JonD

Maybe Heaton Mersey, although that's starting to get quite far round the M60 from Altrincham. Northenden has a conservation area so may have some old style houses you would like, although you might consider it too close to Wythenshawe. Gatley could also be an option. Just be careful about how long it will take you to drive to Knutsford in the morning however, as some of these places can look close on the map but the traffic can add a lot of time.

A weak pound is good for rebalancing the economy however. It discourages imports and makes uk producers more competitive at home and abroad. Sorting out Labour's mess is going to be painful however its done but low interest rates, with tight lending criteria and reduced government spending seems the best way to rebuild the economy in a sustainable manner.

True, which is why I added 'perhaps' before it. I've never had a cleaner and wouldn't have one but some people do. Child care is the major expense on that list though and my main point still stands which is that the opportunity cost of both going to work is not being taken into account by the headline comparison.

"I'd like fair treatment between single income and dual income family. " I don't yet have kids and I'm not a higher rate tax payer. However, a dual income family with kids will have considerable additional expenses to a single income couple with kids - eg. child care, work expenses, perhaps a cleaner, etc. It would be fairer to look at the relative disposable income of the two households and here I reckon you would find the difference is a lot less than the headline figures of £80k v £44k. Its also worth noting that a dual income family are paying more tax than a single income family. Secondly, the basic point is that its not the governments fault if only one person in a family works. I'd love not to have to work but as I want to buy stuff and have a good quality of life I do. Simple

I don't entirely understand this article. A couple of points, Steve Webb is a Lib Dem and a well known leftie so he's not going to be doing something that detrimental to the workers. Second, from this Guardian interview it seems that the any change is voluntary and a company would still have to go through a formal procedure with their staff to make a change. Q: What effect will CPI indexation have on people in private occupational schemes? A: What we do – and the only thing that we do – is we set a floor. We say that pensions in payment have to go up by a minimum amount. We've said we will define that in terms of CPI not RPI. But that does not prevent any scheme from paying more than that if they want to, or if they have scheme rules saying they will link by RPI and they decide not to change. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/17/steve-webb-conservatives-kneejerk-reactions

The BBC itself is of course pretty good at playing the tax system. ------ BBC advises stars on avoiding tax MANY of the BBC’s highest-paid presenters have set up service companies that help them to pay less tax and will enable them to escape the full impact of Labour’s 50% levy on the rich. Long-serving stars including Jeremy Paxman, Fiona Bruce and James Naughtie have set themselves up as freelance contractors rather than staffers. The device enables the BBC and its presenters to lower their tax bills legally, leaving the rest of the country to shoulder a larger burden. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article6860238.ece' rel="external nofollow">

Its BtL mortgages that need to be capped otherwise its far too easy for landlords to buy houses that first time buyers can't while they save up a deposit.

Yes, that's roughly what I was planning to do. From looking at the USS website, their pension is RPI linked and 50% survivor benefits, so as you said an equivalent annuity would be pretty pricey.

Thanks for the reply. Once you get an answer, how are you going to decide if its better to transfer or stay put?

I'm currently a USS member although I will probably be leaving Uni employment next year with 5 years service so this chance is of interest. The increased contribution makes sense but the CPI/2.5% link is of concern. Currently USS pension benefits are: Annual Pension - 1/80 * years of service * final salary Lump Sum - 3* Annual Pension For me with 5 years service this would work out at £1875 a year + £5625 lump sum. As this is inflation linked, to buy an annuity giving this much would cost between £40,000 and £50000 for retirement at 65. Assuming an inflation rate of 2.5% as used in the new USS rules, this would increase to a pot of about £100,000 to £120,000 in 35 years time. The key would be what the transfer out value from the USS scheme would be - these are only available on request. Does anyone here know how they are calculated? If it is relatively small compared to £40,000 then the likelihood of being able to grow it to larger than the £100-120k I mentioned earlier is low. If it is close to £40k then I would be happy to transfer it into a SIPP and have a go at increasing it myself.

Except if you read the paper that is linked to in the Guardian article you will see this statement in bold at the start "IMPORTANT: Please note that the research described in this Release is a submission to the Mirrlees Review and that the conclusions reached will not necessarily be adopted in the final report. We are publishing a number of such submissions over the coming weeks and the review team would welcome feedback to mirrleesreview@ifs.org.uk" http://www.ifs.org.uk/mirrleesreview/press...ees_pr_corp.pdf This isn't output from the IFS, it's input. It may still come out with a biased report but we'd need to wait until it actually publishes its final report before jumping up and down and screaming bias. Jon

Are these the ones beside the Parrs Wood cinema and bowling? I'm certain there were a couple of flats from there in an auction in the last month and that one of them sold at less than 100K. I don't know if it was a ground floor one or badly located but i would be careful about buying there. I will have a look and try and find a link. edit: here's the auction result. http://www.eigroup.co.uk/auctioneers/templ...ah&l=507991 It hadn't sold when I first looked at the auction results with a reserve of 100K (I think) but it has now. Jon