On Wednesday the Chancellor will deliver the budget for the next year, a budget that will once again include a rise in take home pay for all but the richest taxpayers. The Coalition is raising the personal allowance of income tax meaning that every worker will be given a tax cut of £126; that's £126 extra in their pay packets over the year. This is on top of the £200 tax cut which happened last April when the personal allowance was first raised.
From April this year, over a million working people will no longer pay income tax because of the Coalition's tax policy. Raising the tax threshold to £10,000 is a priority for the Liberal Democrats and I want to see the threshold raised to the full amount sooner rather than later. Doing this will have a positive effect on hardworking families across Britain as well as boosting the economy.
It's not just tax breaks for low and middle income earners that I would like to see in the budget, but more measures which will clamp down on tax avoidance. Tax avoidance blights our society and it's not fair that the richest in this country, along with multi-national companies based here, find ways to avoid paying the full amount of tax they owe. In times of austerity this puts extra pressure on everybody else. The coalition has already made strides in tackling avoidance but I would like to see the Chancellor go further in attempting to end this disgusting culture.
I was delighted to see the pupil premium introduced by the Coalition. The effect this money will have on children from disadvantaged backgrounds in my constituency is clear to see but I would like to see the amount of money for each child increased year on year until 2015. Doing so would change children's lives in Burnley, and the rest of the UK for the better. Investing in our children now will ensure that we have educated and happy young people ready to enter the workforce and contribute to the economy in the future.
It is not just investment in children during the early years which is important, but investing in them throughout the whole of their youth. I would urge the chancellor to increase the funding for apprenticeships to an even greater extent. This government has taken great strides in changing the image of apprenticeships for the better and has already increased the number of apprenticeships in the UK by a phenomenal amount. But we need to do more to ensure that our youngsters have the skills to set them up for a lifetime, and that our aged skilled workforce can be replenished.
Gordon Birtwistle is Liberal Democrat MP for Burnley and Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Please also read Ed Jacobs' introduction to this debate here,
Rachel Reeves' contribution for Labour here
and James Wharton's contribution for the Conservatives here
And let us know what you think. Many thanks.
