Friday 26 March 2010

Steve Webb writes in Guardian - Focus remains firmly on redistributive policies and fairness

There's an interesting article by Steve Webb in the Guardian this week. Here's a short extract:

"The Lib Dem policy of raising the tax allowance to £10,000 per year is described by Horton (Tim Horton of the Fabian Society) as "a juicy middle-class tax cut to sell in Conservative marginals around the country". Yet this tax cut, and the progressive tax increases which finance it, are hugely redistributive.  

A £10,000 tax allowance means that people on the minimum wage should no longer have tax taken out of their paypacket – surely something progressives should support? 

And the money for this tax cut comes overwhelmingly from high earners – ending the extra pension tax relief that higher rate taxpayers enjoy, taxing capital gains properly, and taxing those with properties worth over £2m"

When we look around our area, particularly in wards like West Yate and Dodington which have just been declared priority neighbourhoods, it makes sense to help these low-earning but hard-working people. They are the carers, the shop workers, the people who make our towns function. Let's give them a bit of a boost.

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