Data contained in a House of Commons (HoC) library report shows the tax receipts for the year 2024/25. The main elements are: Income tax £306 billion, VAT £173 billion and National Insurance contributions £171 billion. Tax £ Billion % share Income tax 306 30.3 VAT 173 17.1 NICs 171 16.9 Other taxes 100 9.9 Corporation tax 98 9.7 Council tax 47 4.7 Capital taxes 41 4.1 Business rates 29 2.9 Fuel duty 24 2.4 Tobacco and alcohol 20 2.0 Total 1009 100.0 [House of Commons Lib

Summary Private pension wealth is related to an individuals earnings and capacity to save money for a pension. Higher earners put more into their pension pots than lower earners. Higher earners also get more tax relief thus adding to the future pension earnings. Data from 2022 suggested that 929,000 savers had pension wealth of between one and two million pounds. In the Taxing Wealth report of 2024, a number of reforms were mooted including limiting the rate of tax relie

The ability to save money and invest it whether in shares, bank accounts or property is linked to earnings levels. Those on higher incomes have more disposable income and after spending money on everyday expenditure they have funds, which can be used to increase asset levels. One example of how those on higher earnings are able to increase their assets is the data on Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs). Data clearly shows that the average market value of ISAs held by holder

This post looks at the situation regarding earnings. All data is derived from the Office for National Statistics. “In financial year ending (FYE) 2024: Median equivalised household income in the UK before taxes and benefits was £38,900, increasing to £41,900 after taxes and benefits. The richest fifth of people's mean equivalised household income before taxes and benefits (£116,600) was 12.2 times larger than the poorest fifth (£9,600); however, this gap reduced to 3.3 tim

There is some debate in political circles and the media about taxation and which one should be taxed more or less. An earlier post looked at the question of wealth and the question of taxes. https://www.cornwallecon.com/post/the-problem-of-wealth-to-tax-or-not-to-tax-1 This post will set out some of the issues and questions about wealth/assets and income and what the most appropriate approach might be. Firstly, its essential to look at the two areas together rather than

A significant issue when it comes to housing in Cornwall is that local residents face competition from people from outside Cornwall who can sell a property in an area with high house values and then use the surplus to outbid local residents. A related issue is one where people with more resources can purchase dwellings to use as a holiday home or holiday let. Developers often cater to this market by building properties at the luxury end of the market knowing full well that s

Housing ‘wealth’ is like Schrodingers cat – its there but its not there! Much is made of the wealth of those with higher value dwellings but what does it really amount to? This post will examine the issues related to housing values across different areas. If we look at house values in Kensington & Chelsea median house prices in 2025 were £1,150,000. This compares to £140,000 in Blaenau Gwent and £143,000 in County Durham. So residents in Kensington & Chelsea are on this ba

The data from the ‘Understanding towns in England and Wales’ report from ONS includes 20 Cornish urban areas, 19 of which are towns. 14 of these urban areas were in the higher income deprived category with 6 in the medium deprived. Apart from Saltash and Torpoint all were in the ‘Further from a major town or city’ category. Median house prices vary across Cornwall, from £394,000 in St. Ives to £194,500 in Launceston. Highest increases in prices between 2001 and 2023 wer

House values by built-up areas (BUAs), follow the expected pattern linked to earnings with those with higher values largely in South East England and East of England. Outliers in other areas such as Bowdon in Cheshire or Ashley Heath in Dorset tend to be in the more affluent areas. At the other end of the scale we have BUAs where values are lower with a concentration in North East England, North West England, Wales, Yorkshire & the Humber. Outliers here are Jaywick in Es

The ONS has released data on towns across England and Wales. A number of variables relating to small towns. A number of posts will be released looking at the data to see what points emerge and the implications of these. Notes This article analyses data for 1,395 towns and cities in England and Wales with a population greater than 5,000 people, using the built-up areas (BUAs) 2024 geography. It develops on our previous Understanding towns articles. To help understand the da

This post looks at the data for the 315 local authorities in England and Wales. These include unitaries, district councils and London Boroughs. The differences in population size are therefore quite wide. Analysis of affordability and unoccupied dwelling provides some interesting results. [Variations in private sector rents at local authority level can largely be attributed to resident earnings. This is similar to the situation with house prices. Analysis of full-time ea

This post looks at the data for England and Wales. In all 315 local authorities were covered. These include unitaries, district councils and London Boroughs. The differences in population size are therefore quite wide. Analysis of private sector rents and several other variables provides some interesting results. Variations in private sector rents at local authority level can largely be attributed to resident earnings. This is similar to the situation with house prices.

Variations in house prices at local authority level can largely be attributed to resident earnings. A similar situation exists with private sector rents. Analysis of earnings from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings and private sector rents at local authority level shows that there is a relationship. Areas with higher earnings have higher rent levels. Using the statistical measure of correlation indicates a positive correlation of 0.8, which is considered strong.

There are various commentators, politicians and lobbyists who follow the baked beans school of housing economics. In essence they believe that houses are like baked beans. If there are insufficient houses or you want prices to fall then you supply more. That’s what happens with baked beans so it’s the same for houses. Baked beans oh same as houses!! Followers of this school are oblivious to some rather critical differences between houses and baked beans. Lets examine them

Despite an appearance of a pleasant environment - Cornwall has problems with health UK Main points In 2022 to 2024: Males in the UK could expect to spend 60.7 years (77% of life) in "good" general health, compared with 60.9 years (73%) for females; these were decreases of 1.8 and 2.5 years, respectively, compared with the last non-overlapping period (2019 to 2021). Despite modest increases in life expectancy since 2019 to 2021, healthy life expectancy (HLE) at birth in the

Of the 285,530 dwellings recorded in the 2021 census, 87.7% of these were occupied and 12.3% unoccupied. 36.6% of dwellings were detached houses or bungalows with 25% semi-detached, 21.6% terraced and 14.3% flats/maisonettes/apartments. Unoccupied dwellings had a different profile to the occupied one with lower shares of all categories but a higher share of flats/maisonettes/apartments and caravans. A fifth of all flats/maisonettes/apartments are in the unoccupied sector comp

A housing summit has been organised in Cornwall. The blurb for it is set out below. “A major new Cornwall Housing Summit will take place on Friday 17 April 2026 at Cornwall Council’s County Hall in Truro, bringing together leaders from housing, health, skills, planning, community and business sectors to tackle Cornwall’s deepening housing crisis. Cornwall has experienced years of rising house prices, soaring rents, growing waiting lists for social housing and increasing ho

Summary Before looking at the data for holiday homes and lets it’s important to look at the overall number of dwellings in Cornwall. There are three categories: all dwellings; dwellings on the council tax base and then the number of dwellings containing households. In 2024 there were 293,500 dwellings, 286,000 on the council tax list and 256,100 dwellings used for households. Comparing the three sets of data gives some intriguing results. In 2024 there were 29,900 more d

Introduction To get a picture of dwelling numbers and housing tenure in Cornwall requires analysis of several different data sets, from the Office for National Statistics and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The ones used for this post are: Annual household tenure estimates; 2021 census; Council tax base; Vacant dwellings data; ONS annual total stock. Taken together they provide a comprehensive outline of the current situation yet also introduce a deg

The Government released its Land Use Framework for England on March 18th. This is designed to provide “ a coherent national vision for how we use our land,… ” A land use framework is in principle a good idea, setting out what land is currently used for and what changes are necessary to ensure that land is used effectively and sustainably in the future. However, this document fails to do this. It alludes to the governments proposals to build 1.5 million houses, a policy