I thought I would get some words of encouragement to apply for a senior management role, but support is not forthcoming

On Friday and Monday we will publish the problems that will feature in a forthcoming Dear Jeremy advice column in the Guardian Work supplement, so readers can offer their own advice and suggestions. We then print the best of your comments alongside Jeremy's own insights. Here is the latest dilemma – what are your thoughts?

I have been with my company for nearly two years and enjoy my job. There is an opportunity for a promotion to a senior management position, for which I feel I am qualified and have the appropriate experience. The job is being advertised internally and externally.

I get on well with my colleagues and they are great to work with, but since I said I was going to apply for the job I have had no words of support or encouragement from them. They have seemed quite negative and muttered whether I knew what a high profile job it was etc. The senior management team have not given me any encouragement to apply either, even though they are aware it is a job I am very interested in. As far as I am aware none of my colleagues are applying for the job, so I am not going up against any of them.

The competition will be intense from the external candidates so I am not assuming I will get the job, but a word of support would be helpful. This has affected my confidence and I am now wondering whether I should apply or not?

• For Jeremy's and readers' advice on a work issue, send a brief email to dear.jeremy@guardian.co.uk. Please note that he is unable to answer questions of a legal nature or reply personally.

Joris speaks to a former investment banker about stress, disillusionment and the strategies behind the Facebook flotation

• This monologue is part of a series in which people across the financial sector speak about their working lives

He is an inconspicuous man with an easy laugh, English, in his mid 40s. He orders a cappuccino.

"Much of investment banking is not about being a brilliant fisherman. It's about muscling into a spot on that riverbank where you can throw your net out. Getting into the money flow. Have you watched the Sopranos? Making managing director is like being made captain. Instead of a patch of New Jersey, you are given a product area where you get to collect the rent.

"Are investment bankers bothered by this? I was. That's one reason I left. I'd say many suppress it. It's a bit like insurance fraud, it can feel like victimless crime. Everyone around you is doing it. You are under enormous stress working your balls off, so it doesn't feel like easy money, either. Group dynamics are strong. Basically dissenters get trashed, or ascribed an ulterior motive for voicing opposition. It's weird how some people feel attracted to the dark side. Once they are cast as a bad guy, they relish it rather than feel guilty or troubled.

"Investment banking is a trap, a game and an addiction. The reward is big, but uncertain, which makes it exciting and keeps you coming back for more. Once the money starts flowing it's very, very hard to take yourself away from it. There are these people queuing up behind you, eyeing your job. Doing a deal is like scoring a goal, or maybe for journalists, getting a scoop. The game element is in the rivalry with other equity capital markets (ECM) teams, winning the mandate, legging over the competition … Also the emptiness that comes with addiction; I have read athletes' accounts describing standing on the podium after they won, feeling nothing at all.

"In the years before I quit I made around a million a year …. My successor, he got a lot more. When I heard that, I remember thinking: fuck, I should have stayed. Ha ha!

"When you go in for your yearly bonus … Crucial is not to let any indication emerge you're happy with the number. Extreme disappointment is better, even fury. Go in po-faced, come out po-faced. Then, inwardly, I would think: I cannot believe I'm going to be handed so much money for one year's work. The elation doesn't last. It must be what Philip Larkin called in another context 'fulfilment's desolate attic'. I also felt this was dirty money.

"You are paid a huge amount, but there's a trade-off. You have signed away your right to respect, fulfilment, gratitude, admiration for a job well done … It's all expressed and monetised in that bonus number. How dare anyone complain? Your boss will say hundreds out there are dying to get your job. You wonder: if that's the case, why am I so miserable?

Most of us were hopeless with the money. Some were of the gambling disposition, others saw themselves as great traders. Both ended up making rash investments. Also spending it on new houses, cars, wives … The wife's vanity project was another sink hole.

"I quit because the work was depressing me, literally. For others, it's not that easy. Boarding school can be over 30k a year, per child, after taxes. People have bought into the lifestyle, knowing they won't find anything nearly as well paid in other industries. They are married to someone who may not have chosen them for the money, but it's certainly part of the picture.

