Last week I braved not only the M25 but the M11. Thankfully I wasn’t on the M25 on a day when it turns into a car park and I think there was a nice man in a bright yellow and black van on a bridge taking pictures of cars on the M11. I went up (or down if you are in the North or over if you are in the Midlands) to Norwich. It’s a very long way there. Come to think of it, it is a very long way from anywhere. It is also very flat. There are big skies and long views, very flat long views.
I went to see The Thin One. She lives in Norwich where she is studying to be a doctor. Bearing in mind my advancing age and increasing hypochondria I think she could be my favourite.
The Thin One is very thin, she has a genetic condition that makes her tall and thin and very gorgeous. She also eats like a horse. We spent a lot of the time in Restaurants, Waitrose or just ordering pizza to be delivered.
Anyway I digress, The Thin One through an accident of life has been able to buy a house on the otuskirts of Norwich just next to the University and the Hospital. It is a lovely house, she bought it off plan. It has 3 floors which helps keep her even thinner, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms a lovely kitchen and sitting room and a just the right size garden. It is on an attractive new estate with a park, an outdoor gym, a doctors surgery a school and some shops. It is a bike ride into the city centre and 20 minutes drive to the sea and cost around £150,000.
Just for fun we went to look at the show houses. The largest one, 5 bedrooms 4 bathrooms was for sale for a whopping £299,000 and the builders are having problems selling it.
We all know that the economy is not very well and that borrowing is difficult. I, like many people listen to the news in the hope that the Chancellor or the Bank of England will do something to relieve the suffering. It seems to me and this may be very simplistic, that if people are not buying or selling houses then the Treasury is not collecting any Stamp Duty. So if the Chancellor were to take the brave and perhaps drastic step of suspending Stamp Duty on all properties say under £1 million then the Treasury would be no worse off. I suspect that the house buyers would become increasingly keen to move and the money they may have spent in Stamp Duty would go to buy carpets, curtains, fridges, washing machines, paint and all the stuff one buys when moving. That should give the economy a boost, keep people in employment who can pay tax and boost the treasury income.
What do you think?