Today's Budget does nothing to unlock economic growth or cut public spending. The truth is the Chancellor's decisions will mean more people are paying higher taxes.
For all the Government’s talk, the reality is that the biggest strain on people’s cost of living is tax.
Tax on their income; the things they buy; using their car; selling their home. And taxes on business, which are inevitably passed on to the consumer as higher prices.
In this Budget, 43 new taxes or tax rises were introduced.
Thanks to the Chancellor’s decisions, by the end of this decade, another 5.2 million people will become taxpayers for the first time, and 4.8 million will be paying the highest rate.
For University graduates, it’s even worse. With student loan repayment thresholds frozen, on top of all the other taxes they’re paying, young people barely earning more than minimum wage will be losing 9% of their pay each month.
The route to economic growth is more money in people’s pockets. And worst of all, the Chancellor didn’t even have to raise taxes. It was a political choice to prioritise welfare spending over working people.
The new line from Labour is that they are ‘bearing down on inflation’. But inflation is actually higher than it was in July 2024, and the OBR forecasts it will rise again this year.
While the freeze on rail fares will be welcome by many of my constituents who commute to London, under this Government bus fares have risen 50%. I know my constituents who have missed vital appointments or been late to work and school thanks to the poor service we have in Broxbourne certainly don’t see that rise as good value for money.
And when we think of transport in this country, we should remember that the vast majority of people use cars or vans. That’s why keeping costs down for motorists is so important, and I am pleased that the Chancellor has listened to the campaign led by FairFuelUK and kept fuel duty frozen.
But it is extremely concerning to see that this will only last until September next year. The Chancellor was right to say in her speech that “the cost of travelling to and from work is still too expensive” - so as long as that is true, how can she contemplate raising the rate in a few months' time?
I was also struck by an almost throwaway line in the Chancellor's speech last week. She claimed she would find millions of savings by “cutting the cost of politics and local government”. In fact, the Government are imposing blanket reorganisation on every local authority in the country and didn’t even carry out their own analysis of the costs this would involve.
In fact, we know that from the County Councils Network that reorganisation could cost £850m over five years and deliver no savings at all.
As for my constituents in Broxbourne, the simple consequence of that reorganisation – as well as being forced into a huge, distant new council – will be higher council tax.
When I was Leader of Broxbourne Council, we kept council tax lower than anywhere else and had award winning local services. Broxbourne shows it is possible to do both.
I only wish the Chancellor took a leaf out of our book, rather than return to the same old Labour policies of ever-higher taxes to pay for ever-higher spending.