"I have known so many middle-aged men who went to private schools, well educated, and yet they were working in this horrible environment, putting in the hours, travelling on the tube, rarely seeing their family … For what? So their children can go to private school, too, and the cycle continues. Nobody wants to be the generation that slips. Of course, this is a particularly English trap; banking's not dominated by private-school types any more. You'll find every nationality under the sun. But they all share a high regard for money.

"I just lost interest in saying the same bullshit over and over again. Or the shouting with salesmen and analysts – cajoling them to flog their clients the deal I was doing. Shouting, that's right. It was a bit like a parent-child relationship with some; they'd have their tantrums, calm down and do the right thing.

"The job. ECM is about managing large share offerings; companies raise money through issuing new shares, or vendors sell down existing stakes. Sometimes it's a combination: In the Facebook deal, some of the money is going to Zuckerberg and his backers, some into the company itself. Our job is connecting those companies to institutional parties with money to invest; pension funds, insurance funds, investment funds, hedge funds, and the like. Amounts range from $100m to multi-billions. We receive a percentage fee.

"Issuing shares for the first time is called 'floating' a company or an Initial Public Offering (IPO). You can also issue more shares – a secondary offering. As a bank you are in charge as the 'book-runner', or a member of the syndicate of banks brought together by the book runner.

"There are two reasons for syndicates. Banks have different client bases – relationships with particular investors and more banks means more coverage. Two, each bank has research analysts writing reports for investors recommending them to buy or sell a share. With all the top analysts on board, you won't get dissenting voices – it's an open secret that the majority of recommendations by research analysts are 'buy' and any deal-related research is always positive, of course.

"The ECM person makes the deal happen. Juniors (called analysts, associates and vice-presidents) do the research and put together the pitches and slick-looking presentations. As an MD you get on that plane, meet that client and sell yourself: our bank has the most influential research analysts, the highest-ranking equity sales people who – drawing on the work of those research analysts – call up investors and persuade them to buy particular shares. We have done the most deals in your sector, etc …

"I would spend half my time pitching deals, the other half doing them. Part is due diligence – going through the company's books, mostly by lawyers. There is convincing the risk committee at the bank: will this deal happen, will it go well, might this company harm our reputation? On the whole my experience is that the bar is low if the fee is high. If there are future fees to be had from the client, that counts for a lot.

"Part of the art of ECM is creating the impression the IPO is incredibly oversubscribed; you try to generate momentum however you can. If a share was really 'hot', we'd give it to big institutional players in exchange for favours. As I said, allocating 'hot shares' is essentially giving someone money – you know the stock price will shoot up once trading starts. The favours from big players were never explicit; they would give us business on the secondary markets, say, directing trades our way so the bank made commissions; or they'd help us out by placing an order on stickier issues. Institutional investors like pension funds are supposed to hold shares for a long time but many 'flip' hot shares. You can't blame them. They are also supposed to generate returns for their pension holders.

"Facebook is a classic example. Retail (individual) investors will be clamoring for stock, but they'll be shafted in favour of the institutions. The stock will probably 'pop' on the first day of trading, and many of those institutions will book an instant profit by selling them into the market. Retail investors will probably be left holding the baby if and when the price tanks.

"The system consists of skimming off everyone's pensions and savings: the banks make money taking a cut between the fund manager at, say, a pension fund, and the vendor (company issuing the shares) … The fund manager makes his money by charging a fee to the pension funds – ordinary people. You get corporations keeping an eye on the chocolate biscuit bill, then paying out huge fees to banks. If they saw how easy most of our work was, they would weep. Why do they put up with the fees? They have no choice, essentially. It's a cartel. And they'd rather pay up than go into business with somebody no one's heard of. Reputation is decisive.

"Everyone knows everyone is saying the same things in pitches. What's important for a CEO is getting the deal done, not keeping costs down; what's 50 million between friends? I suppose percentage points also make the amount seem less. There's an analogy with selling your house. In the supermarket you diligently compare the price of two packets of tea, with estate agents you suddenly put up with huge fees. You know they are all the same and do nothing special. But you just don't dare doing it without them.

