I was in the House of Commons last Wednesday to cheer the news that
the 3p increase in petrol duty proposed for January has been scrapped.
Petrol is now 10p a litre cheaper than it would have been under the
plans set out before the last general election; this is important for
the many families who currently spend as much on fuel each week as
they do on food. The announcement came as part of the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, George Osborne’s, Autumn Statement setting out his
future tax and spending commitments.
There were also further measures aimed at supporting working people
and pensioners. Despite the need for spending reductions to get down
the national debt, a full time worker earning the national minimum
wage has seen the amount of income tax they pay halve under this
government. Unemployment is falling in Shepway and across the country
and job creation in the manufacturing sector is rising at record
levels; we have just seen further support for this locally with the
funding of over £1million from the East Kent Regional Growth Fund to
support the expansion of the production lines at HV Wooding in Hythe.
The corporation tax rate will be cut again to 21%, compared to 28% in
2010, 29% in Germany, 33% in France and 40% in the USA. Britain is
already one of the leading recipients of global business investment,
and his measure is an advert to the world to come and create new jobs
here. The recently launched ‘Grow for it’ in East Kent campaign will
also be working to encourage more international business investment
here and these lower tax rates will help this effort.
Retired people have just seen the largest ever cash increase in the
state pension; which sits in stark comparison with some other European
countries who failed to get on top of their debts and now have to cut
their pensions. Further measures, like the benefits cap mean that in
the future a working family will no longer be worse off than one next
door claiming full out of work benefits. The top rate of income tax
has been cut from 50p in the pound to 45p with the result that tax
avoidance rates are falling and tax receipts are actually going up.
At my constituency surgery in Lydd last Friday a young man, who is
working hard in his job told me that he agreed with what the
Government was trying to do on the economy, because in his words, you
can’t borrow your way out of debt. He is absolutely right. and the
Chancellor was right to continue his focus on bringing down the large
debts that the country has to pay every year. The annual deficit has
already been reduced by a quarter and will have more than halved by
2015. It is important though that we get the balance right. The
country has to have a credible plan to reduce its debts otherwise the
costs of borrowing will go up, not just for the Government but also
for peoples mortgages, or there would have to be a substantial
increases in taxes to pay for extra spending