He is believed to be planning to cut it to £20,000 in the rest of the country.
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Peter Hartland, chief executive of Plymouth and Devon Chamber of Commerce, said he wanted to see “action” on the Conservative’s many pre-election promises – including commitments on infrastructure and growth. But the opposition Labour Party warned against “self-defeating” spending cuts.
“The budget will be the final arbiter of whether the swathe of pledges made by Cameron and Osborne had any substance in them at all”.
Osborne’s aim is to turn a budget deficit of nearly 5 per cent of gross domestic product into a surplus by slashing 25 billion pounds from welfare and government departments in an intensification of the austerity drive he began in 2010.
George Osborne will deliver his Budget on Wednesday, and he is expected to confirm the raised threshold to his fellow MPs.
The Chancellor maintained that the economy was “fundamentally stronger than it was five years ago” when he first came to office as part of the coalition with the Liberal Democrats.
At this pace the national debt is lower as a share of our national income in every future year than when I presented the Budget in March.
Conservative lawmaker Mark Garnier said his party had been clear about the scale of welfare cuts at the election, though he hoped they would be phased in gradually.
Osborne said he would freeze working-age benefits for four years and raise the thresholds at which Britons can access the country’s expensive tax credits system, created to top up the earnings of those on low incomes.
Other things we could see are further economic devolution, a possible cut of the top rate of tax from 45 pence to 40 pence, and renewed efforts to tax non-doms.
When asked whether the Government will increase the minimum wage in tandem with the tax credit reform, Osborne replied: “We have a merry-go-round in which people their taxes and then get back benefits, but I think the best answer to that is to cut their taxes”.
A truly blue budget will be delivered by the Chancellor later.
‘As we promised in our manifesto, we’ll take the family home out of inheritance tax for all but the richest, ‘ Mr. Osborne and David Cameron wrote.
There is also likely to be action on increasing the level at which the 40p rate of tax kicks in.
The £600 million-plus annual cost of providing free television licences to the over-75s is also being passed to the BBC from 2018/19 – with the broadcaster deciding whether the policy should continue after 2020.
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Mr Walker said the Chancellor must ensure the tax system “promotes investment and is easy for both individuals and business to understand”.
