Tom Biggins, Conservative Candidate for Telford, has this week responded to the Government’s new tax and spending proposals – the so-called Pre-Budget Report – by warning of Labour plans for higher taxes and record levels of national debt included in the small print.

This comes as the country’s debt is forecast to reach £1,500,000,000,000 – equivalent to £23,000 for every man, woman and child in Telford. The Government will spend £64 billion a year on debt interest. This is equivalent to the amount of money raised each year from fuel duty, inheritance tax, stamp duty and council tax combined. The debt will also push up interest rates over time, meaning more expensive mortgages and credit card bills.

Tom said: “Every family in Telford is going to forced to pay out for years thanks to Gordon Brown’s mistakes. Our country faces the biggest overdraft in our peacetime history, and Labour have already started to hike taxes on Telford’s residents to pay for it.”

“The message to aspiring families from these tax changes is clear. If you want to get on in life, own your own home or leave something to your children, then the Labour Party is not for you anymore. It’s time for change – and Conservatives will work hard to sort out the mess that Labour have left.”

Notes to Editor:

National Insurance will be increased both on employers (destroying jobs) and on employees (meaning a smaller pay packet). National Insurance for workers is rising on anyone earning over £20,000. It total £6.5 billion will be raised in extra NI – more than £310 per family (HM Treasury, Pre-Budget Report 2009, December 2009, p.10). http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/prebud_pbr09_repindex.htm

The threshold for higher rate income tax will be frozen in 2012-13, meaning more middle income earners will be dragged into the higher rate. This will raise £400 million (Pre-Budget Report, p.10).

The inheritance threshold will be frozen, being more homes will pay more inheritance tax as house prices and asset prices rise due to fiscal drag. The Government forecasts ‘house prices grow at around 5 per cent per year’ (Pre-Budget Report, p.183). This will raise £440 million between 2010-13 (Pre-Budget Report, p.10).

At the end of this year, the stamp duty threshold will be lowered from £175,000 to £125,000. The average house price for a first time buyer was £147,517 in September 2009 (DCLG, Live Tables 592, November 2009). Hence, from January, the average first time buyer will end up paying £1,475 in stamp duty. Total stamp duty revenues are forecast to rise from £7.4 billion in 2009-10 to £9.3 billion in 2010-11 (Pre-Budget Report, p.181).

Every home and business with a fixed landline or other data lines will pay a £6 a year tax per line. This is estimated to raise £440 million between 2010-13 (Pre-Budget Report, p.10). 1.7 million homes will have to pay twice as they have different telephone line providers and internet providers. VAT will also be levied on top, raising up to £77 million in additional revenue.

Employees who benefit from a free or subsided canteen as part of their salary package will have to pay income tax on the benefit. This canteen tax will raise £220 million between 2011-13 (Pre-Budget Report, p.10).

Families face a further wave of cuts to their bin collections, as councils will be forced to make so-called ‘efficiency’ savings in waste collections: ‘The additional £3 billion of savings a year by 2012-13 includes... £550 million from local government, including more efficient waste collection and disposal’ (Pre-Budget Report, p.109). The Government already classes moving from a weekly to a fortnightly rubbish collection as an ‘efficiency saving’ (Hansard, 29 October 2008, col. 1153W.)

Council tax receipts are forecast to rise by an inflation-busting 4 per cent (+£1.0 billion) from £24.8 billion in 2009-10 to £25.8 billion in 2010-11 (Pre-Budget Report, p.181). A 4 per cent rise in council tax would take the average Band D bill from £1,414 a year now to £1,471 a year – or a monthly council tax bill of £123 a month for a typical home. In due course, the hikes in employers’ National Insurance contributions will push up the wage costs of councils, police forces and fire brigades – which will all feed through into pressures on council tax.

Net government debt is projected to grow to £1,473,000,000,000 – almost £1.5 trillion – by 2014-15 (Pre-Budget Report 2009, p.189). This is equivalent to everyone being £23,000 in debt.

Just to pay the interest on that £23,000 debt will cost everyone over £1,000 per year. The cost of servicing government debt is predicted to rise to £63.7 billion by 2013, or £1,037 per person. To place this in context, council tax raises £24.8 billion in 2009-10, fuel duty raises £26.4 billion, stamp duty raises £7.4 billion, and inheritance tax raise £2.2 billion in 2009-10 (Pre-Budget Report, p.181).