- Borrowing figures: Another sign the Chancellor’s Budget has not worked
- OBR Report: Farm tax will penalise farmers for practically no benefit
- Cole-Hamilton: SNP must scrap social care power grab now
- OBR Report: Farm tax will penalise Welsh farmers for practically no benefit
- OBR Report: Farm tax will penalise farmers and crofters for little benefit to Exchequer
- Cross-border healthcare difficulties letting patients down
Borrowing figures: Another sign the Chancellor’s Budget has not worked
Responding to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showing UK borrowing has hit its highest December level for four years, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson, Daisy Cooper MP said:
This is yet another sign that the Chancellor’s Budget has not worked. It’s now putting people’s mortgages at risk and will make it even harder for the Chancellor to meet her borrowing rules.
The answer to this is to turbo-charge growth by scrapping the jobs tax, and raising the necessary revenue for our NHS from the big banks and tech companies instead.
After the Conservative Party’s disastrous legacy of economic vandalism, the Chancellor needs to go for growth through fairer tax measures that can unleash growth through small businesses, not undermine it.
OBR Report: Farm tax will penalise farmers for practically no benefit
Commenting on the latest OBR report on the impact of agricultural and business property relief, Liberal Democrat Environment and Rural Affairs spokesperson Tim Farron MP said:
This report confirms that the Government’s misguided family farm tax is mired in problems and will penalise British farmers for practically no benefit.
It is deeply concerning that older farmers will be hit hardest from this tax, with the rug pulled from under them before they can change their plans. And with tax revenue expected to be highly uncertain and unstable for two decades, the Chancellor’s excuses simply don’t stack up.
Farmers are absolutely vital for Britain, putting food on our tables and protecting the British countryside. And they are already battling botched trade deals, declining incomes and high energy prices. The Government must do the right thing and scrap the family farm tax before it’s too late.
Cole-Hamilton: SNP must scrap social care power grab now
Speaking ahead of the ministerial statement on the future of the National Care Service, proposals which would centralise social care services and wrench away control from local communities, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:
My party has been the only party to oppose this ill-fated power grab from day one.
The SNP have wasted four years and £30 million attempting this bureaucratic takeover – the equivalent of the annual salary of 1,200 care workers. It is money that should have been spent on care staff and service users, as well as fixing community care so that people can leave hospital on time.
Ministers need to announce that their planned power grab is being scrapped immediately and waste no time in investing in staff and services now.
OBR Report: Farm tax will penalise Welsh farmers for practically no benefit
Commenting on the latest OBR report on the impact of agricultural and business property relief, Welsh Liberal Democrat Westminster Spokesperson David Chadwick MP said:
“This report confirms that the UK Labour Government’s misguided family farm tax is mired in problems and will penalise Welsh farmers for practically no benefit.
“It is deeply concerning that older farmers will be hit hardest from this tax, with the rug pulled from under them before they can change their plans. And with tax revenue expected to be highly uncertain and unstable for two decades, the Chancellor’s excuses simply don’t stack up.
“Farmers are absolutely vital for Wales, putting food on our tables and protecting the Welsh countryside. And they are already battling botched trade deals, declining incomes and high energy prices. Labour must do the right thing and scrap the family farm tax before it’s too late.”
OBR Report: Farm tax will penalise farmers and crofters for little benefit to Exchequer
Orkney and Shetland MP, Alistair Carmichael, has today responded to a new report by the Office of Budget Responsibility on the impact of changes to agricultural and business property relief on inheritance tax, warning that it confirmed that the changes are still “mired in practical problems”. The OBR found that the tax yield to Treasury from the changes was subject to a “high” level of uncertainty, due to behavioural changes.
Mr Carmichael is Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee.
Mr Carmichael said:
This report confirms that the government’s misguided approach to farm inheritance tax is still mired in practical problems and risks harming farmers and crofters for very little benefit to the Exchequer. In the words of one expert to my committee last year: ‘it hits the people they say they are protecting and it protects the people they say they are hitting’.
It is deeply concerning that the OBR seems to expect that older farmers will be paying the hardest price from this tax. They followed the advice they were given throughout their lives and now they have had the rug pulled from under them before they can change their plans. With tax revenue expected to be highly uncertain and unstable for two decades, the logic behind these changes simply does not add up.
Farmers, crofters and food producers are vital for our country. The government must do the right thing and rethink these plans, before it is too late.
Cross-border healthcare difficulties letting patients down
Following a Welsh Affairs Select Committee meeting on cross-border health care between England and Wales, Welsh Liberal Democrat MP for the border constituency of Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe has said that the current situation is letting down Welsh patients, especially in Powys.
Commenting after the session, Welsh Liberal Democrat MP David Chadwick said:
My constituents in Powys are being let down by these systemic problems.
Patients in border communities face challenges to accessing healthcare that other regions of Wales don’t and they often feel these are ignored by the Welsh Government, despite the fact between 15-20% of patients in Wales are treated in England.
Now in addition to the usual difficulties with referrals and separate IT systems we have abysmal proposals from Powys Health Board to deliberately slow down the treatment of Welsh patients in hospitals in Herefordshire and Shropshire to save money.
It isn’t good enough and both the UK and Welsh governments need to be getting together to solve it. Some of these issues have been highlighted for over 10 years, but they still haven’t been addressed.