"Another question is why bankers get so much. The lawyers do half of the work but might get one million, the bankers 15. In the USA, IPO fees have always been absurdly high. I remember when we secured a deal by offering a vastly reduced fee. A furious call came from America: 'You are destroying the fucking oligopoly'. Deals under US$500m would pay out 7%, bigger deals not much less. Facebook managed to knock the banks down to just over 1%. They will still make well over US$100m, so don't get your violin out.

"Why aren't more banks trying to get a piece of the ECM action? There are huge barriers to entry. You need an equity sales force, research analysts, long-term relationships with big investors. Then in most cases you need a capital base, as you are underwriting the issue. Usually that's counter-party risk; you have bought the shares, but only after having pre-sold them to your institutional investors.

"Big deals are quite a journey and you develop a kind of brother-in-arms friendship, with clients, with colleagues at other banks working on the same deal … You start out with the client and your own team looking pristine, presenting your slick-looking pitch. Then come the negotiations, stress, travel, late-night meetings … Months later you have been in a room together for 24 hours. Your shirt is unbuttoned, you stink, you plunge into the inevitable last-minute negotiations with the lawyers, it goes on and on, and then … You sign. It's real and dirty, a very masculine thing if you will.

"That moment when you order in sandwiches, go outside and decide now is the time to start smoking again. The war stories, 'you remember when the client said this, and you said that …?' Sometimes you never want to see the client again, but you have to go out for a celebratory dinner and make more deathly small talk when all you want is go home and see your wife for a change.

"I am painting an incredibly bleak picture. On the positive side, ECM does provide a genuine service. You can't just walk into a building and extract billions from sophisticated institutional investors. You need the infrastructure; technical, legal and negotiation skills, personal charm, stamina, judgement … My point: there is no sensible relationship between pay and skill.

"The work sometimes wasn't useless. We might float a company where the principal beneficiary planned to use the revenue for philanthropy. Sometimes we'd help a good business grow. Privatisations meant raising money for a government, not making an individual richer. Those privatisations would be for much lower fees by the way, made up by the prestige they brought. Most bankers argue they are oiling the wheels of the economy. Most outsiders wouldn't put it that way.

"It's been a few years since I left. I checked with this colleague who is still in the business if things had changed. Not fundamentally, he said. I asked, are you still finishing presentations at the last minute, and getting into planes? He laughed. Turns out, he had just finished a presentation at the last minute, and was getting ready for the airport. The hit-rate for pitches is quite low, a lot of work comes to nothing. Some colleagues would be in the office every weekend. The truth was, they'd rather be there, than with their families."

• Follow @JLbankingblog on Twitter

Each week we look at retailers competing in the same sector. This week, fast-food titans McDonald's and Burger King are pitched together

Each week we look at two shops competing in the same sector, and review what they are offering customers: from how helpful the staff are, to the best bargains currently on offer.

Our review will be based on a visit to stores on the same high street, or online, so it will be just a snapshot of how the retailer is performing.

In order to get a better idea of which retailers are delivering and which are falling short, we would like you to tell us about your experiences of the same shops.

Some weeks, both stores we visit may do a good job, other weeks there will be one that stands out as being much better or worse. Your reviews will help us discover if this is a trend.

This week, it's the battle of the big shot burger flippers McDonald's and Burger King. Please continue to tell us which stores you would like us to go to.

McDonald's

Background The world's biggest burger chain started in 1940 in the US as a barbecue restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald. They switched to burgers in 1948 and the chain now serves 68 million customers a day in 119 countries.

The visit 8pm, 14 May, Balham High Road, south London.

What it sells Burgers, chicken sandwiches, french fries, salads, milkshakes, flurries and a variety of hot and cold drinks.

First impressions The Balham branch of McDonald's sits on the busiest retail part of Balham high road near a large branch of Sainsbury's, Boots and the underground station. It has a wide glass frontage with a bus stop outside, and inside is decorated in bold colours with a long slope from the front door to the counter for those in wheelchairs or with mobility issues. Several of the tables are dirty and littered with the detritus of previous meals. There is plenty of space as there were only about 11 people in there. The music is unidentifiable dross but the branch offers free Wi-Fi.

