Sirius Data

Confidence or. lack of it is often talked about when measuring the state of our economy. Intrinsically linked to this is our confidence in the housing market. The housing market probably needed a correction, but why can’t the Government see that it could take three simple steps to breath confidence back into the housing market & stimulate faster growth:-

1) Stagger stamp duty much better. 0% to £175k; 1% from £175k to £250k & then half a percent increment for every £100k, or further flatten rate bands. It just seems/feels wrong that if you go over a certain band currently then you are charged the full percentage value against the sale price rather than a stepped increase e.g. £285k x 3% instead of it being 1% to £250k & then 3% for the extra £35k. Any loss in treasury revenue would be made up in stimulating the market & a few higher bands could be put in at say £1m/£1.5m/£2m etc. As an alternative to the above, perhaps it could even be simpler and it is just 0.5% per £150k over £250k. You get the gist - this would be so easy to do and get the market going again breathing confidence into our economy. Having said that the housing market seems to be showing signs of moving again & in the right areas in never really dipped that far anyway.

 

2) Drop HIP’s until they have been properly thought through.

 

3) Change mortgages to look at a recipient’s ability to afford it rather than set a multiplier for single or joint applications i.e. if a fixed mortgage is £350k between a couple, but they have very little other debts and the repayments are well within their monthly income budget then why limit this to a fixed multiplier?

 

 

The most annoying thing I find with politicians today is the way they stand in front of a camera & deny, deny & deny when they have been outstandingly caught out. President Clinton was a master at doing this whilst smiling sweetly hoping the winds of change would move a bad story off the media’s agenda. British politicians now think they have mastered this dark art, but they assume the public are that stupid we don’t realise what is going on or, secretly they hope that apathy will win out & they will get away with their indiscretions time & time again. Hazel Blears is one of the worst. She looks like a female version of the Joker as she grins out her denials whilst trotting out the party line.

It is disgusting how our MP’s have behaved over expenses. If we behaved in the same way with our business HMRC would have our guts.

Not only have MP’s been taking money from the public purse they have assisted in running the country into the ground and stuffed our taxes for years to come. They also have no idea how to stimulate the economy and even less ideas to develop mass entrepreneurship to make Britain successful & competitive.

So, over to the likes of us to make success happen in spite of them!

Another great event we will be looking at doing something with in the New Year is the brilliant Trailwalker event which was originally invented by the Gurkha's when they were stationed in Hong Kong. Currently debating whether to put in a team, but not sure my hip will last the distance! So, we are looking into sponsoring an award of some sort & we have something in mind here depending on how well business goes in the next few months. Again, check back soon for more news on this soon... http://www.oxfam.org.uk/get_involved/fundraise/trailwalker/index.html

It’s been a little while coming and it’s a bit later than expected for a number of reasons:-

1. Customers come first on our to-do lists and you’ve kept us all pretty busy recently - thanks for that though
2. We simply couldn’t do without some of the cool effects.
3. Web-sites are always a work in progress so there are still a number of areas we need to fill in and add to, but we hope you enjoy looking around we hope you like it. 

Feedback good or bad is always welcome!

Founder & CEO John Corr says: “It is truly astounding there is even a debate about the merits of Gurkha soldiers prior to 1997 being allowed to settle in the UK when they have fought to defend this country. This exemplifies how incredibly stoooopid MP’s can be & how they have completely lost touch at judging what the popular vote now is. This is enough of a reason to alter where my vote goes at the next election.”