A budget for long-term growth

The Chancellor has set out how the Conservative government is sticking to the plan through our Budget for Long Term Growth, delivering lower taxes, better public services and more investment as we build a brighter future. 

  • Thanks to the long-term difficult decisions we have taken, the economy is turning a corner with inflation down from 11.1 per cent to 4.0 per cent, wages rising faster than prices, mortgage rates starting to come down and better growth than our European neighbours. 
  • This has meant we have been able to deliver our Budget for Long Term Growth, which sticks with the plan by putting £900 a year back into the average worker’s pocket thanks to a second NICs cut, increases the High Income Child Benefit Charge threshold for working families, freezes fuel and alcohol duty and boosts funding for the NHS.

Comments

Jim said…
I would violently argue about the lower taxes bit. You see according to that statement "wages rising faster than prices" but what does that actually mean.

well it means that someone who earned 12k per year, but now earns 13k a year is now a tax payer because the tax threshold was not changed.

It also means that hard working people such as a mid range teacher or serviceman, perhaps a nurse is now a "higher rate tax payer" because the 40% tax threshold is still frozen, apparently till 2028 (though that bit wasn't mentioned by the chancellor).
1:13 pm
Chris Whiteside said…
I understand your point.

There used to be a principle known as "Rooker-Wise" after Jeff Rooker and Audrey Wise. although Nigel Lawson had as much to do with it, when an unusual alliance of the Labour left and the Conservative opposition carried an amendment to index the tax thresholds.

As long as it can be consistent with not borrowing irresponsibly I strongly support doing this.

And you are right that if you don't index-link the thresholds then what economists call "fiscal drag" will mean that more people pay tax and some pay at higher rates.

The lower taxes bit is true in that the changes in the budget to NI mean that the tax burden is lower than it would have been without them.

I fully accept that taxes are still far higher than I or, I think, most reasonable people would wish them to be. Even Labour is accusing the government of setting taxes too high - which would be fair comment except that every time, without a single exception, over the past five years, the Conservative government has announced a decision on any issue the Labour opposition has said they are not doing enough and should spend even more on in. Had that been done, taxes would of course be even higher.
11:56 am
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