What were the staff like? Just one person serving, with a tattoo on his arm which says "Bad". In fact Bad man was efficient, quickly pulling our order together and stopping us when we started walking away without our apple pies. But there were no smiles or small talk, he assumed we wanted to take away without asking, and didn't offer us any dips or sauces.

Best bargain Big Mac Meal.

What does it charge? Happy meals £2.39; Big Breakfast bap £2.39, or £3.49 if you upgrade to include fries and drink; double cheeseburger £1.49; mayo chicken sandwich 99p. Fries come in 89p, 99p, and £1.39 portions, dips are 10p, milkshakes are £1.59 or £1.79. Prices vary depending on the store.

Where can I pay? A counter runs across most of the back of the shop. There was no contest for the server's attention – we walked straight up and ordered immediately.

Is loyalty rewarded? If there is a loyalty scheme, it's well hidden.

Lasting impressions It was all a bit depressing, even though the other customers were chatting quite happily. The staff seem dejected and so does the food. We ordered a Big Mac, a quarter-pounder with cheese, fries, a chocolate milkshake, a diet coke and two apple pies.

The Big Mac tasted nice, with lots of iceberg lettuce and gherkins (restaurants should use more gherkins), but it kept slithering apart, perhaps because of the unidentifiable orangey coloured gloop slathered in the middle. The cheeseburger was tasteless and bland, and the chocolate milkshake slightly grainy and not at all chocolatey. My daughter told me I should have ordered strawberry, which is apparently much nicer.

However, the hot apple pies were a revelation: crunchy on the outside, giving way to a steamy, luscious and fragrant apple and cinnamon interior. I think the Guardian canteen would make a fortune if it offered these.

Overall rating 5/10 (9 for the apple pies).

Burger King

Background The company began in 1953 as the less snappy Insta-Burger King, but ran into financial difficulties two years later and was taken over by two franchisees – the first in a line of new owners over the years. It was last bought in 2010 by 3G Capital of Brazil in a deal worth $3.26bn. Last year it had more that 12,400 outlets in 73 countries, of which 66% are US-based.

The visit 7pm, 17 May, Balham High Road, south London.

What it sells Burgers, chicken sandwiches, fries, milkshakes, a variety of hot and cold drinks.

First impressions The branch is attached to a petrol station and offers a drive through service and a small seating area inside, in an area mostly surrounded by houses and flats. The restaurant has glass on three sides and is bright and pristine inside – no rubbish or dirt to be seen, but no customers either. The piped music is still unidentifiable, but quite pleasant.

What were the staff like? Sweet. There was one man serving drive-through customers and one serving people at the counter. He was friendly and double checked what we wanted, especially when I asked for apple fries (I was thinking "Hot apple pie", he was clearly thinking "This woman doesn't know these are sticks of fresh apple"). He asked whether we wanted to eat in or out, and gave us three sachets of ketchup each without asking.

Best bargain Burger King offers a different special meal deal every day, comprising a bun, fries and drink for £3.99.

What does it charge? Breakfast in bread £2.99; fries £1.49; cheeseburger £1.99; milkshake £1.69; mini pancakes 99p; kid's meal £2.99. Prices vary depending on the store.

Where can I pay? At the single counter, but as we were the only customers there was no contest for the attention of the staff.

Is loyalty rewarded? Not that I could see.

Lasting impressions I was pleasantly surprised, even though the branch had run out of chocolate and strawberry milkshake, as well as a special it was promoting – cross cross fries. Even though the place was completely empty, the staff were welcoming and the food was … well, there is no other word but delicious.

The fries were crispy, piping hot and not too salty, the Whopper was thick and tasty with crunchy onion and lettuce (though not quite enough gherkin), and the vanilla milkshake was creamy and full of flavour. I'd like to tell you what my daughter's chicken sandwich was like but she wolfed it before I got a look in. We also tried the pancakes with maple syrup – a bag of cute, puffed up pancakes with very thick syrup: nice. But the whole meal was more expensive by about £4 than McDonald's and I missed the hot apple pies.

Overall rating 8/10.

