How the budget will affect you

Buy photos »

ASPIRING homeowners, beer drinkers and motorists in Redditch were the winners as Chancellor George Osborne delivered his budget in the House of Commons on Wednesday (March 20).

Tax on a pint of beer will be cut by 1p from Sunday (March 24) while September's proposed 3p increase in fuel duty has been scrapped in a bid to ease pressure at the pumps for motorists.

Home-buyers have also been given a boost with a pledge of a 20 per cent Government loan on top of a five per cent deposit for residents to get on or move up the housing ladder.

Mr Osborne announced £130 billion had been set aside by the Government in loans to kickstart the country's sluggish housing market.

Borough residents will also pay no income tax on the first £10,000 they earn from next April, up from the £9,400 threshold which is being introduced next month.

The Chancellor also unveiled a new childcare scheme for households where both parents work and do not receive tax credits which will see the Government provide 20 per cent of parents' childcare costs, up to £1,200 for each child.

Spirit and wine drinkers were hit in the pocket with rises of around 53p and 10p on a bottle of each coming in from this weekend while a further 26p on a packet of 20 cigarettes will go ahead.

MP Karen Lumley said the budget had delivered real support for people who aspired to 'work hard and get on'.

"I am very proud that since this Government took office over 3,000 of my constituents have been taken out of tax altogether. With this landmark tax cut, Conservatives have cut tax bills for 24 million people.

"This budget was a budget for those who are doing the right thing. We are taking those on the lowest pay out of tax and helping businesses creating the jobs for the future. Nothing signals this more than creating the lowest corporation tax of any country in the G20."

But Rebecca Blake, Redditch's Labour Parliamentary spokeswoman, said the budget was 'too little, too late'.

"I ask people to judge the Government on their actions and not their words. They talk about reducing borrowing, yet there will be nearly a quarter of a trillion pounds more borrowing than was planned. They said austerity cuts would be up until 2015, now they will continue to 2018.

"We need to kickstart the economy now, not in 12 months' time or in two years' time, in order to avoid a triple dip recession."

She added she wanted to see action on jobs to get people who could work in to work.

"If Labour were in power now, we would have a bankers' bonus tax to guarantee a job for young people unemployed for over a year and for adults unemployed for two years."

Share This

Regional news »