We welcome Chancellor George Osborne's Autumn Statement. Only by working through the Conservatives’ long-term economic plan can we achieve prosperity and security for families in Poole.
The new forecasts for the British economy shows the Government’s long-term economic plan is working:
• Deficit will be halved this year
• British economy expected to grow by 3 per cent this year
• Employment up and unemployment down – with over half a million new jobs forecast this year
The Chancellor set out the next steps in his long-term economic plan:
• We will overhaul stamp duty so that 98% of stamp duty payers pay less tax when they buy their home.
• We will continue to back businesses to create jobs in all parts of the country - with action on business rates and more help for the high street.
• We will abolish the jobs tax on apprenticeships for people under 25 to help more young people get the skills they need.
• We will raise the personal allowance, and higher rate taxpayers will also benefit – a down-payment on our promises to raise the personal allowance to £12,500 and the higher rate threshold to £50,000 in the next parliament.
• We will cut tax for families by abolishing the air passenger duty paid for children.
• And we will support savers by letting husbands and wives inherit their partner’s ISA and keep its tax free status.
This is excellent news for hardworking families in Poole. The fundamental reform of stamp duty will cut taxes for the overwhelming majority of people trying to buy a house here – and the personal allowance rise and change to the ISA rules back people who want to work hard and save.
This Autumn Statement confirms the Government’s long-term economic plan is working. This matters to families here in Poole because it’s only with a strong and healthy economy that families here can have economic security for the future.
We must carry on working through our plan and stay on course to prosperity.
Autumn Statement Details
REFORMING STAMP DUTY
The slab system distorted the market with big jumps in taxes when house values climbed into a new band. Our new slice system will work like income tax, so you only pay the higher rate on the part of the property that falls within that band. 98% of buyers who pay stamp duty will pay less. The buyer of the average family home (worth £275,000) will pay £4,500 less. This is a tax cut of £800 million a year.
• Of people who pay stamp duty in the South West, 99.2% will pay the same or less.
BACKING THE ASPIRATION TO WORK AND SAVE
When the holder of an ISA dies, a husband or wife will be able to inherit their partner’s ISA and keep its tax free status. We will abolish National Insurance Contributions for employers who employ an apprentice under 25 to back young people get the skills they need to get on in life.
• Around 52,000 apprentices in the South West stand to benefit from a reduction in their employer’s NICs.
CUTTING INCOME TAX
The tax-free Personal Allowance will now increase to £10,600 in April and this will be passed on in full to higher rate taxpayers – the first increase in the higher threshold in line with inflation for 5 years. This is a downpayment on our commitment to raise the higher rate threshold to £50,000 by the end of the decade.
• In the South West, this will lift 42,000 of the lowest-paid people out of income tax altogether in 2015-16. 2.1 million people will see an average real terms wage boost of £94.
CUTTING AIR PASSENGER DUTY FOR CHILDREN
From May, APD for under 12s will be abolished and from 2016 it will be abolished for under 16s.
• This will save a two child family travelling from Bristol, Exeter or Newquay Airports £26 on the cost of economy short-haul flights and £142 on the cost of economy long-haul flights.
SUPPORTING SMALL BUSINESSES
We will again extend the doubling of Small Business Rate Relief and continue to cap the inflation-linked increase in business rates at 2%. The £1,000 discount for shops and cafes on the high street will increase to £1,500 and there will be a full review of the structure of business rates to report before Budget 2016. We will strengthen Entrepreneurs’ Relief by aligning it with Enterprise Investment Schemes, and increase the R&D tax credit for SME firms to 230%, the and extend the Funding for Lending scheme by another year – focusing it entirely on small businesses.
• 190,000 properties in the South West will benefit from these business rates measures.
- 136,000 properties will benefit from the cap on business rates, with savings worth £8m.
- 76,000 small businesses will benefit from the extension to Small Business Rate Relief, with savings worth £52m. 54,000 of these businesses will pay no business rates at all.
- 29,000 properties will benefit from the £1,500 discount for retail properties.
SUPPORTING SCIENCE
Student loans of £10,000 for young people undertaking post-grad masters degrees will be backed by the government for the first time.
• This could benefit the 12 universities based in the South West.
MAJOR INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT
As part of the National Infrastructure Plan announced earlier this week, 7 Strategic Road Network projects will be built, while around £136m of Government funding from its 6-year floods programme is supporting at least 240 projects in the South West. The Government will support Network Rail as it improves the resilience of the railway at Dawlish, and will ask it to examine wider connectivity issues to and within the South West Peninsula. Bristol will benefit from the continuation of the Cycle City Ambition scheme, providing capital funding for better cycle infrastructure.
UPDATED CHARTER FOR BUDGET RESPONSIBILITY
We will lock in discipline over our public finances for the future.