Last week

It was a case of none of the above last week, with 76% of the 251 votes giving our headline stores, Ernest Jones and H Samuel, a miss.

ssjgr01 summed it up neatly:

"Not someone else, anyone else. Small, independent jewellers are the place to go."

And there were a number of shoutouts for independent jewellers. As Loumo put it:

"If you go to an independent you get more interesting unusual stuff, better treatment (they understand that a price limit is a price limit and not a starting point for negotiations), and often people are prepared to be a bit more flexible about price."

SixFive, meanwhile, gave us an insight into the stores' prices compared to a visit to Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter:

"Quotes for replating a white gold ring (last week):

H. Samuel: £25
Ernest Jones £35
Birmingham Jewellery Quarter: £5 and a cup of tea thrown in."

Let us know which of today's stores you favour, or if you aren't a fan of either or think another store offers better choice or prices.

Two political rivals in east Yorkshire join forces to condemn the proposed VAT on static caravans. Their part of the north has thousands of jobs at stake

Among the issues causing controversy following the Budget on 21 March is the Chancellor's proposal to levy 20% VAT on static caravans from October.

This policy, produced without any prior warning or publicity, would have a disproportionate impact on the Hull and east Yorkshire area, where some 90% of the UK's caravan manufacturing industry is located.

The Government is introducing this VAT measure to iron out a perceived anomaly within the tax system, albeit not one that many people outside the Treasury have ever expressed any concern about. The merits of the proposed change are highly dubious – it was rejected when VAT was first introduced in the UK in 1973 – and efforts to deal with these issues often simply give rise to further anomalies.

Our main contention is one of priorities. How can a change of such trivial importance be justified without any consideration of the wider economic effects of the measure? The Treasury's own Budget impact assessment shows that VAT on static caravans would cut demand in the industry by 30%. There have been some even more worrying estimates from within the industry.

In turn this would lead to job losses, mainly in and around east Yorkshire, from local caravan firms and their supply chain running to several thousand. The UK holiday industry has estimated that the Caravan Tax would then have a knock-on effect that would lead to thousands more jobs going, especially in seaside towns and rural communities.

The job losses caused by the Caravan Tax would lead to more redundancy costs, increased welfare payments, and a loss of income tax and National Insurance revenues that would certainly mean that the tax would be a net loser of revenue. Indeed, the Treasury's own figures show the Caravan Tax losing revenue overall. It would raise £40m, but we estimate will cost £45m.

On the Caravan Tax, the Government has got itself a position of defending a measure that contradicts so many of its stated policy goals and the arguments ministers frequently use to support them. One of the justifications for the controversial decision to cut the 50p tax rate next year was that it does not raise enough. The Caravan Tax only raises £15m in its first year and would lose the Treasury revenue overall!

A Government that cuts Corporation Tax to boost jobs and growth should not be introducing a tax that would harm jobs and growth.

A Government that is concerned about rural areas and coastal towns should not pursue a measure that hits these areas, so dependent on the wider UK caravan holiday industry, so severely.

Neither is it wise or fair to impose such a huge further loss of private sector jobs on a hard-pressed city such as Hull where so many job-seekers already chase each job vacancy. The scale of job losses that the Caravan Tax would impose on East Yorkshire would be several times greater than those threatened at the local BAE Systems site in Brough.

The Caravan Tax also fails by any measure of fairness. While proposing to make static caravans less affordable for so many, there is no Budget tax proposal to target the second homes of the wealthiest.

In the debate about how to achieve sustained economic growth there is much upon which we disagree. The dangerous proposal to put VAT on static caravans is, however, an issue that unites us across the party divide. The Caravan Tax must be stopped now, before it can cause huge damage to an important private sector industry that has been working hard to recover from the global downturn of 2008/09.

It would be perverse for any Government keen on creating the conditions for growth, and especially one which speaks so often about the importance of 'rebalancing the economy' towards the north, manufacturing exports and private sector jobs , to do such damage to all these objectives. All for the sake of a tax adjustment of no real importance.

With Parliamentary petitions, debates and an Early Day Motion we are doing all that we can as local MPs to raise this urgent issue and persuade the Government to think again. The Government has helpfully extended its consultation period.

