Yesterday, under a gloomy economic outlook,
George Osborne delivered his fourth budget that focused on helping those who
work hard and want to get on.
Critics on one side have argued that he needs
to make much harsher cuts to get the deficit down quicker as national debt is
scheduled to stand at approximately £1,400bn in 2015- roughly £25,000 for every
household in the country. Unfortunately with a bleak international economic
outlook, Osborne rejected this option.
On the other side, critics believe that he
should now borrow more, thus increasing the deficit to pay for tax cuts, more
spending or a combination of the two. However after not living within our means
for the past decade the time has come to balance our books.
It is entirely right that during times of
austerity the Conservative-led Government helps hardworking families who are
struggling to make ends meet, which is why yesterday’s budget set out a range
of measures to support people who work hard, save and aspire to a better life
for themselves and their families.
Highlights include:
- Tax-free
childcare- Government will pay 20% of a working family’s childcare bills
every year- up to £1,200 per child. A family with two children will be up to
£2,400 a year better off
- Personal
allowance raised to £10,000- from April 2014, 2.7 million workers will be
taken out of the tax system altogether. This is a tax cut for 24 million
people, resulting in individuals paying £700 less in income tax than they did in
2010
- Fuel
duty frozen- this creates the longest freeze in 20 years. Petrol prices are
now 13p lower than they would have been under Labour’s plans, creating a saving
for motorists of £170 more every year
- Help
to buy scheme- helping people get on the housing ladder by a £3.5bn
investment in government loans to financially stretched homebuyers and a £12bn
scheme to increase the availability of mortgages to people who cannot afford a
large deposit
- Boosting
employment- from next April, the employer National Insurance bill of every
business will be cut by up to £2,000. This means that they’ll be able to take
up to 4 full time employees on minimum wage, without increasing their National
Insurance bill
- Corporation
Tax cut to 20% - giving Britain the lowest Corporation Tax in the G20 group
of the world’s major economies
Finally….
1p is being taken off the price of beer so cheers to us all and well done to Osborne for putting forward a budget that helps people who work hard, save and aspire to a better life for their themselves and their families.
