Claire Ward Claire Ward

Labour MP for Watford
Parliament

 
Policy Issues
 

The Budget 2008

Key announcements

 

• reports that the economy is stable and resilient, and continuing to grow, and that the Government is meeting its strict fiscal rules for the public finances;

• sets out further financial support for children, which will lift 250,000 children out of poverty;

• alongside the Winter Fuel Payment, an additional one-off payment of £100 to over 80’s households and £50 to over 60’s households in 2008-09. This will benefit around 9 million households;

• announces a package of access to finance measures including enhancing the Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme and the Enterprise Capital Funds to support small firms in accessing the resources they need to start up and grow;

• sets out a £200 million package over the next three years to bring forward by a year to 2011 the Government’s ambition for no school to have fewer than 30 per cent of its pupils achieving 5 A*-C grades at GCSE, including English and maths;

• takes further steps to meet the long term challenge of delivering decent and affordable housing;

• postpone the planned fuel duty increase of 2 pence per litre in April 2008 until 1 October 2008;

• increases alcohol duty rates by 6 per cent from 17 March 2008;

• lays the ground work for the introduction of five-year carbon budgets, and announces that the first budgets will be set as part of Budget 2009;

• announces further steps to tackle climate change including reforms to Vehicle Excise Duty, auctioning of 100 per cent of allowances for large electricity producers in Phase III of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, and that to eliminate single use carrier bags, the Government will legislate and impose a charge if retailers do not take voluntary action; and

• introduces further reforms to modernise the tax system, and a number of measures to tackle tax fraud and avoidance.

BUILDING A STRONG SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

The Government’s economic objective is to build a strong economy and a fair society, where there is opportunity and security for all.

The long-term decisions the Government has taken – independence for the Bank of England, new fiscal rules and a reduction in debt – have created a strong platform of economic stability. With low and stable inflation, interest rates set by the Monetary Policy Committee to meet the Government's symmetric inflation target, and fiscal policy supporting monetary policy over the cycle, the economy has grown continuously for 62 consecutive quarters.

The world economy is now facing a more challenging environment than was apparent at the time of the 2007 Pre-Budget Report, with continued disruption in global financial markets. While the UK and other economies have benefited significantly from globalisation, recent events have shown how interconnected capital markets mean shocks in one region can easily be transmitted

This Budget sets out the action the Government is taking to support the economy in the short term, to ensure the resilience of the past decade continues, combined with action to make further progress against its longterm goals of:

• maintaining macroeconomic stability, ensuring the fiscal rules are met and that inflation remains low;

• sustainable growth and prosperity, through reforms that promote enterprise and business growth, simplify the tax system, enhance flexibility and promote science, innovation and skills;

• ensuring fairness and opportunity for all, tackling child and pensioner poverty, providing opportunity for all children and young people, delivering security for all in retirement, and ensuring a modern and fair tax system where everyone pays their fair share of tax;

• creating stronger communities and effective public services, and improving long-term housing supply and affordability; and

• ensuring an environmentally sustainable world, with action to address the global challenge of climate change.

Further detail on each of these areas in Budget 2008 is below.

Further details

MAINTAINING MACROECONOMIC STABILITY

The Government’s long-term goal is to maintain macroeconomic stability in order to achieve its objective of a fair society where there is security and opportunity for all.

The UK economy continued to perform strongly in 2007, growing 3 per cent on a year earlier, the fastest growth rate among the G7 economies.

Employment reached a record high and claimant count unemployment fell to a 32 year low. The UK is the only G7 economy to have avoided any single quarter of negative growth over the past decade. The flexibility and resilience of the UK economy provides a solid platform from which to face the global economic shocks from the continued disruption in global financial markets and the increase in energy and commodity prices. UK GDP growth is forecast to slow from 3 per cent in 2007 to 1¾ to 2¼ per cent in 2008, before picking up to 2¼ to 2¾ per cent in 2009 and 2½ to 3 per cent in 2010.

Despite the impact of financial market disruption on the public finances, the Budget 2008 projections show that the Government is meeting its strict fiscal rules:

• the current budget shows an average surplus as a percentage of GDP over the current economic cycle, which began in 1997-1998, ensuring the Government is meeting the golden rule. The current budget moves clearly into surplus from 2010-11 onwards; and

• public sector net debt is projected to remain low and stable over the forecast period, stabilising below the 40 per cent ceiling set in the sustainable investment rule.

