, so long as lobbying is permitted and so long as large sums may be donated to political parties.

[@xman7695]

The last two are alright or at least tolerable if done in moderation and regulated.

[@lukemclellan2141]

They already are regulated but look what happens..

[@xman7695]

@@lukemclellan2141 Then it's not regulated enough or has too many loopholes. It should at least be transparent who sends how much money and what their affiliations are.

[@georgesdelatour]

@@xman7695 There are cases where the actual texts of laws passed by parliaments have been shown to be directly copy-pasted from texts proposed in documents from billionaire-sponsored NGOs and other interest groups. I’m not sure this has happened in the UK yet, but I expect it has. Since the actual drafting of laws is often carried out by civil servants, this suggests the influence of NGOs goes beyond MPs. I think all new laws should be run through anti-plagiarism software to identify inserted text. If such inserted text is found, the exact route it took to get into government documents should be investigated.

[@xman7695]

@@georgesdelatour love that idea! xD It's sadly noticable that it's happening more often the higher you go (EU is a prime example for copy-paste in some cases).

[@socratesrocks1513]

They didn't say no to the students, they said no to them bringing their families because they don't leave when they finish their studies. This, unfortunately, stopped postgrads (who could have been a benefit), many of whom are married. Making an except for immediate family (spouse, children) as opposed to mum, dad and cousin Joe might work better, although iudentifying who is who may prove difficult. Building houses is good if our immigrant numbers continue to rise because while the fertility rate of native Brits has dropped below replacement level, that of the immigrants is still significantly above it, but if large numbers of aging natives are soon going to drop off the list, and those will not be replaced by the natives (80% of the population) you'll have loads of houses lying empty. That'll make it a buyer's market because there'll be so many available. It's surely not in the builders' interests to provide if they suspect there'll soon be a glut.

[@Nightzo]

Thanks for this video. It has been educational for me and has provided a well needed counter balance to the doom and gloom about the UK that we keep hearing about. I hope you'll be able to dive deeper into these ideas for improving the country in future videos. It would also be great if we get a trend going where people talk about ways to improve the country rather than complain about the current situation all the time. Who knows, a positive movement like this could encourage positive changes to take place in the real world

[@fortune-cookie-monster]

Some great ideas here! Hopefully MPs will watch this and start taking note. Whichever party is in power needs to do the exact opposite of the current Tory party because their policies have all but ruined the UK.

[@garyb455]

They have adapted Labour policies for the last 14 tears its why they are in a mess

[@seawavechau]

unfortunately, they knew how to keep people poorer by taking note of all the brilliant ideas here to ignore

[@stumac869]

New Labour continued with the Tory policies for four years after John Major and the country did well. Following that they adopted the same policies the Tories adopted from them post 2008 (when the country was bankrupted) and we've been a complete basket case. So agree we need to ditch everything New Labour introduced but it will take decades to fix the mess we're in.

[@dhominidhomini6019]

​@@stumac869 está falando de socialismo? Porque é uma péssima ideia.

[@dhominidhomini6019]

Eu sou a bosta de um brasileiro, mas estou lendo F.A Hayek, se leram o "caminho da servidão" vão entender o porque de que se o estado interferir na economia e na concorrência PRIVADA, irão criar um monopólio gerenciado pelo o estado que sabe Deus quem irá gerencia-lo poderá controlar a economia a sua maneira e não a do Povo

[@yazankereszturi923]

Excellent video!! Love the fact that you've suggested some solutions, even in what seems a very pessimistic environment (last few videos). Thank you!

[@mrmeldrew693]

Inward migration is the primary driver of rising housing costs and stagnation of wages. The money men at the top benefit from both, the average worker loses out from both.

[@ratttttyyy]

Inward migration is the primary driver of rising housing costs - this just isn't true and stokes more anti-immigrant nonsense

[@kennethvenezia4400]

All good ideas you have here, which is why you'd never be allowed to serve in government 🙀

[@randomrandomness8743]

You have to love the way the UK has limits on foreign students coming to the UK with money in their pockets but no limits on illegal immigration.

[@OldProGolf]

Excellent, Tejvan. Simple, common sense ideas that most can agree with. I would vote for any party that adopted these Centrist ideas. Only problem is, there is no Centrist party so common sense is not an option.

[@AlexColes-wn5jg]

A lot of this could be solved through controlling migration. As a business owner I can tell you first hand that we have the upper hand when it comes to bargaining power in a economy that has imported 1.2 Million people in 12 months alone. I also see the sadness where friends and family members are struggling to save for a house and far, far off from being able to afford to raise a family, again due to a small income. The whole economy and government is short sighted. We need proper planning and investment that starts with policy. Immigration at the current levels is destructive, it makes the housing issues worst and gives employers the incentive to pay as little as possible for migrants that are likely desperate to come here and work for far less than a local. The small wages hinders people making families and having children, it also causes a lot of young people to be on anti-depressants, it just damn right evil. Choosing to employ cheap workforce is also destructive for productivity as employers are not looking to invest to up-skill their workforce or find technology solutions when another body on min wage could achieve the same for less. The data backs it up where the UK has the 2nd lowest business investment in Europe, only marginally above Greece. This is math and requires a logical mind to fix it. Why not call it out for what it is? Government policies that contribute to serfdom and poverty for the benefit of riches of large corporations, whilst robbing a generation of future riches through their own greed.

