Nobody Wanted To Be Elected

On Thursday I exercised my electoral right and wandered over to our local polling station to cast my vote in the elections for members of Surrey County Council. There were 4 candidates on the ballot paper. What did I know of them? Very little. In the run up to the election I received 1 piece of literature and 1 visit from a party member (both from the same party). Did nobody wish to be elected? How does one choose between these anonymous, faceless non-people?

What Is Happening At DECC?

What is going on at DECC? Not so long ago John Hayes departed as minister to be replaced part time by Michael Fallon. Then we learned that Jonathan Brearley is leaving. And now it appears that Ravi Gurumurthy is also going. This has the potential to leave the Energy Bill and EMR in tatters. I have hinted before that I have concerns about the capacity market mechanisms and, to be frank, I still think this looks like a dog's breakfast. Is it problems with the design of EMR that has precipitated these latest departures? I don't have an inside track any more but perhaps it's time to start stock-piling those candles!

Who Would Be A Saver?

I've just been sorting out this year's ISAs for House Management and myself. Being a cautious fellow I like to have cash available for emergencies so I've tended to use cash ISAs first and only gone into equities when there has been residual spare capital. However, the cash rates available are so dire that this year the full whack for both of us has gone into equity ISAs.

I have to say, I don't think life is going to become any easier in the short, or even medium, term. Did you notice the nasty little squib in George Osborne's recent budget whereby he will now allow the Bank of England to "look through" the inflation figures and target other variable such as growth? This looks to me very much like our Georgie boy saying " Hello savers. Guess what? I have a nasty state borrowing and debt problem. I can't default - that's just unthinkable. I can't really take the austerity route (what I'm doing at the moment is fiddling around the edges) - that's politically untenable. So what I've decided to do is let inflation off the leash so that the value of my state debt is quietly eroded. Unfortunately that means the value of your savings will be eroded, too. Tough". Basically what is going to happen (actually, it's already happening) is that there's going to be a transfer of wealth from savers to borrowers. And guess who is the biggest borrower of them all? Yup, the government.

So, the wrong side of 60 I may be but there is going to have to be a little bit of raciness in my life. Cash holdings may be stable but they are losing value - with equities there's just a chance of some value gain.

The footnote to all this is that the equity ISAs that we already hold have performed somewhat differently. They are both in the money but I placed the majority of House Management's dosh into income funds whereas I put some of mine into growth opportunities. House Management is doing somewhat better than me!

Schizophrenia in the Energy Saving World

DECC's recently published wave 5 of its public attitude tracker makes for some interesting reading. While 80% of those surveyed said that they think about energy saving behaviours, 67% admit to, at least sometimes, boiling the kettle with excess water, 52% leave lights on unnecessarily and 52% leave the heating on when they go out for a few hours. Support for renewables is relatively high, 76% supporting offshore wind for instance; but views on nuclear are mixed with 40% support rising from 37% in the previous wave. All this suggests to me that a coherent message is not getting across - and certainly coherent thinking is not taking place. I'm not sure (actually, let's make that a firmer statement - I don't know) how to change this situation. Ideas anyone?

Housing Issues

There has been plenty of chatter of late about the Thatcher legacy. Much of it has been highly partisan and somewhat ill-informed but one aspect struck a chord - housing policy.

I have heard it suggested that the "right to buy" policy was a major success of the Thatcher regime. In that it expanded asset ownership to a much wider tranche of the population then the assertion has some truth. I do find it somewhat galling, still, that as a rate-payer I was essentially subsidising these purchases - but then any public expenditure is made with what is ultimately private wealth captured by the state or other public bodies. What I believe Thatcher failed to do was put in place the mechanisms to ensure that building of social housing, or affordable private housing, continued. This is one reason why we have a new housing crisis upon our hands.

What put these thoughts into my head was the ludicrous suggestion that permitted development rights should be temporarily relaxed to allow extensions of up to 8m depth to be constructed without the need for planning permission. The suggestion is that this will kick start the construction industry - which I doubt - and will provide much needed family space. The latter is just bonkers. All it will do is create bigger houses that are even further from the financial grasp of many potential buyers.

This has all bubbled up in the context of a local discussion about affordable housing development and, in particular, the use of exception sites (allowing building in the Green Belt for local affordable housing only). I am not a fan of green field/Green Belt development but these exception schemes should at least be considered. There are good social cohesion arguments to be considered among others.

Has The Reseach Really Not Been Done?

I read in a recent edition of Building 4 Change (don't you just hate the trendy marketing use of a numeral instead of good old fashioned word?) that BRE is about to embark on a study of solid wall properties to assess heat loss before and after insulation, and the behaviour of occupants. Has this research really not been done? Have thousands of homes been insulated under CESP without a reasonable understanding of the heat loss reduction expected? Or did DECC have a pot of money it didn't know what to do with?

Ding Dong And All That

I think the BBC got it wrong with their Ding Dong decision. The campaign to promote the song is being driven, I believe, by simple nastiness so why can't the BBC say so. What's wrong with stating that the song comes from a much-loved film and is appearing in the chart because it has been hijacked by what most people will agree are a bunch of unpleasant so-and-sos with unpleasant motives?

By the way, I was no supporter of Mrs Thatcher. In my view her governments got some things right but they got others horribly wrong. However, what I think about her politics is one thing; acting like a little ******* is another.