Climate Change

 

Wind FarmsThere is mounting evidence that climate change is the greatest threat to our way of life. I know that many people feel helpless about how they can deal with this problem.There are a number of different ways in which the government is contributing to reducing our carbon emissions, such as working with our international partners on emission trading schemes and investing in cleaner energy. Energy efficiency also plays an important part in this approach and it is something in which everyone, not just politicians, can make a difference. The average household is directly responsible for about 10 tonnes of carbon per year. Our decisions have a major impact on the environment.

Ten simple steps to stop climate change:

1. Turning your thermostat down by 1ºC could cut your heating bills by up to 10 per cent and save you around £40 per year.

2. Is your water too hot? Your cylinder thermostat shouldn't need to be set higher than 60ºC/140ºF.


3. Close your curtains at dusk to stop heat escaping through the windows.


4. Always turn off the lights when you leave a room.


5. Don't leave appliances on standby and remember not to leave appliances on charge unnecessarily.


6. If you're not filling up the washing machine, tumble dryer or dishwasher, use the half-load or economy programme.


7. Only boil as much water as you need (but remember to cover the elements if you're using an electric kettle).


8. A dripping hot water tap wastes energy and in one week wastes enough hot water to fill half a bath, so fix leaking taps and make sure they're fully turned off.


9. Replace your light bulbs with energy saving ones: just one can reduce your lighting costs by up to £100 over the lifetime of the bulb.


10. Do a home energy check. Just answer some simple questions about your home and get a free, impartial report telling you how you can save up to £300 a year on your energy bills. Visit www.est.org.uk for more details.

 

Respect Agenda

 

More bobbies on the beat – in your street

 

PCSOsWe all want to see more bobbies on the beat in our streets.  Thanks to Labour’s investment – that is becoming a reality with over 14,000 more police on our streets since 1997. Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) are an important part of the local neighbourhood policing teams that will be in Watford by 2008.

Before voting for the Police and Justice Bill I was pleased to see that it included measures to standardise PCSO powers and enable them to take part in truancy sweeps to make sure children were in school rather than getting into trouble hanging around. 

More than £200m has been committed to funding PCSOs in the next couple of years.  This will rise to £315m in 2007-08 to deliver neighbourhood policing in Watford and across the country including 16,000 PCSOs by April 2008.

 

Bringing Respect to Watford

 

We all want our communities to be decent, safe places to live. This requires each and every one of us to behave responsibly, respecting clear rules and shared values. Most people understand this, but there remains a selfish minority who refuse to recognise it, instead making life unbearable through their anti-social behaviour, such as harassment, loud noise, intimidation, and litter.

The Respect Action Plan, published a year ago this January, set out an ambitious programme of work to build a modern culture of respect.  It provides the police, councils and local communities with the tools they need to combat anti-social behaviour and improve our neighbourhoods. Up and down the country Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) are helping communities terrorised by threatening behaviour, graffiti and vandalism. Some people called them gimmicks, or claimed they’d make no difference.  They’ve been forced to eat their words.

Thousands of communities across Britain are feeling the benefits of giving new powers to police forces, local councils and communities to deal with persistent low level trouble causers.  Across the country, graffiti, noise, drunken behaviour, street gangs and nuisance neighbours are being dealt with. So a lot has happened - but a lot more will be happening at Westminster over the coming months to further build Respect in our communities. I’ll make sure I keep you up to date.

 

Do we need the Respect Squad?

 

Labour’s Respect Action Plan is helping areas up and down the country tackle anti-social behaviour. But I know that there are still problems in some areas. I recently hosted a meeting with the residents of the Boundary Way Estate and the local police to discuss these problems. We cannot let-up in tackling this behaviour until every community in every part of the country gets a swift and effective response.

So now, thanks to a Government task force, people in Watford can call in the experts to help local authorities take action. The ‘Respect Squad’ is a crack team of experts who can be called in to tackle incidents of persistent anti-social behaviour which are causing misery to local communities in and around Watford.

The Squad is made up of experienced staff from police and local government who have all worked at the sharp end taking action against anti-social behaviour. It will be down to them to help to speed up action where police and local authorities need extra support, or where severe cases are not being dealt with. So if you think your area needs the Respect Squad contact me at wardc@parliament.uk I’d very much like to hear from you.


 

 

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