A Fair Road to Recovery
15th December 2009
A joint article by Alan Whitehead MP and John Denham MP, written for the Southern Daily Echo.
In the Pre Budget Report, the Chancellor Alistair Darling sets out Labour’s four-point plan for Britain’s economic future:
- Securing the economic recovery through green growth
- Protecting frontline public services
- Halving the deficit generated by the banking crisis; and
- Ensuring the costs of recovery are shared fairly, and do not fall just on those on low and modest incomes.
It’s the right plan for Britain and for Southampton.
Labour is the only party in British politics with a real commitment to helping families and businesses during the downturn. The Tory ‘do nothing’ approach of waiting for the markets to sort themselves out after tha banking crisis would have been a disaster for our city and our country.
Unlike the Tories, we will continue government support to keep people in work and in their homes. We will maintain the extra mortgage support which protects families who suffer a sudden drop in income from losing their homes. And the Young Person’s Guarantee- which guarantees every young person out of work for more than a year the offer of a job, training or college place- will now be extended to help young people after six months. We will do this because we know from bitter experience that if we leave a generation on the dole, like in the 1980s, the long term costs will be even higher.
Part of the cause of the current downturn is that banks are failing to lend to businesses. Until private lending is functioning properly again, we will continue allowing small businesses to defer their tax payments until they can better afford to pay. This scheme has already helped 650 businesses in Southampton defer over £12 million.
But who should pay for the costs of the recovery? Under our proposals, half of the burden falls the top 2% of high earners in Britain. We don’t advocate this because we’re against people who work hard and want to do well for themselves and their families. But we think it’s fair that when people across Britain are worrying about their futures, it’s fair to ask those who have come out better from the ‘good times’ than 98% of the rest of the country, to shoulder a bit more of the burden now.
This is in stark contrast with the priorities laid out by the Conservatives. Their flagship policy is an inheritance tax cut for the children of millionaires. This would do nothing to help ordinary people or promote economic growth, but it would make the 3000 richest estates in the country about £200,000 better off. In what world is that a sensible priority?
And the Conservatives would put the recovery at risk by cutting back too fast, too soon. Their claims that they would cut the deficit ‘faster’ than Labour just don’t add up. We’ve worked out that if they did it faster than us – in three years rather than the four we’ve proposed, they’d have to find an EXTRA £26 BILLION– that’s half the schools budget or 5.5p on VAT!
The proposals laid out by the Labour Government this week are the only way we will secure the economic recovery and help ordinary families in Southampton. The alternative- Tory tax cuts for the few and public service cuts for everyone else- is a risk none of us can afford.
Alan Whitehead MP
John Denham MP
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