“Osborne’s Budget gives with one hand, but takes away with lots of other hands!”

READING & DISTRICT LABOUR PARTY MEDIA RELEASE
23 March 2011
Labour : “Osborne’s Budget gives with one hand, but takes away with lots of other hands!”

Reading Labour Group Leader Jo Lovelock says the Tory-led Government’s budget won’t help struggling families in the town.
“This budget marks an outright refusal to change course on cuts which are already proving very damaging to local people. We needed a budget that protected communities, families, workers and the promise to the next generation.
“As the Institute for Fiscal Studies said this morning, there is an awful lot of giving with one hand in this budget and taking away with lots and lots of other hands,” said Cllr. Lovelock "For example, while local council taxes have been frozen, local authorities like Reading are just introducing a range of new charges in order to balance their books – stealth taxes. Next year there’s a cut in income tax, but this year there’s a huge hike in VAT. You may win on the swings and you lose more on the roundabouts."
Leader of the Opposition, Ed Miliband responding to the Budget statement, said: “This is a no growth budget. One fact says it all: growth is down last year, this year and next year. What we learned today is that George Osborne's plan to cut too deep and too fast is hurting, but it's not working.
“The cuts are hurting families and damaging our economy It’s not the Chancellor that’s rescuing the country. It’s the country that needs rescuing from this Chancellor.”

George Osborne is promising a small tax cut next year, but he’s taking away £450 from families with children in higher VAT this year. And he’s cutting fuel duty by 1p a litre, but his VAT increase has already added 3p to the cost of a litre of petrol.
So it’s hurting. But it’s also not working. The independent budget watchdog's verdict on today’s Budget is clear: this so-called growth plan won’t work.
Growth is down last year, this year and next year, inflation is up, unemployment is up and that's why the government will be borrowing £44.5 billion more over coming period.
So this plan will actually make it harder to get the deficit down.
For the detailed figures see below