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Money raised when the 4G spectrum is flogged to networks should go toward helping young’uns buy their first home, Labour says.
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls is going to call for the new rules, which could see £3-4bn funnelled into affordable housing and a two-year stamp duty hiatus, the BBC reports.
The Nicola Murray Ed Miliband-fronted opposition will use a keynote speech in at the party conference in Manchester to float the idea. The huge chunk of moolah needed to fund Balls’ projects will come from operators like O2 and Vodafone, who are poised to splash huge piles of cash on buying up the bandwidth needed to roll out 4G networks in the UK.
100,000 affordable houses would be built over two years under the opposition’s plan, with stamp duty (a significant extra fee you pay when buying property) scrapped for two years on properties worth £250,000 or less. Balls says the ploy has the potential to “deliver real help for people aspiring to get on the property ladder.”
After years of speedy data drought, 4G is about to flood the UK, making tedious on-the-go-tasks like browsing the web, checking emails or loading .gifs of dogs copying their owners happen a lot faster.
Everything Everywhere (now known as EE) is going to kick off the first 4G network very soon, as Ofcom has allowed it to re-use its existing 1,800MHz spectrum for that very purpose. Other major networks must wait until the auction next year however.
Are you keen on 4G? And what do you think of Ed Balls’ schemes? Would this be a good way to spend the cash raised in the 4G auction, or can you think of a better use for the money? Tell me in the comments or on our Facebook wall.
