Sam Brodbeck

2 weeks ago | telegraph.co.uk | Sam Brodbeck

Except it isn't. People who actually want to buy a property, as opposed to rent, are being milked by the state via stamp duty. This is a tax pretty much everyone agrees is terrible - it prevents people moving somewhere bigger when they have families, and downsizing when their nests are empty. Moving is not only good for society (it makes sense that people in the right-sized homes feel more settled and content), but also the economy.

2 weeks ago | yahoo.com | Sam Brodbeck

Angela Rayner was the big winner from this week’s spending review, where ministers battled it out to convince the Treasury they are most deserving of the billions of pounds they want. Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, who is also in charge of housing, secured £39bn to fund the building of social and affordable homes.

3 weeks ago | telegraph.co.uk | Sam Brodbeck

The lucky recipients - myself among them - of these so-called "gifted deposits" are now having children of their own. Once the sprogs reach school age, and your holidays are restricted to times when half the country is also off, the costs are truly astronomical - and they're getting worse. Colleagues on the Telegraph Travel desk found a return flight to Corfu from Gatwick with easyJet cost £1,300 per person during last week's half-term break.

1 month ago | aol.co.uk | Sam Brodbeck

In Britain today it’s hard to find many things that aren’t broken. Even M&S has gone off the rails, leaving a million shopping baskets full of pants and socks yet unable to be purchased. But the tax system takes the crown. There are many absurdities in the ways the state relieves us of our income but there can be none more stupid, more anti-growth than the many random “marginal” rates of income tax that actively penalise a pay rise.

1 month ago | telegraph.co.uk | Sam Brodbeck

Using your pension to dodge income tax isn't without personal sacrifice, of course. It entails tying up money for years, perhaps decades, with no certainty over what the tax system will look like when you do finally draw the money out. While that money is likely to be invested in stocks and bonds, there is no guarantee that British companies will be the recipients. And, as one reader pointed out, money going into a pension is not being spent in the economy.