Londoners react to potential tax rises

The Chancellor has made a pre-budget speech, refusing to rule out tax rises.

Transcript

00:00Chancellor Rachel Reeves has refused to rule out a tax rise in the upcoming budget,

00:09insisting that she must deal with the world that she finds it, and not the world as she wishes it might be.

00:17The UK Chancellor foreshadowed an incoming tax increase, a breach of Labour's manifesto commitment

00:26as a result of the public finances being in a worse state than expected after what she said was years of economic mismanagement.

00:38She said that if they try to build a better Britain together, they will all have to contribute to that effort.

00:46So there you have it, tax increases may be on the way, but what do Londoners think of a tax rise?

00:50Do they think it's necessary, and where should the money be spent in the capital and across the UK?

00:56Yeah, I think everybody that comes from the middle upper classes is affecting us,

01:01because for the generation of business, you know, enterprise, sometimes people have small businesses to run,

01:07they give jobs to people, so all these increases does affect them.

01:11For example, in my case, it does affect the taxes that I'm going to pay this year.

01:15I think if you can afford taxes, you should pay, and I think we should be taxing really, really rich people more.

01:21And if they choose to go and live in Dubai, we'll hope they have a nice life, you know, I don't have a problem with that.

01:26You have to pay for schools, education, social services, roads, we have to pay for it.

01:35And unless people are going to invest in it, we've got to pay taxes, so I don't have a problem with it.

01:40It's going to affect the tax that they have imposed on education that I think is really unfair,

01:45because you have to, you know, you try to do the best education for your kids,

01:49and if you have to go private, then taxing on that, I think it's a, I don't know,

01:54it seems like a resentment tax, to be honest with you.

01:56I don't know enough about it.

01:59I, in principle, would agree with it, and think that it's a good idea for the wealthy to help pay for

02:06things that make society function better.

02:09Definitely. Um, I think, uh, since 2008, there was a massive issue of cash, basically in the market

02:22to keep the banks afloat. Um, and a lot of people had to get by on loans and things. So those people

02:28who had money had a, a lot of money given to them to invest in long-term things, because interest rates

02:33were very low. So like 0% interest rate or very low. So people buy houses, they can invest in stocks

02:40and shares and all that stuff. So it created, um, a huge amount of wealth and that's tied up cash in

02:48this country. And the one thing we need to start growing the economy again is cash back in the economy.