The Budget set out by the Chancellor on Wednesday focused on building a resilient economy, supporting the makers, doers and savers.
We are continuing to cut taxes for hard-working people. Following on from last week’s 4th Council Tax freeze we are raising the Personal Allowance to £10,500 in 2015/16. This is a tax cut for 25.4m people; a typical basic rate tax payer will pay £800 less per year and we will have lifted the lowest earning 3.2m out of paying any income tax.
Supporting business is crucial to generating growth and jobs. Cuts to Corporation Tax, extending Small Business Rate Relief and the £2m National Insurance holiday for new staff have already been a welcome boost. In addition we have now announced: cuts to energy bills, the doubling of the Annual Investment Allowance to £500,000 and we will introduce the most competitive export finance in Europe. This will drive further investment and exports, vital to rebalancing our economy. These measures have been welcomed by the Federation of Small Businesses, who said ‘the focus on manufacturing; increased investment allowance and cuts to energy bills will create jobs & strengthen this sector’.
Home owners and businesses have benefited from record low interest rates, but this has hit savers and pensioners. To address this we will be making ISAs simpler by merging cash and stocks ISAs and the annual tax-free limit will be extended from £5,500 to £15,000. 1.5m low income savers will also benefit from the scrapping of the 10p starting rate on savings income. We are also fundamentally reforming the taxation of defined contribution pensions, supporting those who have worked hard to save for their retirement a move welcomed by Which!, who said ‘today’s announcement should help stop millions of people from losing out on thousands of pounds of retirement income’.
The surprise further cut in beer duty helps the long-term sustainability of our local pubs. In North Swindon we have 52 pubs, providing 1412 jobs and adding £30.2m to the local economy.
This Budget is part of our long-term economic plan to give economic security to the families of Britain, supported by the Institute of Directors, who said ‘this is a responsible and imaginative budget which should promote growth, exports and investment. It will be widely welcomed’. We are seeing increasingly strong growth, with no major economy growing faster than us. This has created 1.4m new jobs with a record 30.19m people now in work. Here in Swindon we have seen a staggering 30% fall in unemployment, supported by the fastest rate of new businesses in the South-West.
We have taken the tough decisions to rescue the economy and now we can all share in the strong long-term recovery, something myself and my colleague Robert Buckland MP will continue to champion.
