“However, this would represent such a significant change to the existing system, with considerable consultation, and I therefore suspect that we may have to wait until the next Budget before any further announcements are made in this regard”.
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“I’ve listened to the concerns”.
“It might be touched upon, but I’d be surprised if there’s any real mention of it”, he said. But he chose to bin his proposals altogether. Now is the time to back our police and give them the tools do the job.
“I am today announcing there will be no cuts in the police budget at all”.
But the size of the projected surplus is likely to be revised down after one of his most controversial savings ideas – big cuts to tax credits for low-earning households – was blocked in a rare rebellion by Britain’s upper house last month.
Small businesses champion, the Forum of Private Businesses (FPB), is calling on Mr Osborne to simplify tax structures, allowing business owners to “police their tax payments accordingly”.
This could involve the scrapping of higher rate tax relief or the limiting of tax free lump sums.
Labour Welsh Finance Minister Jane Hutt has said her government has £1.3bn less to spend on public services than it did in 2010.
Every Autumn Statement comes complete with its own point reinforcing catchphrase from the Chancellor.
“While we welcome the Chancellor’s plan to introduce a new Living Wage for all employers, we think it should be higher than the £7.20 he is bringing in next year”.
“For there is a crisis of home ownership in our country”. Faced with hard decisions on the public finances we could have rolled back our ambition on transport. Spending on counter-terrorism will hit United States dollars 22.9 billion over the next five years, a 30 per cent increase on what was spent over the last five.
The cuts are intended – with a £5 billion crackdown on tax avoidance – to meet Mr Osborne’s pledge to eliminate the national deficit without raising personal taxes.
That means the cuts to be announced on Wednesday will be all the deeper for other, unprotected, areas such as policing.
The Chancellor will deliver his autumn statement and the results of the comprehensive spending review today. “Above all, we choose homes that people can buy”, he will say according to extracts of his speech released in advance.
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“We will continue to do everything within our power to protect the most vulnerable from the United Kingdom government’s austerity measures, but we want to use our powers and resources to lift people out of poverty, not just continually mitigate as best we can”, he said.