[@anthonylulham3473]

People don't like to call it out because they get labelled as far right, where it is a left wing position that you are arguing from. Unions could be formed to pressure companies not to employ those migrated people and public sentiment could be turned as with the case of GREGGS not paying minimum wage to some of its employees. Really we are Luddites, calling for the machines to be broken, but they wont be as its too profitable for the business owners. And the Gov are in bed with the business owners. if the country had forsaken all migration from 1995 we would have a population size of approx 47 million people. we have a 'indexed' population size of 69 million people. The food and effluent industries estimate the numbers to be closer to 80 million. We would have no housing crisis, no NHS crisis, likely no road quality crisis. we would have an aging population crisis but we should be able to manage looking after granny and grandad within a family unit, like we did for hundreds of years as a species.

[@alexroc172]

Very much in agreement with you. The people of this country must be nurtured, cultivated, and given a stake in our society. Mass immigration has mostly negative effects on the population. Of course highly skilled people will always be welcome but many millions of low skill migrants make us all poorer.

[@jeremyallard7015]

Hi, you raise some very good points on your channel, when I was studying Business many Moons back, we were all taught about the importance of Solvency Ratios. This sort of practice by Government seems to have disappeared. The crazy thing is that if you work for a Government agency, they expect you to follow the ISO Rules and be careful with Tax Payers Money, yet they SQUANDER it. The Treasury Green Book Rules, which had to be followed, seem to have disappeared. I will be honest and say that when I knew what the budget was for a Big Ticket Item Purchase, I would Ring Fence it and obtain prices from at least 3 competitors as well as furnish a potential Supplier with a Quality Control Plan/Requirement, if necessary. Thank you again for your efforts.

[@lightman9614]

Does anyone else think scrapping right to buy is a good move? Councils have next to no incentive to build a larger stock at the moment

[@gordon1201]

Right to buy should never have gone forward. Thatcher totally fucked the country. She made housing an investment, so why is everyone surprised that housing is so expensive now?

[@InnuendoXP]

Right to buy wasn't a problem so long as the proceeds went into building new housing stock. Thatcher forbade this, as she intentionally wanted to end the welfare state & deplete the stock of social housing so private landlords wouldn't have to compete with it. The fact that right to buy in effect resulted in a huge transfer of state assets to the wealthy is a problem, that doesn't mean the idea is entirely without merit. Though maybe one solution would be classing all housing initially built to be social housing as a separate legal category of property which can only be owned by individuals and not companies for a start - and is VERY heavily taxed for non-occupant owners to disincentivise this kind of asset hoarding - where if people want to trade up or move on out, the property will be added back to the housing supply for the local area.

[@garyb455]

@@InnuendoXP Thatcher made many low paid people richer beyond their dreams with the right to buy

[@SGIQ7]

Right to buy is a terrible idea bourne out of ideology. If people want to buy a home, they should buy on the open market not take the limited housing stock owned by LA. Giving tenants a discount compounds this problem of housing shortage and is unfair. If you happen to be a LA tenant, you get a discounted house, if you are poor but not housed by LA , you get no discount. The houses sold end up in private rental sector and LA pay a higher rent to house their people. Economic madness. I hope Labour scraps the policy.

[@proffessorclueless]

I'm not sure that the rich and wealthy will allow us to steer away from a return to feudalism without a fight.

[@Ben-jq5oo]

We need to don our yellow shirts..

[@bridge_studio]

If only we had politicians like this chap.

[@stumac869]

It's easy to talk about investment but where does the money come from? Without the private sector that can only come from government which pushes up borrowing that's already close to 3 trillion with interest payments niw over 100 billion. Trade with Europe was stagnant prior to 2016 and it was already becoming proportionally smaller as a percentage of overall trade. Rejoining the single market will do little to increase trade and will tie us up in EU red tape. Europe is dying, particularly Germany and it's Asia and India where you'll see growth. The US can spend debt because they are the world reserve currency which is a special case and does not apply to the UK or Europe more widely. As for raising tax to pay for growth is opposite of what works, you can't spend your way out of debt. We've had 25 yeas of big government and debt and it's destroyed our economy and you recommend more of the same, seriously.

[@Godlike-87]

Agree with almost all of of this. We must be honest about where the resistance will come from, the lack of vision from Leadership, and the ingrained cultural attitudes to change, including 'unfamiliars'. The UK needs to abandon many aspects of liberalism. It also needs to let go of the less savoury aspects of its legacy. Drop the pride and learn some humility.

[@mrmeldrew693]

Ingrained cultural attitudes? You mean British culture that has developed over centuries? Plenty to be proud of here.

[@Godlike-87]

@@mrmeldrew693 The current state of Britain is reminiscent of a once-celebrated athlete who hasn't realized the game has evolved. Clinging to past glories, Britain finds itself in a nostalgic partnership with America, resembling a high school sweetheart whose best days are behind her. This stubborn adherence to historical achievements without adapting to the modern world's demands is a critical misstep. The lesson here is one of humility. Britain's refusal to evolve, despite the changing global landscape, is a stark reminder that past success doesn't guarantee future relevance. It's a call to action for adaptation and forward-thinking, emphasizing that resting on laurels is not just about lost prestige-it's about survival. Without embracing change and the humility to learn from the present, Britain risks becoming a cautionary tale of stagnation.

[@mrmeldrew693]

​@Godlike-87 evolution happens organically, to improve an organism. What the globalist neo-liberals have done is purposefully weaken the nation. Evolution takes a long time. The country is unrecognisable to how it was just thirty years ago, so we absolutely have changed with the modern world - has it changed for the better? The disregarding of the previous shared set of values and beliefs have turned us into a nation of atomised individuals who have zero interest in anything other than their own lives - hence the lack of community and wider decline you see everywhere.

