Another busy week in Westminster which was centred around the Summer Budget on Wednesday. I have highlighted some of the major announcements below, but you can also read the full statement at www.conservatives.com.
Other than the budget (a very noisy experience in the Chamber!) I enjoyed the hospitality of the brewing trade on Tuesday evening, as a guest of Simpsons Malts Ltd at the Annual Parliamentary Beer Awards. I tastes beers I had never come across, and learned a great deal about the brewing trade and its many facets, from barley growing to packaging of beer bottles!
A group of us rural MPs have now set up the Rural Broadband APPG- we will be gathering data over the summer in our far-flung corners of England and putting together proposals for DCMS to solve the final 5/10% of properties.
I had another new experience (they just keep on coming!) on Thursday morning which was a breakfast meeting with the Prime Minister at No10. A group of us raised the rural broadband challenge, and I also discussed my proposal to rename the A1(M) to Newcastle as the M1- now that the road from the M18 all the way to Newcastle is motorway standard, it deserves to be part of the motorway system. The Chancellor mentioned it in his budget speech as part of his continuing impact plans for the Northern Powerhouse too. So I will push hard for this categorisation upgrade with the Dept of Transport.
On Thursday there was a total shutdown of the London Tube strike so I shared a taxi with Emma Lewell-Buck, the Labour MP for South Shields, to get to Kings Cross Station for our journey home. Funny how it turns out we aren't that different- she trained to be a social worker so she would have a qualification which would ensure she was always employed; & I trained as a chartered accountant for the same reason- that if I had to look after any future family alone (as my Mum had to do because my Dad died when I was two) then I would always be able to find a job.
The Public Accounts Committee preparations are now underway, as we met to formally constitute the Committee and prepare for our sessions for the weeks and months ahead. I will be leading on a public session in ten days time, which is exciting and nerve-wracking in equal measure! You will have to wait and see what we tackle- its always top secret until the day to ensure we can ask questions for which witnesses have not been able to "prepare". We are all about tackling Value For Money in delivery of Government projects. I can't wait to get started.
Busy constituency activities as usual on Friday, with an early meeting with senior officers at County Hall to discuss the continuing coach park saga in Berwick, the changes to onshore turbine planning guidance & the potential setting up of a social enterprise by staff at Seton Hall Care Home. I was also able to meet with North Northumberland Tourism chiefs and held a busy surgery with constituents.
The Budget- a bit more of the detail...
This was the first Conservative budget for 18 years, and the Chancellor presented a very full programme of tax changes which will bring fairer taxation for all- taking out more low paid workers from income tax completely and making those higher earners pay more on income from buy-to-let property & from dividends.This was a budget that delivers security for working people – with our finances getting under control, the national debt falling, our defences supported, productivity boosted, welfare controlled, income taxes cut, and a National Living Wage. This Conservative Budget will keep us moving from a low wage, high tax, high welfare economy to a higher wage, lower tax and lower welfare country.
I was really pleased that the Chancellor has committed to the 2% NATO target on defence spending; and that we will be mandating a new National Living Wage. Its time that business takes back the full costs of employment rather than continuing a lower wage economy supplemented by Government funded working tax credits. If someone works hard they should be paid a living wage for it by their employer.
Personal allowance (income you can earn before you start paying income tax at 20%) up to £11,000 from April 2016. The 40p tax rate threshold will rise from £42,385 to £43,000.
National Living Wage. Compulsory National Living Wage for all working people aged 25 and over. From April 2016: £7.20 an hour rising to £9 by 2020. It will mean two and a half million people get a direct pay rise. Those currently on the minimum wage will see their pay rise by over a third this Parliament, a cash increase for a full time worker of over £5,000.
Employment Allowance:
A firm will be able to employ 4 people full time on the new National Living Wage and pay no national insurance at all on their wages.Cutting Corporation Tax: to 19 per cent in 2017 then 18 per cent in 2020.
Making £12 billion of further savings in the welfare budget. Britain is home to 1% of the world’s population; generates 4% of the world’s income; and yet pays out 7% of all the welfare spending.
We are keeping our commitment to protect pensioner benefits and keep the triple lock. The BBC have agreed that in future they will take responsibility for funding free TV licenses for over-75s. We are also not going to tax or means-test disability benefits.
Those who can work will be expected to look for it and take it when offered. We are replacing Job Seekers Allowance for 18-21 year olds with a new Youth Obligation so they are either earning or learning, and abolishing their automatic entitlement to housing benefit.
Putting working-age benefits on a more sustainable footing. We will freeze working-age benefits for four years to 2019/20 – addressing the issue of benefits growing faster than wages since 2008; focus Tax Credits and Universal Credit on those on lower incomes by reducing the levels at which they are withdrawn; reduce rents paid in the social housing sector by 1 per cent a year for 4 years – ending the ratchet of ever higher housing benefit and rents, and benefitting working tenants who pay their own rent; limit, in future, the support provided to families through tax credits or Universal Credit to two children – so all families thinking about having another child face the same choices; reduce the benefit cap from £26,000 to £20,000 outside London.
This is a progressive and Conservative budget- and it seems that the Labour Party is accepting that their tax & spend view of the world is unsustainable. Lets see if they will vote for this radical Budget at the end of the week ahead.