Now we need ministers to listen to the groundswell of opinion and withdraw this tax. We're not asking for a state subsidy for the caravan industry - just for the Government not to harm an industry for no good reason.

Diana Johnson is Labour MP for Hull North. Andrew Percy is Conservative MP for Brigg and Goole

A Which? survey finds 57% of borrowers are encouraged to take out further loans, while a third say they experienced greater financial problems as a result of taking out the loan

Almost two-thirds of people who took out expensive payday loans have used the money to pay household bills or buy essentials such as food, nappies and petrol, a survey by Which? has revealed.

But while payday lenders say the loans help people ease through tricky points of the month, the research indicates many become trapped in a spiral of debt because they cannot afford to repay their loans by the agreed date, and so incur exorbitant penalty charges.

A third of people said they experienced greater financial problems as a result of taking out a payday loan, while one in five were unable to pay it back on time. A quarter said they had been hit with high, hidden charges for reminder letters and failed payments.

Which? highlighted the charges of lender QuickQuid, which has a £12 fee for a missed payment, while CashCall charges £30. Quid24 charges £25 for each of its first four letters to borrowers and £50 for a reminder on the 10th day.

Dan McDonald, chief executive of the Medway Citizens Advice bureau, said his advisers frequently came across people who have borrowed to pay the rent or mortgage and have been drawn into a tangle of debts.

"We recently advised a woman who had a £500 QuickQuid loan, £800 on a Vanquis credit card and £5,000 on an Aqua credit card, but still had £2,000 in rent arrears," he said.

"Private landlords and housing associations are coming down very hard [on people who owe rent], and if people are desperate they will do anything they can to meet their rent payment. It's only going to get worse with the new housing benefit caps."

Which? said the debt trap was compounded with 57% of borrowers being encouraged to take out further loans, and 45% rolling over their loans at least once. Borrowers are usually required to pay the outstanding interest before a loan is rolled over, meaning a lender can make hundreds of pounds in profit from a small loan even if the borrower eventually defaults.

People were also potentially being allowed to take on credit they couldn't afford. Eight out of 34 companies do not carry out credit checks as part of their approval procedure, and nearly two-thirds of borrowers surveyed were not asked about any aspect of their financial situation apart from their salary.

Some payday loan websites failed to provide any terms and conditions, and many of those that did had little or no information about a borrower's rights and obligations. or references to free debt advice. Fourteen out of 34 lenders failed to inform consumers about their complaints procedures.

John Lamidey, chief executive of the Consumer Finance Association, a trade body which represents several payday lenders, said: "Despite the report's concerns that payday borrowers may get 'hooked', the fact is that payday loans actually make up a tiny proportion of overall consumer debt.

"In fact, for every £100 of problem debt, payday loans never make up more than £1.20 of that debt, whereas credit cards and unsecured (mainstream) loans together account for between 60% and 70% of unmanageable debt.

"Responsible payday lenders, such as the CFA's members, have no desire to lend to consumers that cannot afford to pay back their loans or trap them in a cycle of debt."

But debt counselling charity the National Debtline said it had seen a huge rise in the number of calls about payday loans, from 288 in August 2010 to 1,547 in March 2012. The charity said it received 4,725 calls for help with payday loans in the first three months of 2012, 58% more than the previous quarter and 133% more than the same quarter of 2011.

National Debtline spokesman Paul Crayston said: "Payday loans are fast becoming a very serious problem in this country. We have strong concerns over the lending and collections practices of many payday lenders. We have even heard from people who have been approved for payday loans despite being insolvent."

Which? executive director, Richard Lloyd, said: "It is unacceptable for this rapidly growing number of people to be inadequately protected from extortionate charges and dodgy marketing techniques. The regulator should properly enforce the existing rules that apply to this industry, but they must go further and impose a cap on the amount that lenders can charge for defaulting."

Increasing numbers of parents helping their adult children out financially are stopping them from developing credit records

Parents are inadvertently placing their adult children at a financial disadvantage by taking out credit and paying essential bills on their behalf.