[@Ben-jq5oo]

@@Godlike-87Spot on. I believe the restrictions imposed by the class system in addition to our slavish devotion to a royal family play key roles in preventing us from joining the modern world. It’s rather like Italy’s persistent reliance on tourism income all the while failing to modernise its bureaucracy and look outwards at the world.

[@akhusal]

There's at least 100,000 people in temporary accommodation this costs at least £1billion. A mortgage to buy and put each person in a house would be cheaper. Plus the gov would own an extra 100,000 council houses.

[@BigHenFor]

There's more like 300,000 homeless people in this country. Ask Shelter.

[@lukemclellan2141]

Temporary accommodation and homeless aren't the same thing.

[@manofkent4472]

the MPs mates don't make any money from council houses.

[@sirrobinofloxley7156]

You make it sound as if there's some political will for UK to prosper and thrive, which is very much not the plan at all.

[@gordon1201]

There's no will to improve anything. It's basically a rich persons playground where they can use us to make as much money as possible

[@LordBillington42]

Yep, every 'advancement' in technology or social development over the last 20 years has been a way to devalue labour and extract money and information from the average/poor while moving it into the hands of the rich/corporations. The question is, what use do we have when even the middle class has been eradicated and only 1-2% of the population own everything?

[@sirrobinofloxley7156]

@@gordon1201 You're using the criminals own definition of rich, they are rich in criminality, and they seem to have a sadistic kink out of being so callous and insidious. Obviously, that description is not exhaustive, but covers some major aspects of their megalomania.

[@saveandinvestwithgiorgiolo8375]

Increasing taxes further will only make Britain less competitive. Inheritance tax is already one of the highest in the world (even Sweden got rid of it). Wealth taxes do not work and dynamic economies do not have them. There is a reason that CGT is not the same as income tax. When you buy shares you are taking a risk and there is a potential downside (Risk/Reward). Britain already has the highest tax burden in living memory and history shows that when taxes were very high in the 1970s many wealth creators left the country and Britain became poor. Agree on the single market/customs union but in order for this to happen Britain would have to rejoin the EU and this will not happen for many years pehaps a generation.

[@ausriusdidziokas6771]

Wealth tax would reduce inequality and the money could be used to offset a lower tax for an employees earning an average salary of about £35,000 for example and the money could be used to invest. Whether it’s reforming council tax or introducing a top rate of income tax of 50% for employees earning over £200,000

[@bomberbolton]

Not sure if the United States economy should be the benchmark. They have been on life support via QE, overseas conflicts, sanctions and monopoly of the petrodollar for years.

[@saiyedakhtar3931]

Nonsense. Where did you get your degree at mcdonald's University? 😂 The US has ACTUAL production capacity. Look at the PPP numbers that adjust for the potential gains from the US advantage of having the reserve currency. However, the PPP figure is not perfect. It gives us some idea of actual industrial capacity.

[@bomberbolton]

@@saiyedakhtar3931 yes MacDonalds university, taught me all about the American dream. As far as I know the USA has been a net importer for decades. Debt running out of control, trillions being laundered through overseas conflicts… But yes you are right all is well nothing to see here

[@saiyedakhtar3931]

@bomberbolton If I studied economics, you know that the US is a net importer because it has a capital surplus abroad. So, it earns enough from investments abroad to close the deficit, which is getting smaller relative to the economy because of industries reshoring. Regarding the debt, over 70% is owned by US persons or the federal reserve. It's a meaningless figure as the US holds the reserve currency and, in real terms, is just a balancesheet figure. The US can borrow cheaply and reinvest at a higher return. I'm its own industries and has worked. Look at the UK and austerity. Cutting the budget is not always a clever move.

[@georgesdelatour]

What we can’t copy from the USA: 1) Super high borrowing. The USA has the world’s reserve currency. We don’t. 2) An inherent abundance in natural resources and farmland. What we can learn from the USA: 1)They still have a manufacturing base which we've largely lost. And they're deliberately trying to boost it by onshoring. Many studies show that manufacturing can achieve much higher productivity growth than services. So the UK's decision to be a services only economy is a decision to be a low growth, low productivity economy. Small economies like Ireland can be wealthy largely from services, but not an economy of 70+ million people like the UK. 2) Protecting and subsidising sunrise industries. The US does this largely through its giant defence budget. Its dominance in tech is largely a byproduct of the Star Wars program. We cannot do anything on a comparable scale to the US, but we need to lose our aversion to these types of policies.

[@saiyedakhtar3931]

@georgesdelatour agreed. The UK can't copy some aspects of US policy. The US holds the reserve currency and, therefore, can borrow at cheap rates to support policy decisions. It's a separate debate on whether it is fair or how long this will last, but it's safe to say the US is aware it can't last forever. Generally, this advantage will at least last for a couple of decades, and US policy is to take advantage now and onshore more industries so that in the future it won't need to take advantage of its reserve currency status. It also has the vast natural resources to support an expansion of its industrial base and be self-reliant on most of this ( current policy direction). The UK can not have the same extensive self-reliance of the US. However, the UK can take the approach of an extended "specialized" industrial base, where it manufactures key components to both Europe and the rest of the world and expands on the onshoring of strategic industries and important domestic industries to shield it from external shocks. It can emphasize reducing value-added imports and only import what it absolutely needs for its domestic manufacturing base.

[@marcuswalters8093]

6:56 Pah, haha! You should see what the standard of life is like in Poland. If people in the UK knew how bad they had it, there'd be a revolt.

