Julian Sturdy

Over the last few days David Cameron has outlined a number of proposals to help the country through the recession, and to provide strong foundations for a new economy fit for the twenty-first century. Amongst our new proposals; abolish income tax on savings for basic rate taxpayers and a rise in pensioners’ personal allowance by £2,000 to £11,490. You can see David Cameron set out the plans here >>

It is time to cut taxes for savers and pensioners in our region, who are the innocent victims of Labour’s recession, suffering as the income from their savings falls. Over the long term, cutting taxes on savings would help build a savings culture and end Britain’s addiction to debt.

Conservative plans:
•          Basic rate taxpayers would pay no tax at all on their income from savings, making them up to £7,200 a year better off.
•          The income tax allowance for pensioners would be increased, with age-related personal allowances rising by £2,000, helping them by up to £400 a year.
•          The package would be paid for by reducing the growth in government spending by £5 billion. Instead of rising by £30 billion next year, the increase would be £25 billion. Spending on the NHS, schools, defence and international development would all be protected.
•          An estimated 1,794,321 people across our region would benefit from these tax cuts.

Savers and pensioners are the innocent victims of Gordon Brown’s recession. They are being punished for putting aside money. We need to cut taxes for them and help turn Britain from a spend, spend, spend society into a save, save, save society.

James Clappison MP shadow employment and welfare reform minister was in York yesterday, where he accompanied me on visit to Browns department store to speak to director Nick Brown about the current state of our local economy ,and how the local retail sector has fared over the Christmas period.

Nick Brown commented “Pre-Christmas, a lot of people found margins a little more pressurised, but where we’ve had a bit of a surprise is in sales after Christmas. Whether there are more and more people asking for money for Christmas, I don’t know, but the first day this year was better than last year.” 

I was delighted that James took the time to visit York following his earlier visit to Selby. Small and medium sized businesses are the lifeblood of our economy, and under these difficult financial times it is so important that we are actively talking too these businesses to find out about their concerns and issues they have, so we are best placed to help safe guard their future and the jobs they create.

The York Press has the full story here of James Clappison visit.