Pension freedoms are being compromised

If you are serious about receiving the best financial advice in Spain, chances are any adviser you choose will recommend that, in the absence of a committed property investment strategy, you do not invest too heavily in Spanish real estate.

However, for the enthusiastic expat who has recently fallen in love with the country and the idea of owning a small piece, or perhaps a larger chunk, of its picturesque and romantic charms, it can be hard to resist.

But the truth is that there is often a reason why a property might be going at a bargain basement rate. For example, investment in whole abandoned villages in isolated locations such as Aragón and Galicia has recently become something of a phenomenon, when the reality is that the outlay, which can be under €100,000, will buy you little more than a dilapidated shell without water, gas, electricity, telephone or internet services. So, making your bargain purchase habitable in these circumstances is likely to cost at least ten times as much the initial purchase price.

Labour MP for Islington South and Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry has published an article for Politics Home in which she calls for greater pensions freedoms for public sector workers.*

Written as part of her failed leadership campaign, the article named five major policy areas she felt the party needs to address in the future: climate crisis, the NHS, Social Care, affordable housing, and pensions.

In fact, the article was largely concerned with the issue of public sector pensions as Ms Thornberry warned that the country faced a “ticking time-bomb” in respect of the sums which will become payable in future decades. She quoted a 2017 estimate which suggested that public sector pension liabilities had a £1.7 trillion shortfall. She said that the public currently spends around £40 billion a year meeting this gap.