[@mariog1051]

Can you elaborate? I'm honestly interested

[@miriamllamas224]

Years ago there was a wave of Polish immigrants to the UK. Then, those who were not tied up by a family, left.

[@peterbarkworth951]

Poland is pretty good nowadays. You can see your GP the same day or the next - not bad eh? Houses are about half the price of England, but wages are too. That's why Poles who can earn in the UK can return home after a few years and buy a flat or home cash. Now you see why they are so motivated. There are no Covid backlogs in their civil service unlike Britain. However, learning the language is difficult and foreigners should think about opening their own business unless they have very special skills. Polish firms tend to give jobs to Poles rather than foreign newcomer. Now that they have a new pro-EU government, however, could mean mass migration and Warsaw could be like London in ten yearsor so. Who know?.​@@mariog1051

[@georgesdelatour]

@@miriamllamas224 Many of the Polish workers in the UK were saving up to put down the deposit on a house back in Poland. Once they'd saved up enough, they went home. One things about Poland. The country was artificially impoverished by the devastation of World War Two and the subsequent 45-year imposition of Soviet Communism. But given its physical location - next to Germany in the heart of the North European Plain - you'd expect it to be pretty wealthy in European terms. It's super compatible with the German economy, and is in the right location to benefit from economies of scale and low transport costs. So it's simply getting back to where it would have been a long time ago, if not for Stalin and Brezhnev.

[@nicholarichards4803]

Brilliant video and some great solutions

[@jackiechan8840]

That trendline is obviously very optimistic. Can't be the 90's forever.

[@puppets.and.muppets]

they dont take into account the incentive to work (which was strong in the 1990s) who wants to work hard now for this corrupt shit show ?

[@arranf]

Because we need so many new houses, wouldn't the most efficient solution be to build an entire new city somewhere? Instead of just overstretching the services across the country, whole new services will be made for the new city. AI could be used to find the most efficient solution.

[@manofkent4472]

yes, maybe in Nigeria.

[@TheNobbynoonar]

A strategic, long term plan for cheap power generation that is UK owned and controlled (along with other strategic assets) A points and visa based immigration policy that supplies the employment market only were necessary. A serious renegotiation of our trading arrangements with the EU and the rest of the world. A department of trade that pushes UK exports. The reintroduction of grammar schools and technical colleges as well genuine government support for apprenticeships and scholarships in STEM fields. Financial incentives for manufacturing industries. A return to large scale social housing projects that are NOT allowed to be sold off. Governments to seriously look at how government (taxpayers) spending can be reduced back to 1990’s levels. The funding of large infrastructure programs that have been carefully planned and are of real benefit to the nation. A genuine drive to reduce long term unemployment and sickness.

[@georgesdelatour]

Excellent proposals.

[@Ben-jq5oo]

In addition I would add: Major investment in the NHS, particularly in mental health services for younger people. Complete overhaul of the prison system to focus on a rehabilitation model with intensive psychological and educational support (35% of male inmates are illiterate). In addition the implementation of drug scanners at all points of entry including for visitors and staff, with yard netting installed to prevent drone drops). The widespread establishment of community youth teams with stop and search powers, to deal with specifically with knife crime.

[@MarkCW]

I don't like the idea of a property tax of 0.4% on all property as it would impact the working and middle classes that own homes. I prefer a higher asset tax of 1% for wealthy individuals with net assets above £5M. That way it will provide more wealth equality in the UK. Particular focus should be made on farming, residential, commercial and industrial properties owned by offshore trusts and foreign nationals.

[@gasman6163]

I generally enjoy your presentations, but I can't agree on devolution of power. I live in Wales and we have the most incompetent people spending on hobbies and personal projects. For example tens of millions on cycle lanes, restricting the use of private cars and generally putting investors off. Rather than trying to force people out of cars they should invest in a transport system that encourages the use of public transport, but their view of the world fat to short term. Then there is the disastrous investment decisions like Cardiff Wales Airport, wasting millions on a Senedd rent rather than owning the building, buying a festival farm, introducing ridiculous recycling targets , a broken rail service, a halved bus service, bilingual education that turns out students that struggle to write essays in English and many more poor decisions. Devolution has allowed the tallest dwarfs to prosper rather than any real talent., they are an overblown parish council.

[@garyb455]

Labour Party is in full show, its what the UK will have soon

[@dazsaz]

Many good points thanks

[@PMMagro]

Housing is now an asset. The idea is to make sure exisiting assets keep and gain value, not build new wealth (just secure exisiting wealth).

[@Potatoman7]

A lot of the suggestions here are simply good common sense, pity our politicians don’t seem to have any.

[@extrude22]

You have a misunderstanding of the purpose of HS2. It is not simply a fast line to London, it frees up space on the existing network. You can’t fit any more trains into Manchester Piccadilly but every hour 5 trains to Birmingham and London depart. If those trains were on their own network then you could fit more local trains into the station.

[@ChrisLivingInYork]

You are spot on mate!

[@arranf]

So you're saying freeing up space on the existing network is so important that we should have spent £100 billion on it? I think there's 100 more cost effective things we could have done to help with that.

[@extrude22]

@@arranf cost effective things like what?

[@arranf]

@@extrude22 I'm sure rail experts could figure out how to have more trains on the same line with that kind of money. Or we could just accept that rail capacity isn't so important that we need to spend over £1428 per person on a train-line 99% of us will never use. The whole country could get free high speed internet for less than HS2 would have cost. Or subsidise buses.

