Seven budget measures I urge Rachel Reeve to adopt

 I have to admit I'm disappointed with Rachel Reeve, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. I had high hopes. She is an economist by trade, so I assumed she'd understand the need to bring the tax system into the 21st Century to address the challenges that we are facing today, rather than sticking with something designed for a very different world. 

1. Add extra council tax bands for mansions etc, to bring in more dosh for local authorities. The top band is band H for properties worth over 320,000 in 1991. Barnet is full of properties that were worth ten or twenty times that at the time. They pay the same as someone just in a normal large house. Someone in a £50 million pad in Bishops avenue pays only around three times what someone in a flat in Burnt oak pays. Gotta be wrong.

2. Triple Council tax on dwellings left empty for over six months, unless going through probate or undergoing major renovations.

3. Charge business rates on people operting businesses at home. Online retailers with no address are clobbering small shops.

4. Allow anyone to sell craft beers from specialist breweries without having to apply for a license, to encourage small breweries

5. Cut employers NI rate for all SME's by 50% on employees under 30  to encourage small businesses to take on more staff

6. Charge council tax on all land that has received planning permission for housing, but has not been developed after 2 years, to discourage land banking by developers. This would help address the housing crisis as there would be a cost to developers for not building.

7. Set up a national infrastructure fund, to pay to bring the UK's infrastructure up to standard. Zero rate all investments in this fund for inheritance tax, so long as the investment has been inthe fund for a minimum of seven years. If a person dies, allow the relatives to leave the cash in the fund for teh seven year period to avoid the charge. This would give the UK a huge amount of cash for projects. Give a garnateed return at the rate of inflation. 

What has happened to Mill Hill's missing councillor?

 Back in 2022, three councillors were elected for Mill Hill ward. All three were elected as Conservative councillors. Between then and now, something rather strange has happened. If you check the Barnet Council website you will see this.

It appears that one of our councillors, Laithe Jajeh is now standing as an independent coucillor. He has not turned up to any of the meetings which he is required to attend, although he did make it along for a Planning committee. This is his attendence record.

Councillors are normally required to attend two full council meetings a year, or they are booted out. His councillor surgeries have been cancelled until further notice.

When I first noticed that Mr Jajeh, who I have always got on well with on a personal level, had left the Conservative group, I rang him. He told me he was busy and would call me back in the evening. He rescheduled three times and then I heard no more. One of his former Conservative colleagues, who I get on well with, informed me that he was asked to leave the group as he'd stopped attending meetings. 

All Barnet Councillors get paid an allowance. Here is what they get.

London Borough of Barnet

Members Allowances 2023/24

A statement of the total amount paid to each Member of the Council in respect of allowances in the financial year 2023/24 is set out below:

Name		Total Payment (Gross) 2023/24
Ernest	Ambe	£10,809.00
Richard	Barnes	£10,809.00
Zahra	Beg	£10,809.00
Andrea	Bilbow	£10,809.00
Rishikesh	Chakraborty	£10,809.00
Anne	Clarke	£23,793.00
Pauline	Coakley Webb	£25,978.00
Dean	Cohen	£10,809.00
Philip	Cohen	£17,990.00
Joshua	Conway	£10,809.00
Sara	Conway	£25,978.00
Geoffrey	Cooke	£10,809.00
Alison	Cornelius	£10,809.00
Richard	Cornelius	£10,809.00
Edith	David	£10,809.00
Valerie	Duschinsky	£10,809.00
Paul	Edwards	£25,978.00
Claire	Farrier	£19,567.00
Shuey	Gordon	£10,809.00
Eva	Greenspan	£10,809.00
Jennifer	Grocock	£10,809.00
Rohit	Grover	£10,809.00
Kamal Bahadur	Gurung	£10,809.00
Lachhya Bahadur	Gurung	£10,809.00
Marianne	Haylett	£10,809.00
Ross	Houston	£37,453.00
Anne	Hutton	£12,071.00
Giulia	Innocenti	£10,809.00
Andreas	Ioannidis	£10,809.00
Laithe	Jajeh	£10,809.00
Humayune	Khalick	£10,809.00
Paul	Lemon	£10,809.00
David	Longstaff	£10,809.00
Linda	Lusingu	£10,809.00
Nick	Mearing-Smith	£10,809.00
Katherine	McGuirk	£10,809.00
Michael	Mire	£10,809.00
Arjun	Mittra	£19,567.00
Giulia	Monasterio	£15,805.00
Alison	Moore	£25,978.00
Ammar	Naqvi	£23,793.00
Nagus	Narenthira	£19,567.00
Matthew	Perlberg	£10,809.00
Alex	Prager	£10,809.00
Simon	Radford	£15,805.00
Barry	Rawlings	£44,445.00
Danny	Rich	£19,567.00
Timothy	Roberts	£19,567.00
Ella	Rose	£18,305.00
Gillian	Sargeant	£10,809.00
Alan	Schneiderman	£25,978.00
Mark	Shooter	£10,809.00
Elliot	Simberg	£10,809.00
Caroline	Stock	£10,809.00
Daniel	Thomas	£25,978.00
Liron	Velleman-Woodcock	£10,809.00
Antonakis	Vourou	£10,809.00
Lucy	Wakeley	£10,809.00
Sarah	Wardle	£10,809.00
Emma	Whysall	£15,805.00
Nigel	Young	£19,567.00
Peter	Zinkin	£10,809.00
Zakia	Zubairi	£10,809.00

