CHANCELLOR Osborne’s class war budget yesterday introduced massive tax cuts for the rich and launched huge new attacks on the working class, the old, the young and the poor.
He announced a 5p cut in the 50p top rate of income tax to 45p from next April and warned of more massive cuts in welfare spending between now and 2015.
Osborne claimed that he wasn’t ‘spending’ the £28 billion Royal Mail Pension Scheme ‘windfall’ that the government announced that it had secured earlier this week, but was instead ‘using it to pay off debt’!
He announced a new ‘automatic’ increase in the pension age beyond the increases already announced to deal with the ‘burden’ of an ‘ageing population.’
He spoke enthusiastically about road privatisation, planning deregulation, local pay for civil servants and ‘enterprise loans’ for youth.
He warned: ‘Our deficit reduction plan is on course and we will not waver from it. To do so would risk a sudden loss of confidence and a sudden rise in interest rates and we will not risk that.’
He said that the ‘transfer of the £28 billion of assets from the Royal Mail pension fund to the exchequer will . . . help to bring in new private sector investment,’ adding: ‘Some would have been tempted to spend the windfall. I do not intend to spend it, instead I have used it to pay off debt.’
He continued: ‘We will also maintain our control on welfare spending.
‘The passing of the Welfare Reform Act two weeks ago was a historic moment and I pay tribute to my right honourable friend the Work and Pensions Secretary and to all my coalition colleagues for supporting him against determined opposition from those who defend unlimited welfare.
‘But even with the Act the welfare budget is set to rise to consume one-third of all public spending. If nothing is done to curb welfare bills further then the full weight of the spending restraint will fall on departmental budgets.
‘The next spending review will have to confront this, so I am today publishing analysis that shows that if in the next spending review we maintain the same rate of reductions in departmental spending as we’ve done in this review we would need to make savings in welfare of £10 billion by 2015.’
He continued: ‘We will also address the rising costs of an ageing population and the burden this places on future generations, we will be publishing a White Paper on social care.
‘I have also said that we would consider proposals to manage future increases in the state pension age beyond the increases already announced. I can confirm today that there will be an automatic review of the state pension age to ensure that it keeps pace with increases in longevity.’
He went on to say: ‘We want to look at the opportunity for increasing the role of private investment in the road network, learning lessons from the water industry.’
He announced: ‘Next week the Communities Secretary and the Planning Minister will publish the result of our overhaul of planning regulations. We are replacing 1,000 pages of guidance with just 50 pages. We are introducing a presumption in favour of sustainable development, while protecting our most precious environments.
‘The new policy comes into effect when the National Planning Policy Framework is published next Tuesday. This is the biggest reduction in business red tape ever undertaken.’
He went on: ‘We are exploring the idea of enterprise loans. Young people get a loan to go to university or college. Now we want to help them get a loan to start their own business.
‘We are also looking to see whether we can make public sector pay more responsive to local pay rates,’ he continued, adding: ‘some departments will have the option of moving to more local pay for those civil servants whose pay freeze ends this year.’
Regarding Corporation Tax, he boasted: ‘We’ve already cut the rate from 28% to 26% . . . with the two further cuts planned next year and the year after, so that by 2014 Britain will have a 22% rate of Corporation Tax.’
He announced: ‘Duty on all tobacco products will rise by 5% above inflation. That’s 37 pence on a packet of cigarettes. And this will take effect from 6pm tonight.’
Announcing tax cuts for the richest, Osborne said: ‘From April next year the top rate of tax will be 45 pence.’
ATUA secretary Dave Wiltshire responded to the budget saying: ‘This is a class war on the working class. The trade unions must stop pulling their punches . They must punch their weight. They must answer Osborne and Cameron with a general strike to bring the coalition down and bring in a workers government.’
