MP welcomes positive Autum Statement for local businesses and residents
Speaking from Parliament following the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, Fiona Bruce MP said:
‘This is an excellent Autumn Statement to help support business in the Congleton Constituency – with the huge increase in capital allowances from £25,000 to £250,000 per annum, the extension of the small business rate relief for another year, the proposed reduction in Corporation Tax to 21% from April 2014 (from 28% at the start of this Parliament) and the introduction of a rates holiday for newly completed commercial premises until occupied, guaranteed for 18 months from 1st October 2013.
Additional important benefits for everyone include the cancellation of the 3p fuel duty increase planned by the previous Government for January 2013. I am particularly pleased at this since I have been a member of a group of backbenchers who have lobbied the Government consistently to keep fuel prices down – our most recent meeting on was with a Treasury Minister last week – knowing the pressure on businesses and families alike, in a constituency like Congleton, of petrol costs. The decision today to cancel this increase means there have been no petrol duty increases under this Government – for 2 ½ years – whereas under a Labour government planned increases for the same period would have seen petrol 13p per litre higher.
I am pleased too that the Government is to continue, for the third year running, its financial support for local authorities in England which freeze Council Tax as I know this is a really substantial part of household expenditure – particularly for families and pensioners.
At the same time, pensioners will see the Basic State Pension rise by 2.5% next year – higher than either earnings or inflation. This will take the level of the full Basic State Pension to £110.15 per week.
I am also pleased that for our young workers, for whom it is so important to secure jobs in the constituency and give them a real stake in its future, the amount they can earn before they pay any income tax at all has been increased to £9,440. When this Government came to power this stood at just £6,475. This announcement today also benefits everyone in work – not just the low paid, as it is a direct ‘in the pocket help’ the income of everyone working hard to provide for themselves and their families. It also underlines the Government’s continuing commitment to make work pay.
For savers, the increase in the annual ISA tax-free investment limit goes up to £11,520 - a really substantial increase to encourage saving.
A really important factor for our local economy in Cheshire is the boost the Chancellor is going to give to infrastructure projects using money saved by making Whitehall bureaucracy work more efficiently. This means that supporters of road and rail projects – such as the proposed Congleton Link Road and the Middlewich Railway Link Campaign – will have the opportunity to make their case for a share of billions of pounds of extra money which the Government is committing to support infrastructure projects across the country. I shall be doing all I can to make our the case for projects in the Congleton Constituency directly to the Chancellor and the Secretary of State for Transport, following on from the £3.4 million which the constituency is already receiving to improve Junction 17 of the M6 motorway at Sandbach.
