Arty crafty
It is less than 100 years since the end of the Arts and Crafts Movement
which brought traditional design and processes to furniture and pottery from
1880 to about 1910. Joy McCall head of 20th century decorative arts
at Christies says "The artistry, essentially, the fact it is hand produced, and
exquisite detailing" characterises the age. She is organising Christie’s Arts
and Crafts sale on July 5th and hopes for a lot of interest. In the
sale she has some Doulton pottery. And she says the key thing to look for is a
signature.
"Primarily people should be looking for stoneware items initialled by a particular maker. Mark Marshal (MVM) Hannah and Florence Barlow (H with two Bs either side) or perhaps George Tinworth (GT) who modelled little mice or frogs. But any initials check them out."
Furniture from Heal’s is also in the sale at what Joy calls very affordable prices – "mid hundreds to low thousands. Tables, chairs, bookcases. Also Gordon Russell. Items many people will have but not realise there is a market."
More expensive is a ‘Wally Bird’ tobacco jar modelled on the face of an unidentified dignitary of the 1870s. Called Martinware after the brothers who made it this example is expected to fetch up to £15,000.
So if you have furniture or decorative pieces from a hundred or so years ago there may be money in them. Or if you want to start a collection you can do it for modest prices.
Water prices
In 2000 the water companies in England and Wales were forced by the
regulator Ofwat to slash prices by 12.5% and keep them low for five years. But
the companies complained that they could not keep prices down and mend the
leaking pipes which lose a quarter of all the water they process before it
reaches our taps. So in 2005 the price cap was lifted and they were allowed to
put bills up each year by an average of 4.2% above inflation. The money would be
spent on renewing water mains many of which dated back to the reign of Queen
Victoria.
This year bills will rise by 7% in England and Wales putting up the average bill by £20 to a record £312 a year. Despite the extra money some companies are not achieving their target to cut leaks which are running at a staggering 149 litres every day for every property on the network. That is almost exactly the same as the 151 litres each of us uses each day. So leakage is like having another person in every home! And people who live alone pay for twice as much as they use. Last year Thames Water – which leaks twice as much as other companies and missed its leakage target for six years in a row – was forced to spend an extra £150 million on renewing water mains. This money had to come from shareholders not customers.
One way to pay less for water may be to have a meter fitted. Barely a quarter of us do but many people who live alone or in small households would cut their bills if they used a meter rather than paying the fixed water rate. Meters will be fitted free by all the water companies in England and Wales.
Wave & Pay
If you’ve just got used to Chip and PIN, then get ready for Wave and Pay!
Over the next few years credit and debit cards in the UK will be upgraded so
they can be used without a PIN to pay for items under £10. The technology will
be familiar to people with a London Transport Oyster Card. But that can only be
used to pay for journeys on tubes and London buses. Now Visa and Mastercard are
beginning to fit it to their standard credit and debit cards. If you see this
sign 
on your card it has the
new technology. And if you see 
in a shop or
on a vending machine then you will be able to pay just by touching your card
onto the payment terminal.
The new technology will only let you pay for items less than £10 – a newspaper or cup of coffee for example. So if you lose your card the amount that can be stolen through fraudulent use will be small and the card provider will reimburse you. And from time to time you will also be asked for your PIN just to check you are really you.
At first the new ‘contactless’ cards will be used in a pilot area in seven London postcode areas. It will begin rolling out to the whole of the UK during 2008 but it will be some years before it is universal.
Energy social tariffs
People who cannot afford their fuel bills should be given discounts on their
bills and help with energy savings measures. That is the recommendation of
Energywatch, the gas and electricity watchdog, which wants the Government to
force the energy companies to introduce what it calls ‘social tariffs’ for
people in fuel poverty. That is defined as spending more than 10% of your income
on energy bills and the Government has committed itself to take all vulnerable
households – including those over 60 – out of fuel poverty by 2010 and all
households out of it by 2016. But with gas bills up 94 per cent and electricity
up 60 per cent from 2003 to 2006 that target is looking more and more unhittable.
At the moment some energy suppliers do offer reduced prices to some customers. But provision is patchy and people with prepayment meters can pay £100 a year more for their fuel than those who pay by direct debit.
Energywatch wants the Government to make energy companies provide three things. A cheaper tariff, help with insulation and other improvements to reduce energy use, and benefit entitlement checks to maximise income.
The power companies would pay for the programme as part of their existing obligations to reduce the amount of energy used.
Hiding from the tax man
The Government has revealed that at least 112,000 people live in the UK but
pay no tax on their worldwide income. They are called resident but
non-domiciled. That means that although they live here they are not liable to
tax on any income that arises outside the UK. So if they have substantial
interests abroad or fees from foreign companies these are free of UK tax.
‘Domicile’ is a strange concept and unique to UK tax law. It normally means where you were born, or where your father was born. So UK residents who were born elsewhere can avoid tax on any income that is not earned in this country. This tax regime is so generous to wealthy foreigners that a paper for the International Monetary Fund recently listed the UK along with the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, and Panama as ‘offshore financial centres’. In other words tax havens. Most other countries tax long term residents on all their income.
Although the Government admitted that 112,000 people indicated on self-assessment tax forms in 2004/05 that their status was non-domiciled Treasury Minister Ed Balls still refused to say how many foreign tax avoiders might live here altogether – some paying no tax at all and not filling in a tax return. "No overall figure…is available" he told MPs. Nor would he say how much tax was lost through this loophole. Despite a promise in 2002 to look into non-domicile tax status nothing has so far been done. The Treasury says the study is ‘on-going’.
The treatment of these wealthy foreign residents is in sharp contrast to the way UK citizens who are domiciled here are taxed. Recently the Revenue warned UK residents who had offshore savings accounts but did not pay tax on the interest they earned that they would have to pay double the tax if they were caught. That is more likely since the Revenue got new powers to make the banks pass on details of their UK customers with savings abroad..
Standard Life
About 240,000 customers of Standard Life have still not claimed shares and
cash worth nearly £280 million. The money is due to them following Standard
Life’s conversion from a mutual insurance society to a public company owned by
shareholders. But a year since the changeover last July the company says 220,000
former members have still not claimed their shares and 20,000 others have not
claimed cash worth £18 million. Three people are owed shares worth more than
£100,000 although most payouts will be much smaller.
Anyone who was a customer of Standard Life up to last July may have an entitlement to shares or cash and should call the helpline on 0845 275 3000
Smoke and mirrors
On July 1st smoking anywhere except in the open air or your own
home or car will become illegal in England. The rest of the UK has had similar
laws for some months. One purpose of the new law is to encourage people to give
up smoking which will prolong their life and save them money. But if you are
approaching retirement and have a pension fund you want to turn into an annuity
it might be worth waiting a few months before giving up smoking completely.
An annuity is an income for life and as smokers live a shorter time, insurance companies will give them a bigger income for the same lump sum. The best smoker’s annuity is about 15% higher than the best available to a non-smoker. For example 65 year old man with £100,000 pension fund could get £7239 a year as a non-smoker but £8440 from the top specialist annuity provider if he smoked. A woman of the same age would get £6775 as a non-smoker but £7821 if she smoked.
So although everyone should give up tobacco as soon as they can, if retirement approaches a short delay could prove very profitable. Once the annuity is in payment it will not change even if you do then give up.
July 2007