[@extrude22]

@@arranf All of the serious rail experts say that HS2 is the cheapest, quickest and least disruptive option to create capacity. You might remember the West coast mainline upgrade. Started in 1999 and ended in 2010, it cost around £20 million in todays money and was extremely disruptive but the extra capacity the project created was used up before the project was even finished. And as HS2 creates capacity on the existing network it benefits people who will never use it.

[@MichaelJones-by9ng]

The way to get rid of long term sickness/benefits is to make these benefits harder to obtain as currently it’s far too easy to sit at home, collect a cheque for doing nothing and only being slightly worse off than if you had a job.

[@billfrehe6620]

How does this channel not get several 100K views per video???

[@kubhlaikhan2015]

Great to hear someone trying to make positive suggestions for a change. Pity I don't agree with a single one of them.

[@Fireclaws10]

This is an excellent video, pretty much everything here is awesome. The only thing I'd disagree with is the council tax of 0.4%. For example, my parents bought their house 30 years ago and it's gone up massively in price, like 400%, while incomes have not. 0.4% would be more than half our combined household income isn't going to work. It needs reviewing, but also needs to be means based. This is why I'm against flat property taxes, they're the reason Detroit in America is empty - they were based on out of date values, and during the recession tens of thousands of people were kicked out for being unable to afford the tax on their own homes, which ruined the city. Austerity rhetoric needs to die. We can only spend our way out of this mess.

[@dananskidolf]

I had the same one objection, but after thinking about it, if the house prices went down due to that 0.4% annual tax, it'd probably balance out about the same, except you can afford to move in sooner and investors wouldn't want to collect them just to leave them empty. Still, flooding the market with more housing would be preferable.

[@SteveMoore1969]

In the UK my council housing tax band is D for normal 3 bed house we pay £2200 a year. So £2200/0.4*100 suggests my home would need to be over £550k for me to pay tax. This suggests to me that normal UK working people will save money. the people complaining might just be living in large family homes

[@Fireclaws10]

@@SteveMoore1969 Am i doing something wrong? a property tax of 0.4% of of a 550k home would be 22k? I thought a property tax was based on a percentage of the total value of the home

[@SteveMoore1969]

The maths should be £2200 a year. I think your using a higher 4% percentage

[@Fireclaws10]

@@SteveMoore1969 oh you're right, sry my math was bad

[@adafox2000]

Funny enough quality of life in Poland is much higher than in the UK already.

[@PaulBullock-m9b]

Liar.

[@beefjerkythesecond]

We managed to, after decades of determination, slip out of the tentacles of the EU and you suggest jumping straight in! Madness.

[@yuglesstube]

Using your universities as visa factories is outrageous.

[@yuglesstube]

The only way is to convery energy and matter through human ingenuity, in the prescence of water. I belive that the UKs progress in the 80s has less to do with Thatcher than North Sea oil and London taking advantage of global financialisation. Both of these factors have gone away.

[@kellywalker4494]

The irony is, foreign students want to study in UK, but after graduation they don’t want to work in uk.

[@mbronti]

True, unless the UK growth was in an uptrend, and there were opportunities..

[@georgesdelatour]

35% of foreign students apply for a second visa to extend their stay in the UK after finishing their course. I don't know if that's a high or a low figure. Whether they try and stay varies a lot by country of origin. 75% of students from Syria attempt to stay. Students from the USA not so much...

[@briskyoungploughboy]

@@georgesdelatour A first degree isn't worth a monkey's arse in the modern world. Most that get a good first need to do a Masters or Ph.D. to gain access to the professions. The USA imports over half of it's Ph.D. prospects from other countries as it is incapable of producing enough homegrown talent to keep itself at the 'cutting edge' of technology.

[@WhichDoctor1]

the council tax system is absolutely nuts. It makes no sense whatsoever to tax people based on an arbitrary valuation of their house that took place 30 years ago. Most likely before their house even existed. How we just accept this nonsense as how it is, and that no political party is talking about reforming it just goes to show how much influence the top 10% have over our lives

[@matthewcobley125]

A comment on the migration the UK is currently experiencing wouldn't have been amiss. Without limiting it to sustainable levels the building will never be enough. Although with the UK getting poorer, migration should naturally drop as the UK becomes a less desirable country to migrate to! Is that a silver lining?! 😜

[@linguistengineer588]

3. Here we go... the anti-Brexit bit to add to the socialism fantasies... the EU is in debt & economic decline, It's Asia that is where the growth is, and the UK must focus away from the EU.

[@ThomasBoyd-tx1yt]

Awesome. Thanks.

[@jamielegg4272]

Rate of house building timeline. Why don't you include the 30s where house building rates were highest on record? It was provided by the private sector and before the 40s planning restrictions came in. The government doesn’t need to build the houses - and why would you want them to?!

[@shaun906]

does anybody know if the council housing stock sales funds are still sitting in the councils bank account? it strange how keir said the same about thatcher but was lambasted.

[@BigHenFor]

No; if it was they wouldn't all be going bankrupt would they? Also you have to add on the losses in rental income from social housing to councils over decades, as well as cut from central government grants. No wonder they're on their knees. Sadly, they've started selling off what little they did have to try and offset bankruptcy, that isn't doing anything to help anyone much.

[@RacistMuffin]

"Build a university in a struggling town, like Sunderland 😂" My brother Sunderland HAS a university and people still don't want to go there

[@jackiechan8840]

I can confirm it's shit lol

[@alexroc172]

We need a Feel Good Factor! This is a very timely and prescient statement made six months ago. Who could foretell the catastrophic statements made by the new Labour PM and chancellor which have frightened away private capital, investment, and entrepreneurs from our desperate economy? An urgent referendum on who we trust to run our country is needed. Now that would restore a feeling that we are about to address our national malaise!

