Thousands Pay More Tax In ‘Chaotic’ Yousaf Budget
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article in The Times.
It has this sub-heading.
Efforts to plug £1.5bn funding hole put Scotland at a disadvantage, say business leaders
I have a feeling that the rise in income tax will have unintended consequences.
The UK’s Current Hydrogen Plans
Last week, the UK Government announced grants for eleven big hydrogen projects, around the UK, with two in Scotland. The new Scottish electrolysers will be playing a large part in decarbonising the Scotch whisky industry and HGVs.
I wrote Major Boost For Hydrogen As UK Unlocks New Investment And Jobs to describe the investments scope and benefits.
The Government estimated that these grants will create 700 jobs, across the UK.
How many quality high-paid jobs will this funding create in Scotland? As two of the eleven projects are based in Scotland, it could be around 127 quality jobs.
More UK Hydrogen Plans Are On The Way
The Government also indicated that this was only the first stage of bringing hydrogen production to the UK, so I will expect more high-paid quality jobs will be created.
Projected UK Offshore Wind Power
This Wikipedia entry is a list of all installed, under-construction and proposed offshore wind farms in the UK.
Aggregating the new unbuilt wind farms says the following capacity will very likely be installed in the UK in the next few years.
- Scotland – 32, 750 MW.
- England – 25,558 MW
- Wales – 700 MW
As more proposals have been called for, particularly in the Celtic Sea, I don’t think it would be unreasonable to add perhaps another 10,000 MW.
Wind farms are also proposed for around the island of Ireland and in the waters of the Channel Islands.
Upgrading Of The National Grid
These three posts could well be forerunners of other posts, I will write in the next few months.
- National Grid Fast-Tracks Overhead Line Upgrade Project To Help Accelerate Connection Dates Of 175 Clean Energy Projects
- National Grid To Accelerate Up To 20GW Of Grid Connections Across Its Transmission And Distribution Networks
- National Grid’s London Power Tunnels Breakthrough Completes £1 Billion Project’s Tunnelling Activity
National Grid is increasing its capacity at a fast pace and will need a large number of quality engineers.
Crossrail And Electrical Engineers/Electricians
I suspect we’ll find, that when a report on the late delivery of Crossrail is published, an electrician shortage will get some of the blame.
I have friends, who are electricians. Because of the shortage of trained electricians, they were offered fortunes to work on Crossrail.
Do We Have Enough Engineers?
For all the reasons I have outlined, our path to net-zero will need a lot of trained electrical engineers and electricians and just as Crossrail showed, when there is a shortage of labour in a particular area, remuneration rises.
Electrical engineers and electricians in the British Isles will be able to pick and choose the jobs they take, just as they did with Crossrail and the other major projects being built at the same time.
Effects On Scotland
If you were an engineer, who had skills and could work on these projects, would you prefer to work on a project, where the tax rate was lower?
Scotland’s tax rise will harm their decarbonisation ambitions.
Surely, the Greens should have vetoed a tax increase, which will inevitably slow their progress to net-zero?
Or are Greens a tad short of the grey matter?
Conclusion
I believe the Scottish government has shot itself in the foot.
Denmark’s Bank Robbers Count The Cost Of Cashless Society
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on The Times.
This is the second paragraph.
Figures from Finans Danmark, an industry association, show the number of attacks has collapsed in recent years as the shift towards online transactions has led many Danish banks to abandon cash services in branches. While there were 221 bank robberies in 2000, the number of hold-ups in Denmark fell to 121 in 2004, before declining to one in 2021 and none last year.
There were also no attacks on ATM machines.
Doing away with cash certainly cuts crime and it must be twelve years, since a Unite representative on Manchester buses told me he wanted cashless ticketing on Manchester’s buses and trams, as since it had been introduced in London, attacks on staff had declined dramatically.
I also wonder by how much the Income Tax take would rise?
Boris And A National Insurance Cut
This article on the BBC is entitled Boris Johnson Pledges Cut To National Insurance.
This is the introductory paragraph.
Boris Johnson aims to change National Insurance rules so workers will not have to pay it until they earn £12,500.
I can just about remember my first real pay packet.
- I was 16 and it was only a vacation job from school.
- It was notes and coins in a brown envelope.
- I was working in a factory designing and building electronics to automate heavy machinery.
- In the pay packet was a payslip, which included a small deduction for National Insurance.
- I was a bit miffed at the deduction, as I wasn’t earning much.
What I like about Boris’s plan, is that so many of those employed in lower-paid jobs will now not see a deduction for Income Tax or National Insurance.
What reaction will that bring in those employed in those lower-paid jobs?
- I doubt anybody would object.
- It could be a powerful motivator, as they would keep more of the fruits of their labours.
It would also be a very difficult policy to reverse. Imagine a future government breaking the link between Income Tax and National Insurance!
The Anonymous Widower 