An independent (financial adviser’s) view

By the time you read this, it will all be over. Perhaps you boosted the economy by?celebrating?or drowning?your sorrows until 1am in front of a giant Sky TV screen?at your local pub, if you still have such a thing; or shopped early to take your own booze home, as your local Tescos were planning to close in time for the match.?So, fantastic result/you gave it your best shot, guys/you were rubbish, delete as applicable. Let's hope Spain will have been happy with a win at?Wimbledon which, when it finishes always feels?to me like the end of high summer. Maybe I just need another holiday. Anyway, some interesting post-election trivia. Apparently the LibDems' (pretty successful) strategy was to target Tory seats which have a Gails and/or Waitrose, and to leave others (presumably with a Greggs and/or Aldi) to Labour. Which makes me feel a tad pigeon-holed;?but who says simple can’t, from time to time,?be best?

“Jeremy Vine latest to face HMRC in IR35 battle”

Yes, you heard it here first, there was something good in Liz Truss’s mini-budget: she abolished, or tried to abolish IR35. The ‘IR’ stands for Inland Revenue, so you can see it’s a regulation, or attempt at a regulation, which goes back to pre-HMRC days (that’s when it was merged with Customs & Excise, kids etc.). It’s meant to stop big firms contracting with workers via their own one-man limited companies, and so avoiding PAYE and NI when the workers in question are, as they would see it, actually employees. It’s been pretty much unenforceable, or, at best, enforceable on a pretty patchy basis and where it’s been challenged the taxmen have lost as many times as they’ve won. The Truss argument was that it stifled enterprise and cost more to run or not run than it brought in. And, I’m choking on the words, I think she and Kwasi were right. Jeremy Vine is the latest of a number of high profile stars they’ve pursued, who have the means and inclination to challenge them. Over to you, Rachel and Keir.

“Labour’s social care plans welcome despite ‘daunting goal'”

I have had two meetings involving the real world of social care in the last few days, the funding of which, for those with the means, we often help to plan. Both involved residents or spouses thereof of what would be classified top-of-the-range homes, all with great facilities and, I’m sure, staff, but in the real world no Thursday Murder Club-style red wine lunches and jolly chats. The other part of the reality is that they cost at least ￡1500 per week. So any talk of caps of “￡40,000 on the amount anyone in England will need to spend on care in their lifetime” are not real world either. What happens then? Are they shipped out to a lower-cost “council” facility? Are they moved back to their own home with agency carers popping in? Furthermore, anyone who has been involved at the sharper end of trying to get any of this stuff sorted will know that it involves both form after form and a lengthy wait. Sorry for the doom and gloom, but it’s hard to be optimistic. Root and branch required, I’m afraid.

“Reeves to bring back housebuilding targets”

Yes, this is all part of the plan for growth, growth, growth, but a big part of the pitch is to provide homes for those currently priced out of the market. And that’s many or most of those under 30; or 40 even. The problem is and will be that just building 1.5m new homes does not make them affordable to those who need or want them. The basic economic theory of supply and demand does not apply to property in the same way as, say strawberries: that they get cheaper when there are a lot more around. Taylor Swift tickets are maybe a better analogy: demand increases to meet supply, and many are prepared to pay a lot more for the better ones. So those that want them are still not able to afford them without parental help. The answer for property is that, yes, it may come down in price a bit. But incomes have to rise to meet it halfway; and mortgages need to become both more available and affordable.

“Reeves includes pensions in series of reforms for growth”

I’ve had several emails within days of the Labour Landslide, from clients worried about their tax-free cash, tax relief on pension contributions or IHT and what will or won’t be paid out from their pensions on death. All rumour and speculation, as the only mention of pensions by a new government person so far is Rachel Reeve’s call/hope for pension funds to invest more in the UK. She’s talking here about the big final salary and occupational pensions, which, although part of a dying breed, still have many ￡billions on which they need to get a return. As for the rumours, who knows. What should comfort is that past, significant changes to pensions have only taken effect for new plans or new investments, not for what’s already there. A new broom could sweep in a different direction; but that’s not what’s been trailed so far.

If you linger over a table in a Waterstones/Daunt/Foyles or other big bookshop, you are more than likely to be approached by a highly literate young employee who will tell you how great the book you’re browsing is, they devoured it?in a weekend etc. This one had a table to itself, great cover, looked unusual in many ways and I am of course a sucker for a subtle sales line.?It’s a translation of a 1970s Catalan original, which may not instantly appeal. I do, however, have history with Barcelona and Catalonia, where the book is set, having lived there for a while some 40 years ago, when Spain was just emerging from Franco-times. This is set a couple of years before his death and his grip on the country is starting to loosen. Its??central character, Natalia, left to escape the repression of the dictatorship, which was very tough on 60’s students and returns after 12 years to a changing country, a much-changed family and friends who stayed behind. Although it is very much a period piece Natalia is an engaging and very real person, the relationships are relatable and still contemporary. It provides a snapshot of a piece of recent history with which many may not be familiar, a dictatorship ruling a country where Brits were flocking, to Lloret de Mar and the like, for cheap package?hols. Although the translation makes it at times a challenging read, I was carried along by its exuberance, finished it pretty quickly and enjoyed the experience very much.