Increasing numbers of parents are trying to help their adult children out financially. But by putting credit agreements, mobile phone contracts, call loans, credit cards and even mortgages in their own names they are preventing their children from developing a credit record, the free credit report service Noddle has warned.

This has given rise to an estimated 7 million "credit virgins" who have never taken out any form of credit, and makes it more difficult for them to secure loans, mortgages and credit cards in the future, even if they are able to afford them.

Noddle founder Tom Ilube said: "Parents have nothing but good intentions when they decide to help out their kids by putting credit agreements in their names and covering living costs, but the irony is they could be putting them at a financial disadvantage in the longer term."

In a survey of 2,000 adults, 40% of 20-somethings, 18% of 30-somethings and 22% of 40-somethings had no credit record. The Noddle study suggests the rise in stay-at-home university students, high youth unemployment and prohibitive housing prices are exacerbating the problem.

Robert Hatch, a 30-year-old biology lecturer at Kingston University, is one of those with no credit record to his name. His mobile phone is pay-as-you-go, and he has borrowed from his parents whenever he has needed extra cash to tide him over. He has never even had a utility bill in his name, as he has lived in shared rented accommodation since leaving university. Hatch is now worried his lack of credit record could count against him if he applies for a mortgage in the next five years.

"I've not signed up to the electoral roll because I've never stayed in a property for longer than a year, and you worry about mail going to the wrong place once you've moved," he said. "I arrange for most of my mail to be delivered to my work address – I know lots of people in the same situation. When I bought my first car I saved up the money for it and paid cash. I did have a student overdraft – does that count?"

Ilube says that unlike credit cards and loans, banks are not obliged to share details of current accounts with overdrafts, so they aren't guaranteed to show up on credit reports.

He said Hatch could consider taking out a credit card, spending a little on it every month, making sure he stayed within his credit limit, and repaying the balance in full every month so it costs him nothing in interest.

The research showed that two-thirds of parents (63%) provide financial support to their adult children, handing out an average £3,632 each in the past 12 months, while one in 10 say they make monthly payments of £240 to their grown-up kids to cover day-to-day living costs.

One in five say they give financial hand outs to their adult children because the children are currently unemployed and one in six say they find it difficult to say no.

For the second time this week, Labour and Tory politicians make common cause in an article for the Guardian Northerner. Our political commentator Ed Jacobs sets out the context

Not for many years has a budget courted the kind of controversy and debate that George Osborne's triggered almost exactly two months ago.

Budgets are supposed to be events that come, endure a couple of days of debate, then go. Not so this time. The fact that, all these weeks on, journalists and MPs alike are still grumbling about Osborne's measures is a sign of just how badly both their content and presentation were handled.

If David Cameron finds himself as a one-term Prime Minister, many will look back to 21 March 2012 as the day when the seeds of his, and his government's, demise were planted.

First there was the pasty tax which, as Geoff Lawler, former Conservative MP for Bradford North, noted on the Guardian Northerner just a few weeks ago, demonstrated a worrying lack of

astute advisers at No.10 and the Treasury who either know, or genuinely understand, what it is like to consider that 20p on a pasty actually is a lot.

Then there was the so-called granny tax, a measure that saw the Chancellor commit the kind of political mistake that all politicians in their right mind avoid: annoying the pensioner vote, a part of the electorate that can make life very uncomfortable for governments, with its traditionally high turnout at election time.

But despite the political headaches that both these initiatives have caused for ministers, could the more interesting battle ahead lie in a third Budget blunder: the decision to levy VAT on static caravans? Innocuous on the face of it, this is a measure designed, according to the Budget Red Book, to close a taxation loophole, bringing the sector into line with mobile caravans?

No, it doesn't sound like a change that will have a direct impact on the mass of the electorate. In large part, it is unlikely to have a personal impact on people's wallets in the same way as changes to income tax, VAT on hot pasties or increases in fuel duty. But what it does have, is a crucial element of genuine cross-party campaigning calling on the Government to reverse its decision.

We have in the UK a political system almost designed to prop up combative politics. One look at the House of Commons, with opposition and Government sat opposite each other, eyeball to eyeball, demonstrates that the mother of Parliaments was designed not for consensus building but for lively debate.