[@stuartmartin1605]

Obsessed with Brexit!

[@plerpplerp5599]

The government's lack of investment combined with prolonged tax cuts and cutting public spending has led to slowdown in overall economic activity, job losses, decreased consumer confidence, and a strain on public services. All these factors have weakened the UK economy's ability to innovate, compete globally, and sustain long-term growth.

[@beefjerkythesecond]

Inheritance tax is an incredible evil tax and needs to be abolished completely. That tax deficit could be balanced out by a different tax perhaps a land tax or higher income/capital tax.

[@tropics8407]

How did Ireland get growth so quickly. You need to do what they did to get things rolling.

[@georgesdelatour]

It's always worth looking at other countries to learn from them. But Irish strategies may not work here. For one thing, Ireland has a much smaller population than the UK: Irish governments don't have to think about how to provide stable jobs for 30 million workers. Ireland has a much smaller state sector than the UK (they don't have a single-payer health system, for one thing). In Ireland the state accounts for only 25% of GDP, compared with 45% in the UK. Ireland has low corporate taxes, and this has led US corporations like Apple to register their patents in Ireland, so that their profits get taxed in the lowest tax jurisdiction. We could try to compete with Ireland on corporate tax rates to poach some of that US money. But it wouldn't actually raise the earning capacity of the median British worker. Raising the earning capacity of the median British worker is the main problem we have to solve. Simply topping up people's income via a UBI scheme won't do it. We need to raise the wages they can expect to earn per hour worked.

[@NapodstawieBiblii]

IF ONLY UK GOV WOULD BE WISE LIKE YOU :)

[@varungupta2045]

Here's my 2 cents on house prices: If there is demand for housing and it is profitable to build at current market rates then the free market would build more houses. The problem isn't just houses it's land. The government can zone and auction off more land which would in turn reduce it's price per square inch. Developers can then make a profit even charging a lower price for the final house. So I don't think it's a valid argument that hey we all this land this is zoned and ready to go but it's not being developed.. well maybe at the price at which it was purchased the price of the end product (the house) would not be competitive.

[@anthonylulham3473]

This is exactly what happens. Buy a plot for £300k, Costs to build four units @ £200k per unit, plus loan and time costs, means a developer needs 1.1million up front. these properties will sell for £400k per unit, meaning a ROI of 500k. Now we add in the Risks and other costs, like loan interest, poor construction qualities, protected species (bats, newts badgers), archeology, ground conditions, planning and consultant costs. the profit just evaporates with the time taken and any delay. oh and the TAX MAN... Slough used to be the brick capital of England, now it makes none. Newcastle was the coal capital of the world, now has none. We lack a cheap means of building units that will keep up with our regulations, regulations that are often in conflict, ie fresh air requirement vs insulation requirement. houses are so insulated that there isnt enough air exchange and CO2 levels build up inside and we open the windows... defeating the point of the insulation, or adding in expensive air filtration units which are not so good for the environment to run.

[@markmewordz6860]

Not enough houses or too much 'new' demand?

[@carbon1k]

I don't think its correct to call HS2 a "white elephant". It creates many jobs, opens track space for other services, and massively increases connectivity aswell as transport times between London and Birmingham

[@patdbean]

8:43 because we have double the population density of France and Spain, and so there will always be someones house in the way of what you're trying to build?

[@MarkCW]

There is an underlying problem here that the rich control the government and want to maintain the status quo. If anyone can work out how to resolve this problem in a peaceful way let me know.

[@georgesdelatour]

I didn’t find this video to be very useful I’m afraid. It’s mostly promoting a variety of things which I think our host wants for pretend-economic but really political reasons. I’m not necessarily against them on political grounds. But they’re either irrelevant to solving our basic economic problems, or at best marginally relevant. Our basic economic problem is that we don’t make enough things which foreigners would want to buy from us in enough quantities. Solve this problem, and a lot of other problems will solve themselves. I think we need to create a UK equivalent of Japan’s postwar MITI (Ministry of International Trade and Industry) to plan an industrial policy based around export-led growth. The hardest part will be finding good people with vision and understanding to run it and focus on prospective growth areas. Literally the only thing our host mentions the UK selling to foreigners is UK-based higher education. He suggests building more high-rise dormitory accommodation for foreign students, but since many of these students apparently want to bring multiple dependents with them, I’m not sure how practical this is. When I was an undergraduate back in the 1980s, I didn’t know a single undergraduate who had dependents, so I’m obviously unaware of how international higher education is changing. Either way, I doubt we can make ourselves rich purely off selling degrees. When our host compares us to Norway with its Sovereign Wealth Fund, he misses the most important point about it. Norway has massive amounts of surplus energy - far more than the country’s 5.5 million people could ever use up. The massive wealth in Norway’s SWF comes from its massive export surpluses in energy sales. It has the largest oil reserves in western Europe, and is the world’s fifth largest energy exporter. Nationalised or not, a UK energy supplier won’t have Norway levels of income in a SWF if it’s only providing the ever growing UK population with energy, and is under understandable domestic political pressure to keep prices down. Will significantly increased spending on the NHS boost UK productivity, and get us out of the pattern of lowest low productivity we’ve been in since 2004? Maybe at the margins. But the biggest predictor of productivity rises in industry is simply this: capital investment per worker hired. That’s where we need to focus. There might be scope for reforming corporation tax, so that it encourages businesses to spend more of their profits investing in plant and machinery. The UK has one of the lowest uptakes of industrial robots in Europe, and is even below the world average uptake.

