Claire Perry MP Comments on the Comprehensive Spending Review

Today, George Osborne, the Chancellor presented the Comprehensive Spending Review to the House of Commons. During his presentation, he made the point that last year; Britain's deficit was the largest in peacetime history. The government currently has to borrow one pound in every four that it spends, and every day it costs almost £120 million just to pay the interest on the nation's debts. The consequences of not acting now are serious: all regions across England would be faced with higher interest rates, business failures, rising unemployment and even potentially the end of the recovery. The Chancellor also said that this Spending Review promotes long-term economic growth, improves fairness by supporting the most vulnerable, and gives people the freedom to better themselves and their families in the future.

The Government today showed that it is committed to rebalancing the economy. In particular, it is determined to remove barriers and provide focused support to ensure that all places can realise their growth potential by:

• Supporting appropriate infrastructure;
• Stimulating private sector growth in all regions; and
• Providing local areas with incentives and powers through devolution.

Claire Perry MP for Devizes attended the Comprehensive Spending Review today in the House of Commons. Commenting on the announcements. Claire said:

"Today we heard a plan to get Britain back on the path to fairness and prosperity. With the biggest deficit in the developed world we had to have realistic and honest spending plans for sorting out the British economy and we now have them. But it was not all gloom and doom - we also heard about plans for more spending on the NHS, schools and international development; a plan for the accelerated roll-out of the high speed broadband that we so desperately need in our Constituency and details on simplifying the welfare system and cracking down on tax and benefit cheats. I was also delighted to hear that vital benefits for older people like Winter Fuel Allowances and free bus passes are to stay. We will have to wait for more detail to see exactly how these plans will affect us in the Devizes Constituency but today I spoke to Jane Scott OBE, Leader of Wiltshire Council and Brian Moore, Chief Constable of Wiltshire to discuss these plans and know that they are well-prepared to deliver these savings. My job now is to get as much detail on the impact of the changes for us locally."

Notes:
More detail on the CSR can be found here: http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/spend_index.htm

The key CSR announcements:
• There will be an average four-year cut of 19% in departmental spending budgets
• The structural deficit (the gap between taxes and spending) is to be eliminated by 2015/2016
• The overseas development budget will increase to 0.7 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI) from 2013, in line with the UK's international commitment to help the very poorest
• To ensure dignity in retirement, the Government will uprate the basic State Pension by a triple guarantee of earnings, prices, or 2.5 per cent - whichever is highest.
• There will be real growth in NHS budget every year, rising from £103.8 billion to £114.4 billion in real-terms by 2014/15, with total spending growing by 0.4 per cent over the Spending Review period
• Real terms protection for schools - schools budgets will grow by 0.1% real in each year of the Spending Review
• The Spending Review secures investment of £530 million over the spending review period to help ensure the roll out of superfast broadband across all areas of the UK
• The state pension age for men and women will reach 66 by the year 2020. This will involve a gradual increase in the State Pension Age from 65 to 66, starting in 2018. And it will mean an acceleration of the increase in the female pension age already underway since this April.
• The Government will also keep the universal benefits for pensioners, in recognition of the fact many have worked hard and saved all their lives, including: free eye tests; free prescription charges; free bus passes; free TV licenses for the over 75s; and Winter Fuel Payments will remain exactly as budgeted for by the previous Government - as promised. The Chancellor is also turning the temporary increase in the Cold Weather Payments introduced by the last government into a permanent increase.
• While the HM Revenue and Customs budget will be expected to find resource savings of 15% through the better use of new technology, greater efficiency and better IT contracts - it will be spending £900 million more on targeting tax evasion and fraud. This additional £900 million is expected to help collect a missing £7 billion in tax revenues.

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