A new Employment Allowance will take £2,000 off the National Insurance bill of every employer – open to businesses, charities and community amateur sports clubs. This will help 60,000 employers in the East Midlands, taking 30,000 out of having to pay any tax on jobs at all.
Employers will be able to hire one extra person on £22,400 a year, or four people working full time on the minimum wage, without paying any National Insurance.
A further corporation tax cut to 20 per cent in April 2015 will see the UK having the lowest corporation tax rate in the G20, which sends a clear signal that Britain is open for business.
Stamp Duty on shares in companies quoted on growth markets like AIM and the ISDX Growth Market has also been abolished. This will benefit around 1,000 UK quoted companies – a transaction tax removed here as 11 EU countries are looking to introduce a sweeping financial transaction tax.
Cllr. McNeill commented:
“This is fantastic news for businesses in the Nettleham Ward and across West Lindsey. The Employment Allowance will make it easier and cheaper for firms to hire people – an employer could hire four people working full time on the minimum wage without paying any National Insurance.
“These and the other business measures in the Budget are exactly what businesses need to hire, to expand and to grow.”
The amount people can earn before paying income tax - the personal allowance - will rise to £10,000 in April 2014.
Hard working people in Nettleham, Greetwell, Riseholme and Grange-de-Lings will be over £700 better off every year than when this Government came to office. Almost three million more of the lowest paid will pay no income tax at all.
This tax cut will benefit an estimated 35,874 people in the Gainsborough constituency. In April 2014, 430 people will be lifted out of income tax, taking the total number of people in the Gainsborough constituency lifted out of tax by Conservatives to an 4,079.
Labour want to reintroduce the 10p tax band that they abolished. Conservatives in Government have now turned Labour’s 10p tax band into a zero pence tax band. Every person paying tax at the 10p rate when Labour doubled it, will now be paying no income tax at all on that income.
Cllr. McNeill commented:
“This Budget has delivered real support for people who aspire to work hard and get on. Around 2,000 people in the Nettleham Ward will be over £700 better off every year. With this landmark tax cut, Conservatives have cut tax bills for 24 million people”.
The Government will also make ex-gratia payments of £5,000 to Equitable Life policyholders who bought their annuity before 1992, the Chancellor has revealed in his budget statement.
The Government will also make an extra £5,000 available to those on the lowest incomes who are on pension credit. There is no legal obligation to make either of these payments.
Cllr. McNeill welcomed the news, saying:
“I am proud that two years ago Conservatives in Government set aside £1.5 billion to help so many of my constituents who had been let down when Equitable Life failed.
“Now we are helping another 9,000 people across the country.
“It took nearly a decade for the last Labour Government to own up to their responsibilities. We acted immediately. This will make a huge difference to the many older people who were affected in the Nettleham Ward and across West Lindsey.”
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has cancelled Labour’s planned fuel duty rise in the Budget, saving 2.7 million motorists in the East Midlands over £170 every year.
Because of the action we have taken, pump prices will now be 13 pence per litre lower than if Labour were in power. For a Vauxhall Astra that is £7 less every time families fill up the tank – or £9 less for a Mondeo. A van driver will save £340 per year and a haulier will save £5,200 per year.
Fuel duty will now have been frozen for nearly three and half years - the longest freeze in duty for over 20 years.
Cllr. McNeill welcomed the news, saying:
“This is a Budget that is delivering for families who want to work hard and get on in life.
“Scrapping another of Labour’s planned fuel duty increases will make a huge difference to the 2.7 million drivers in the East Midlands region.
“This Government has frozen fuel duty for three and a half years - longer than any Government in the last two decades - and saving the average family £7 every time they fill up their car.”
Particularly welcome was the Chancellor of the Exchequer announcing he would scrap Labour’s planned increase in beer duty, and instead, go further, cutting the duty by a penny, meaning beer will be 1p per pint cheaper after Sunday night – 4p per pint cheaper than it would have been under Labour.
Cllr. McNeill welcomed the news, saying:
“Labour increased beer duty by sixty per cent and left our pubs fighting for survival. Nettleham is fortunate to have four pubs – the Brown Cow, The Black Horse, The Plough and the White Hart.
“We’ve not only scrapped Labour’s planned increase – we’ve actually cut it.
“It is great news for beer-drinkers, it is great for breweries, and it’s great for 4,525 pubs across the East Midlands.”