Likewise, we have a media which enjoys nothing more than a good old argument between opposition and Government to fill our pages and websites. It is for this reason, because the system itself is so stacked against consensus politics, that when it is found it has so much force. One only has to look at Tuesday's joint article for the Guardian Northerner by a Conservative Minister and a Labour Mayor of Liverpool to understand that when parties come together it makes for a more persuasive case.

Bring on static caravans. As this article was written, more than 70 MPs from all parties, and 22 from the north alone, had expressed their support for Parliamentary Early Day Motion 31, outlining concerns over the economic impact the measure would have on growth and calling for ministers to scrap the plans. Unable to claim that it the controversy is merely got up by the Labour party seeking to gain cheap political points, the Chancellor finds himself in a pincer movement, caught between opposition and Government MPs.

Why then do I write about this on the Northerner? In the words of the TV meerkats, it's simples. Statistics show that 95% of all UK static caravans are manufactured in east Yorkshire and hundreds of thousands are sited and very well-used along our northern coasts. With the European-wide buzzword right after the election of President Hollande in France now "growth", what were ministers thinking when they decided to proceed with a policy which HM Revenue and Customs has forecast will lead to a 30% reduction in demand for such caravans and many thousands of job losses?

How does this one square with the need to grow out way out of recession, particularly across northern England?

In the last Labour government, the former Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett was famously a keen enthusiast for caravan holidays. One doubts that she would have let such a change go by unchallenged. The question is: who in Government will now champion the caravanning industry?

In a statement a spokesperson for the Treasury tells the Guardian Northerner:

Over time significant anomalies have developed in the VAT system, causing very similar products to be taxed very differently. The zero VAT rate was only ever meant to apply to residential caravans, so this change brings static caravans in line with other holiday caravans, which are already subject to VAT. The Government is currently consulting on the implementation of the change and has extended the consultation period until 18 May. We are particularly keen to use the consultation to ensure that the new rules are workable and simple for businesses to administer.

It is not however a view shared by Diana Johnson, Labour MP for Hull North and Andrew Percy, Conservative MP for Brigg and Goole who in a joint article today for the Northerner argue

In the debate about how to achieve sustained economic growth there is much upon which we disagree. The dangerous proposal to put VAT on static caravans is, however, an issue that unites us across the party divide.

The Caravan Tax must be stopped now, before it can cause huge damage to an important private sector industry that has been working hard to recover from the global downturn of 2008/09.

It would be perverse for any Government keen on creating the conditions for growth, and which speaks so often about the importance of 'rebalancing the economy' towards the North, manufacturing exports and private sector jobs , to do such damage to all these objectives. All for the sake of a tax adjustment of no real importance.

What do you think? How will the proposed tax affect the northern economy?

Ed Jacobs is a political consultant at the Leeds-based Public Affairs Company and devolution correspondent for the centre-left political and policy blog, Left Foot Forward.

Fears that the new regime will have to take another step backwards before it can make Aviva run faster

Andrew Moss is gone and so is the bounce in Aviva's share price – down 10% or so since the chief executive quit last week. That, of course, is the eurozone crisis taking its toll on the valuations of all big holders of sovereign bonds. But there's also a reminder there that there's no quick way to revive Aviva's share price.

Deputy chairman John McFarlane, obliged also to fill the chief executive's shoes until a permanent successor is found, is talking a good game. "Frank and open communication with shareholders," is an excellent place to start since the non-executives seemed to have been the last people to understand how unpopular Moss had become with investors.

In time-honoured fashion, a strategic review is also promised. Its crux may be the pledge to "exit sensibly" businesses that are not part of the group's future. That's easier said than done, though. Finding buyers for life assurance assets during a financial storm is a challenge and a half. Moss, too, had aspirations to make Aviva slimmer, but the moment never seemed right to make the really big moves, such as an exit from the US.

McFarlane, who will replace Lord Sharman as chairman, can bring greater determination to get deals done – but that doesn't necessarily mean he'll get better prices. The yield on Aviva's shares, even after a savage cut in the dividend in 2008, is now almost 10%, betraying the fear that the new regime will have to take another step backwards before it can make Aviva run faster.