[@tip00former1]

The spam of "personal financial solutions" in the comment section gets out of hand. I have reported 4 already as commercial spam. Maybe if all viewers do thisthe bots will stop, or is it fighting windmills? 😕

[@matthardern1594]

Some sensible good ideas - nice work

[@poleonpoleon706]

No carbon tax please 😡

[@patdbean]

2:56 if these so called students whent home after their studies , we would not need to build more homes for them. If they stay they are by definition " imigrants "

[@linguistengineer588]

5. The EV fantasy again from non-engineers who fail to understand that if everyone plugs in to charge at night, the whole grid stays hot and breaks, it simply can't cope with the demand.

[@linguistengineer588]

Moreover, these fossil-fuel-powered EVs have terribly polluting and expensive batteries that most people can't afford, and that devastate countries where they mine the metals.

[@eruketo3969]

I worked in recruitment. While corporations do not willing to pay higher wage, many people said they do not want to work but get the subsidiaries from govt. The amount is just a few hundreds pounds difference. They said why they have to work then?

[@tropics8407]

Unbelievable 🤦‍♂️ warped incentives caused by government and somehow we think more government can fix it. Bizzare 🤷‍♂️

[@AlexColes-wn5jg]

The employers get away with what they can, because the policies in place bring in 1.2 million people in 12 months.

[@GonzoTehGreat]

While I agree with some of these policies, you can't fix the economy by increasing taxes. The macro-economic focus should be on generating growth GDP and addressing INCOME inequality, not using taxes to correct WEALTH inequality. As long as senior management earn 10x more than company workers the overall economy will suffer, so that gap must be reduced, preferably by raising wages, not increasing taxes. It's also essential to prioritize increased spending on education (primary, secondary, tertiary) to improve social mobility, including initiative such as school meals. Add more selective state schools for students to aspire to join, but make entry means tested, to exclude the rich. Provide relatively cheap vocational training for those aged 15-25, supplemented by paid apprenticeships, to provide an alternative career path to university. Subsidize STEM degrees, but with conditions attached, so that you must work in a STEM field for at least 5 years after graduating. Increasing Council Tax to be a fixed percentage of property won't generate enough revenue to make a difference, because it won't make the rich pay much more, but it will hurt middle-class families who have saved and worked to buy a home. Instead, it should continue to scale with property value (e.g. 0% for less than 100k, 0.1% for 100k-1m, 1% for 1m+) Indeed, as councils apparently spend most of it on social care, it would be fairer to introduce a new Social Care Tax, based on how much you use such services.

[@maxchan9613]

The problem is pretty structural. Agree on the call in building more apartments to bring the new generation onto the ladder first (we can’t beat the law of physics to have millions two storey houses to be built). Apartments is the way out. Look at major Asian cities and part of London. Most live in apartments with extensive public transportation network, which in turn solve the low productivity problem!

[@azar1354]

I'm not sure what is the point of solution 7 (carbon tax). You may argue that carbon tax is necessary to fight the climate change. But subsidies and further taxes won't help the economy.

[@linguistengineer588]

1. you can't realistically build more than about 250,000 houses a year, because you need the planning, the design, the people, and the materials in place - and you need to house them too!

[@hens_ledan]

NO !!!! I don't often disagree with you, as you have some great ideas, but the % property value proposal will COMPLETELY DESTROY the Cornish and the Cornish economy, making it solely a place for rich incomers and second home owners who want to live near the sea. It's not our doing that we have such high property prices compared to incomes - it's the fault of a system that rewards people with massive liquid capital, and particularly rich Londoners, and a central government that has neglected Cornwall and made the Cornish second class citizens. Years of massive house building in Cornwall on the basis of 'improving access to housing for locals' has done nothing of the sort - instead it has resulted in an additional 150,000 people coming into Cornwall to live and has done absolutely nothing to improve house owning prospects for Cornish people. If anything, it has had the reverse of that stated. By all means make Council Tax a function of income or liquid savings if you wish. Better still, ban the sale of Cornish properties to outsiders altogether and force property prices back down to levels that we can afford and deter carpet-bagging altogether.

[@GameIconPlay]

Why is the government not listening to smart people then??? Great presentation

[@craptacular8282]

First thing they need to do is sort out affordable housing. People are spending all of their money on housing, there isn't enough left to spend into the economy.

[@robertmaitland09]

Some excellent proposals. Problem is with tories, a lot of them are landlords and fosil fuel share holders and greedy with it. Oh for a govt willing to do things for the good of the country and not themselves.

[@garyb455]

you will have a long wait for that

[@jeffgifkins7684]

Are you saying labor party members don’t also own property?

[@kevinu.k.7042]

Great video. You hit so many nails on the head. Thank you. Land Value Tax? Maybe for another day?

[@macdodd]

High-density housing doesn't work as it actually isolates people far more than semi-detached houses with 4 flats with their own door & access to the outside from their own door. Much better for everyone.

[@lecturesfromleeds614]

I actually suggested to the south Yorkshire mayor that Doncaster could do with a university now that it's a city, I don't think he cares much about Doncaster though

[@marcuswalters8093]

6:15 Whaaaaa?! Really?! 😮

[@bankylaw3745]

Yeah should never have left in first place

[@mbronti]

Some interesting solutions..but with govt as it is, cannot see anything materialising along such lines, since these would be too radical and/or not favoured by the wealthy..

[@edmills9160]

The housing tax as a percentage of value is an excellent idea though might stop people investing in their homes...

