Ayrshire & Arran Liberal Democrats

Please find below the top lines from the Liberal Democrats about the Budget. There are some additional Scottish lines at the bottom

 

This is a Budget to help alarm clock Britain, giving a helping hand to those who are working hard to make ends meet.

·         It makes fairer taxes a priority. In April, 23 million basic rate payers will get a £200 tax cut. This Budget goes further – 25 million will benefit by another £126 next year (in cash terms).  By 2012-13 we will have lifted over 1.1 million people on low incomes out of paying tax altogether.

·         It eases pressure on the cost of living.  Labour’s plans for a 5p hike in the price of fuel per litre have been stopped. Instead fuel prices will be cut by 1p.  Petrol prices have gone up by around 18p a litre since the autumn Spending Review and we know that this is hurting people. We are going to increase taxes on the oil companies who are benefiting from soaring world oil prices, to help those who are struggling as a result.

·         It encourages growth and rebalances our economy. The Budget takes action on youth unemployment, by funding an additional 50,000 new apprenticeships and an additional 80,000 work experience places.  It will encourage business investment in deprived areas with 21 Enterprise Zones, and it will support small businesses by exempting them from the burden of new regulation for 3 years.

·         It fulfils our commitment to being the greenest government ever.  The Green Investment Bank will begin operation in 2012-13, a year earlier than expected, with £3bn of capitalisation, delivering an additional £18bn of investment in green infrastructure by 2014-15. The Budget also commits to introducing a carbon price floor and increasing the proportion of tax accounted for by environmental taxes.

With Liberal Democrat involvement at every stage, this Budget sets out how the Coalition Government will build the foundations for sustainable growth – delivering on our spending plans without the need for extra cuts or tax increases. 

Labour won’t apologise for the mess they left our economy in.  Their failure to face up to the deficit would leave them coming back every year asking for more cuts and tax increases.

 

Additonal Scottish notes:

92,000 Scots won't pay tax at all and 2.2m will pay less tax by 2013 as a result of the two income tax threshold changes from the two Budgets so far. Lib Dem policy.

For candidates with oil industry interests it is worth noting that the fuel duty stabiliser will be paid for by increasing the Supplementary Charge levied on profits from oil and gas production from 20% to 32% from midnight. Even after this change, post tax profit per barrel is forecast to be higher over the next five years than it was over the last five. In short, oil companies will continue to make substantial profits but will not be able to see those rocket simply by virtue of the oil price increasing.

It is worth remembering that under Labour Budgets there were queues on petrol station forecourts to beat Budget increases in fuel duty. Today fuel duty is cut.

The Budget also announces Enterprise Zones for England. Scottish Liberal Democrats are keen to take these forward in Scotland too.

The news that the Green Investment Bank can start a year earlier is good news as it will be able to invest strongly in Scotland and our green industries.

 

As always we appreciate any input from our constituents on these or any other subjects you would like to bring to our attention. Please do not hesitate in contacting us using any of the options available on the Contact Us page.