Mark Garnier, Wyre Forest’s Conservative Parliamentary Spokesman, added his voice to the calls to cut taxes for savers and pensioners in Wyre Forest. Conservatives have called for special help for these “innocent victims” of Labour’s recession, who are suffering as the income from their savings falls. Over the long term, cutting taxes on savings would help build a savings culture and end Britain’s addiction to debt under Gordon Brown.
Under the Conservative plans:
- • Basic rate taxpayers would pay no tax at all on their income from savings, making them up to £7,200 a year better off.
- • The income tax allowance for pensioners would be increased, with age-related personal allowances rising by £2,000, helping them by up to £400 a year.
- • The package would be paid for by reducing the growth in government spending by £5 billion. Instead of rising by £30 billion next year, the increase would be £25 billion. Spending on the NHS, schools, defence and international development would all be protected.
- • An estimated 1,794,860 people across the West Midlands would benefit from these tax cuts.
Mark Garnier explained,“Wyre Forest’s savers and pensioners are the innocent victims of Gordon Brown’s recession. On an almost daily basis I am getting letters, e-mails and telephone calls from people who are angry that their life savings are now yielding them virtually nothing in terms of interest received. They feel they are being punished for putting aside money. Cutting taxes will give immediate relief to people who have wisely saved money. And in doing this, we will replace a culture of spending on credit with a culture of saving – a culture that is widely recognised by economists the world over as being a sound base for a strong economy.
“We need change to deliver a culture of thrift at the heart of government and a culture of saving at the heart of our economy – a change that can only come about as a result of a general election”