One of the biggest events of the political year is the budget. It is not just the whole of the political and media world that scrutinises the budget but business, job seekers and families. People are naturally looking to see if the budget is business friendly, will support the creation of new jobs and will help families.
For families, a huge concern is for work, job security, having a good standard of living and high quality services. Employment has gone up by over 1.3 million since the 2010 General Election and we are now starting to see the level of wages catch up with inflation and they are predicted to soon overtake inflation. Another increase, to £10,500, of the income tax personal allowance will further reduce the burden of taxation on families.
The BBC, Sunday Express and the Bolton News covered Grant Shapps’ visit to Bolton West and to Watson Steel Structures and it gave him a great opportunity to discuss how the budget helped them as a major manufacturer in the North of England. Key to this was the reduction in the cost of energy that the Chancellor, George Osborne MP, announced. This will save a midsized manufacturer £50,000 a year and half of the benefits will be in the North of England and so help to rebalance the economy.
Three quarters of bingo halls and huge numbers of pubs have closed in recent years. The halving of tax on bingo and a penny off a pint of beer will go a long way to protecting those businesses and providing job security as we recover from the 2008 Great Recession.
On a personal level, I prefer cider to beer and was disappointed that its duty was only frozen but I reckon that it would have been increased under Labour along with loads of other taxes.