Economy

TAX

• Labour have raised taxes 66 times by stealth.

• Tax has gone up by £5,000 per household in the UK.

• Labour’s 66 stealth tax rises equate to 16.5 pence on the basic rate of income tax.

• Typical pensioners have seen more than a third of the increase in the basic state pension snatched back in higher council tax.

• If council tax continues soaring at the same rate it has under Tony Blair so far, it would hit £2,000 if he is re-elected.

• Families who bought their council flats in the 1980s are now being hit by inheritance tax.

• The average home-buyer has seen their stamp-duty bill double.

• The poorest fifth of households pay a higher proportion of their income in taxes than any other group.

• People earning the average salary of £25,170 pay a combined marginal rate of income tax and NI of 33 per cent.

• Four million more people are paying income tax under Labour. People working 20 hours a week at the minimum wage have to pay income tax and national insurance.

• 1.35 million more people pay top rate tax, including warrant officers, hospital matrons in London, police inspectors and deputy head teachers.

• Pensioners are seeing their pension funds raided by £5 billion a year because of the abolition of pension fund tax allowances.

ECONOMY AND BUSINESS

• We save only just over half of what we did in 1997.

• Britain’s productivity growth rate has fallen by a third.

• We now have the biggest trade deficit since the 17th Century.

• The effectiveness of Britain’s government spending has dropped from fifth to twenty-second in the world.

• Britain has dropped from fourth to eleventh in the World Economic Forum’s international competitiveness league.

• Britain’s economy has grown more slowly than any other major economy in the English speaking world.

• Income per head is lower in Britain than in the Republic of Ireland for the first time ever.

• The British stock market has under-performed every major market except for Japan’s.

• Under Labour, there have been 15 new regulations every working day.

• The British Chambers of Commerce now estimate that the cost of new regulations on business is nearly £40 billion.

CONSERVATIVE ACTION

• On the first day of a Conservative Government, we will freeze civil service recruitment.

• Within the first week, we will put a stop to wasteful inspection regimes in local government.

• Within the first month, our first Budget will cut wasteful government spending. This will give taxpayers value for money and stop Labour’s third term tax rises.

• We will cut regulations. We will ensure that the total regulatory burden imposed by government falls each year. We will introduce sunset clauses in new regulation. And like America we will exempt small businesses from many regulations altogether.
 

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