11-26-2023, 05:40 PM
Jeremy Hunt’s Budget was unfortunately a lot more anti-climatic than what it ought to have been.
Fiddling round the edges in terms of national insurance contributions and uprating benefits might be welcome, but unfortunately, he was a long way off the mark in terms of delivering something substantial for the ordinary person or indeed small business owner.
The Institute Fiscal Studies (IFS) has already warned that the chancellor was able to reduce NI in part because he had not increased spending on public services and taking into account inflation, unprotected departments would face budget cuts of more than £20bn by 2027-28.
Given the realities of the cost-of-living crises and the anaemic growth rates that the country has been facing for the best part of 15 years, the chancellor should have been a lot more radical in terms of delivering for the British people - he was far from it!
As a party, we would like to have seen the personal tax threshold increase to at least 15K (with NI scrapped altogether), the rate at which small businesses start paying corporation tax to at least 100,000 (20% rate thereafter), replacing Business Rates/Council Tax with LVT and finally equalising Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax/Dividends Tax.
It is no surprise that the Conservative chancellor has failed to deliver again and we thus as a party encourage those looking for a radical but moderate approach to economics to join The Liberal Party.
Kayed Al-Haddad
Member of the NEC and Economics Spokesman
Fiddling round the edges in terms of national insurance contributions and uprating benefits might be welcome, but unfortunately, he was a long way off the mark in terms of delivering something substantial for the ordinary person or indeed small business owner.
The Institute Fiscal Studies (IFS) has already warned that the chancellor was able to reduce NI in part because he had not increased spending on public services and taking into account inflation, unprotected departments would face budget cuts of more than £20bn by 2027-28.
Given the realities of the cost-of-living crises and the anaemic growth rates that the country has been facing for the best part of 15 years, the chancellor should have been a lot more radical in terms of delivering for the British people - he was far from it!
As a party, we would like to have seen the personal tax threshold increase to at least 15K (with NI scrapped altogether), the rate at which small businesses start paying corporation tax to at least 100,000 (20% rate thereafter), replacing Business Rates/Council Tax with LVT and finally equalising Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax/Dividends Tax.
It is no surprise that the Conservative chancellor has failed to deliver again and we thus as a party encourage those looking for a radical but moderate approach to economics to join The Liberal Party.
Kayed Al-Haddad
Member of the NEC and Economics Spokesman