[@sunnydhap]

Very good video.

[@edmills9160]

Er Sunderland already has a university. Does it need two?

[@88HaZZarD88]

Please do one about Italian economy

[@Ragnar6000]

Australia's biggest pension fund plans on investing 18 billion pounds into the UK by 2030.

[@Tensquaremetreworkshop]

Not building enough houses- or importing too many people. And letting students bring in 'dependents'.

[@Jamal-Ahmed786]

The answer to the question in your video title is - large scale economic investment, not Trussonomics tax cuts

[@WobblycogsUk]

Broadly I agree, but I think you're at least partially wrong about housing. For a start, not all of us want to live in a tower block or other high density housing. We have a demographic issue that needs addressing, would you want to raise a family where that they couldn't get to safe green space? The problem with housing is it's controlled by a small number of large house builders that can all play the system. The way planning is structured it's essentially impossible for a small builder to become a medium builder and single house builders are essentially shut out all together.

[@gordon1201]

You can make high density housing without building huge buildings. 3 storey high flats isn't a big deal, and you can build green spaces around it. It's very doable and would increase the standard of living. A lot of us live in cramped shared housing so it would be a massive upgrade

[@NoJusticeMTG]

High density housing means more green space, not less. The soviets knew this.

[@WobblycogsUk]

@@gordon1201 You're honestly delusional if you think we'll ever build low rise flats with green space around them. Look around you at what is being built now, that's what we'll have for at least the next 50 years. There's no low rise flats in park land being built, it's all about cramming as many flats as possible in. What about people that want to have a little outside space to call their own? Why are we making it so that only the rich can enjoy the outside? This country is not short of space, it's been conned into believing every last monoculture field is some how sacred.

[@jakkuwolfinsomnia8058]

More medical schools would increase the supply for the NHS whilst increasing the wealth of poorer towns with lots of land and great opportunities into turning into big universities and generating revenue from renting student accommodation and foreign tuition fees as well as providing greater opportunities for students instead of making them stress and fight over places. I always knew this alone would massively boost the UK’s GDP and quality of life and education of its society. Imagine if the UK could generate £400 billion from universities ?!

[@janewayles499]

Training Doctors and Nurses for free would help. Student Nurses are paying £9k a year whilst working on wards

[@jakkuwolfinsomnia8058]

@@janewayles499 training any native British citizen for free would help. Everybody still has to work with their degree as well. Additionally, it would help if there were more medical schools in the country so more students can apply because we have a lot of talented students but not enough spaces for them all

[@shoaibahmad7133]

Wishful thinking. Very weak analysis except one or two good points. All focus is on imposing taxation. That era is over, you have to get out of the raise more taxes mindset. All other points are directed towards investments, who will provide these fundings, especially when the economy itself is struggling.

[@terryj50]

Funny last time I looked the uk was in the eu in 2009 and wages and the economy stalled. Wait I keep being told the uk economy stalled because it left the eu.

[@ZenKaizen7]

Hs2 idea was to bring the benefits of London to the north… issue is development projects cost a lot!

[@xtc2v]

Investment should come from foreign inward investment or profit from exports. Spending internally generated taxes is attempting to pull yourself up by pulling-up on your own boot laces

[@NeutrinoAudio]

Referring to HS2 as a “white elephant” is arrant nonsense, it is designed to relieve pressure on local lines by giving long intercity routes dedicated lines and stations. It also massively expands freight capacity taking a considerable number of long distance truck journeys off the roads. There’s a general detrimental obsession with cost and a complete ignorance of the economic and infrastructural gains. The same happened with Crossrail, that project is now profitable. You can’t just tack a line on here and there and do a bit of electrification, the underlying capacity issues absolutely have to be addressed - Europe can do it, so why can’t we.

[@maxchan9613]

Rails have proved worldwide as one of the best investments to build up economic synergy between cities. Loads of countries fund such investments regardless investment returns given the indirect benefit shall be much bigger

[@berkeersoy6965]

I urge everyone who likes economics to read “how markets fail” by John Cassidy

[@lecturesfromleeds614]

Also, I don't think we should copy Spain when it comes to building! I don't think people will take kindly to a government stealing your land and then charging you to build a road through it

[@Robbo1966]

A great video, with some really good solutions for our doomed economy. We had the Industrial Revolution now we’re heading to 3rd world status

[@Alan-Bstard]

You can't have a decent standard of living as well as soaring profits for billionaires under the Selfservatives it seems.

[@jontalbot1]

Hard to disagree with any of this but l would like to see a more dedicated sectoral approach focussed on areas where we are globally competitive

[@BigHenFor]

You tell us. One of our biggest problem is that we don't make anything that you can't buy anywhere else. That's why you need to try and find out where exactly are we competitive. Especially relative to our peers in the G7, we have the lowest percentage of GDP from manufacturing. From memory it's about the same as agriculture, and the largest sector is... Financial Services as well as the service sector. and they will be probably looking for job cuts soon, as signs of consolidation are becoming stronger. The problem is Services don't produce enough jobs with a living wage. That's why wealth inequality is still growing. The Services sector is great at extracting wealth ‐ especially ‐ financial services ‐ but lousy at distributing it. We need a mixed economy, with industry, manufacturing, and agriculture not parasitised by an overgrown financial services sector pushing for complete financialisation.

[@jontalbot1]

@@BigHenFor Robotics, aeronauticals, defence, food technology, biomedicine, high performance car engineering, software writing, games creation, film, jet engine engineering, space technology, music, tv production.