One of the key actions of Government over the last seven years has been to keep increasing the tax-free personal allowance, ensuring more money stays in workers’ pockets.
Over 56,000 Crawley residents have already benefited from this, and last week the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that the amount earned before paying income tax will rise to £11,850 from next April.
This means that in 2018-19, a typical taxpayer will pay £1,075 less income tax than in 2010-11.
Wednesday’s Autumn Budget saw the Chancellor of the Exchequer confirm £3.5 billion of investment in upgrading NHS buildings and improving care, and £2.8 billion to go towards improving A&E performance, reducing waiting times for patients, and treating more people this winter. The health budget, which includes NHS spending, will already be increasing to £123.2 billion in 2019-20.
After listening to representations from myself and other Conservative MPs; Philip Hammond confirmed that households which qualify for Universal Credit will be able to access a month’s worth of support within five days, via an interest-free advance, from January 2018.
Oher measures which will make a difference to the family budget include fuel duty being frozen for the eighth consecutive year – ensuring a car driver will be £850 better off on average since 2010.
To support thousands of small pubs, there’ll be an extension of the £1,000 discount for pubs with a rateable value of less than £100,000 to March 2019. There will also be further freezing of duties on ciders, wines, spirits and beers.
Additional investment of over £30 billion to transform productivity in our economy was also committed. The nation’s economic infrastructure will be upgraded with expansion of the National Productivity Investment Fund by £8 billion to invest in rail, broadband, science and innovation. This will ensure the new industrial strategy transforms the economy to guarantee a brighter future for the next generation.
We have a whole host of world-class employers on our doorstep, and I want to see more and more of the jobs and apprenticeship opportunities on offer going to Crawley students.
Henry Smith MP