Budget 2007
Gordon Brown has delivered his 11th Budget. Here are the headlines:
- Further support for families, by increasing the child element of the Child Tax Credit by £150 a year
- Increasing the threshold for the Working Families Tax Credit by £1,200 to £6,420 to improve work incentives
- Child benefit rising in three stages to £20 per week— by 2010 this will mean over £1,000 a year
- Education spending will rise to £90 billion by 2010-11 — the highest ever level
- An increase in pensioner tax allowances, taking 600,000 pensioners out of paying income tax
- Basic rate of income tax cut by 2p from April 2008
- Corporation tax cut by 2p from April 2008
Most important for me, though, was the news that increased resources will be put into the Financial Assistance Scheme, with the budget increasing from £2 billion to £8 billion. This means that everyone should receive at least some help. Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton will be announcing further details shortly — I will keep constituents updated . . .
One small matter you may have missed.
The poorest income tax payers have had their rate doubled. So the poorest pay for your gifts on the basic rate and inheritance tax. Once upon a time a party with Labour in the title was expected to redistribute income to the poor not the rich
Posted by: Revd Dennis Nadin | April 03, 2007 at 12:09 PM