 The ones who get more than the basic £10,809 have jobs with additional responsibiliities, such as committee chairs etc. I've highlighted Mr Jajeh's allowance. It was pretty clear that neither Mr Jajeh or his former colleagues wanted to talk too much about what was going on? Why? I've no idea although, I suspect that no one in Barnet Council wants a by election in an opposition ward. For Labour it would be a needless distraction as they run the council and for the Tories, it would be a potential banana skin and they'd have to explain what happened. 

It is all very well to have a cosy conspiracy of silence, however the reality is that the Mill Hill Taxpayers are paying £10,809 a year for a disengaged councillor.  It all seemed rather puzzling. Yesterday, when I was walking down Mill Hill Broadway, I noticed something that may explain the mystery of Mr Jajeh's disappearance. Barnet Council have supported the installation of a Succah, a small hut which forms part of the celebrations of the feast of Sameach. 

I small sign from Barnet Council, on headed paper had the inscription 

"Cllr Val Duschinsky and Cllr Elliot Simberg together will Barnet Council wish the Mill Hill Community a chag succot sameach.

We are delighted to support another first for Mill Hill. The Mill Hill Succah. We look forward to seeing the succah in the square as a permanent fixture in the community calendar. Kind Regards Barnet London Borough"

I immediately noticed that Mr Jajeh had not signed up to wish the community well for the season. One has to presume that  before the Council put an official notice on the hut, they would have sought permission from the local coucillor to add his name to to the best wishes. Is this an oversight or has Mr Jajeh deliberately snubbed the local community? If it is an oversight, I would expect an apology and a clarification from Barnet Council and Cllr Jajeh respectively. If it reflects Mr Jajeh's position on the erection of the hut, surely the people of Mill Hill are entitled to know what his views are.

Some sort of clarification from the local Conservatives should be issued. After all, they sponsored Mr Jajeh and he was elected under their banner. There will not be another council election until 2026. I do not think any Mill Hill resident will be happy to see over £21,000 of taxpayers money be paid to a councillor who doesn't attend meetings or sugeries. That is enough to fund a teaching assistant for one year at a special school. If nothing else we are owed a proper explanation. There is nothing on the Hendon Tories website to explain this strange sequence of events. 

The Sunday Reflection #27 - Appreciating the good things on a beautiful Autumnal morning

 The Sun is shining, I have a bit of a fuzy head after yesterdays fun at Hadley FC and then at the Bull Theatre watching The Silencerz. It was a wonderful day. Hadley won 4-3 in the FA Trophy to progress to the the 2nd round for the first time in their history. The Silencerz then put in a blistering performance, having the audience on their feet. As the clocks went back, the extra hour in bed has been very well received by me at least, although when it's dark by 5pm later, I may feel different. 

I watched Match of the Day, then I sat out in my garden for a while, just enjoying the sunshine. I took a few pictures, the colours in the garden are wonderful. Here are a few pictures. 

I love these dahlia's and fushia's. Ina  months time, they will be gone. We also have some beautiflu Dahlia's in the front garen, which rather annoyoingly, certain people seem to think it is OK to help themselves to. We had a tragic incident a couple of years ago, when one of my neighbours saw a woman pinching them. He shouted, she fell over and broke her arm. Whilst I don't want people nicking my flowers, I was rather upset. 

I realise we are lucky to have a garden. Sadly, fewer and fewer people seem to value having such a space and the value in having beautiful things in them. My next door neighbour has recently gained planning permission to build a flat at the bottom of his garden. I find it sad that he can't see beyond the potential to earn a few quid. For me, the time spent relaxing in my garden is on of the absolute best moments in life. 

I have come to the conclusion that I must be a bit strange.For me, using the garden to provide a habitat for birds, animals and marine life is as important as making a few quid. We have a small wildlife pond, a haven for amphibians. We have trees. We have bushes. I'm not perfect, but I struggle to understand why people think expanses of concrete are an asset. I think I'm the only house in the road with a front garden. I come home, see the flowers and I feel happy. How many people feel happy when they see a concrete driveway on arrival home? 

Anyway, if you enjoy such things, here are a few more pics. Hope you enjoy them.