Proposed by Councillor Tom Harney

Seconded by Councillor Dave Mitchell

(1)  This Council notes:

(a)  The Government plan to raise the income tax threshold to £10,000, so that the first £10,000 people earn will be tax-free.

(b)  That a recent opinion poll conducted by ComRes in February 2012 shows that a majority of people clearly support this policy, promoted by the Liberal Democrats in Government.

(c)  That, last April, the raising of the income tax threshold meant 800,000 people on low incomes now do not have to pay any income tax at all and that working people were also given a £200 tax cut; and that this year a further cut is planned so a further 1.1 million people on low incomes will not pay any income tax at all.

(d)  The recent open letter to the Chancellor signed by Liberal Democrat Group Leaders around the country, including Wirral, urging George Osborne to make helping those on low and middle incomes a priority in the Government’s Budget by speeding up the raising of the income tax threshold.

(e)  The announcement in the Budget 2012 that from next year, the Income Tax threshold will be raised further, ensuring that no one pays any income tax on the first £9,200 they earn.

(2)  Council believes that raising the income tax threshold will have a clear impact on improving the lives of lower paid people in Wirral and those on benefits seeking work.

(3)  Therefore, Council welcomes this measure to speed up the raising of the tax threshold and notes that, in Wirral, 9,880 people will have been lifted out of paying income tax altogether by 2013 and 103,400 will receive an income tax cut.

Amendment submitted in accordance with Standing Order 7(2)

Proposed by Councillor Adrian Jones

Seconded by Councillor Anne McArdle

Delete all and replace with:

1.  This Council notes:

(a)  The 2012 Budget was an ordinary budget for extraordinary times. Since his first ‘emergency’ budget in June 2010 George Osborne has consistently promised steady and sustained economic recovery with low inflation and falling unemployment. He has failed on both counts. This country needed a budget that would make jobs a priority, particularly for young people. Instead the Collaboration of LibDems and Tories has delivered a ‘Sheriff of Nottingham’ budget for the rich by the rich. Despite publicly declaring that he found tax avoidance “morally repugnant” the Chancellor has rewarded legal tax avoidance by cutting income tax for the richest one per cent, with precious little relief for hard pressed families on low and middle incomes. Treasury figures show that those on low and middle incomes will do worse than those on higher incomes in tax measures that seem more designed to keep the ConDem Collaboration together than for the good of the UK People.

(b)  Whilst referring misleadingly to apparent tax reductions for those on low incomes, the net effect of the Collaboration Government’s measures will be that families are likely, through the loss of other benefits, to lose up to twenty times more than they gain. Under the Chancellor’s measures, families will have gained up to £381 by April 2013 as a result of the personal allowance threshold rising faster than inflation – but could by then have lost up to £4000 from changes to working tax credits over the same period.

(c)  The accelerated increase in the personal allowance which will rise from £8105 to £9205 in April 2013 was neither as reforming nor as progressive as the ‘coalition’ would have us believe.

(d)  4.41 million pensioners will, under new tax calculation formulae, have taken from them an average of £83 each to be transferred to the pockets of the rich.

(e)  New pensioners will lose out the most with a £259 cut for those reaching 65 from next year and a £291 cut for older pensioners – or £5.61 a week in chaotic new rules so arbitrary that some pensioners will lose substantially more than others born just a day before them.

2.  Council therefore views with incredulity the collaboration government’s propaganda claim to have improved living standards for low and middle income families. This propaganda claim is being peddled despite knowing that the potentially beneficial effect of raising the income tax threshold has for countless families on low and middle incomes been swept away by the simultaneous withdrawal of other benefits. This occurs when millionaires in the collaboration cabinet are likely to gain many thousands of pounds in their own reduced taxes.

3.  Council notes that the biggest tax cut of all was reserved for the top one per cent of earners. This very action signals definitively that we are not “all in this together”. The effect on the low and middle income families of Wirral will be especially hard at a time when food bills are rising, unemployment is endemic, the EMA for their children has been withdrawn, the winter fuel allowance for pensioners has been reduced, fuel costs are rising, the notorious ‘Granny Tax’ will hit retired Wirral Citizens, and the government gives tax cuts to millionaires who take meals in Downing Street for fat cheques to Tory funds.

4.  Council notes that the LibDems nationally are “empowering” a Tory-led assault through taxation on the UK people against all that their Liberal traditions ever stood for. The Wirral LibDems are sucked into a toxic alliance that they have not the courage to condemn. The ‘Daily Mail’ of 23^rd March reported “The full extent of George Osborne’s stealth tax on pensioners was laid bare yesterday.” The Daily Express reported a “Terrible betrayal of every pensioner in the country” and “This is a wicked and iniquitous move”. Council notes that when newspapers which traditionally support Conservative policies publicly berate the government’s attacks on hard working families and pensioners there is nowhere left for the ConDem collaboration to hide.

Having applied the guillotine in accordance with Standing Order 7(8) the Council did not debate this matter.

The amendment was put and lost (29:36) (One abstention).

The motion was put and carried (36:29) (One abstention).

Resolved (36:29) (One abstention) –

(1)  This Council notes:

(a)  The Government plan to raise the income tax threshold to £10,000, so that the first £10,000 people earn will be tax-free.

(b)  That a recent opinion poll conducted by ComRes in February 2012 shows that a majority of people clearly support this policy, promoted by the Liberal Democrats in Government.

(c)  That, last April, the raising of the income tax threshold meant 800,000 people on low incomes now do not have to pay any income tax at all and that working people were also given a £200 tax cut; and that this year a further cut is planned so a further 1.1 million people on low incomes will not pay any income tax at all.

(d)  The recent open letter to the Chancellor signed by Liberal Democrat Group Leaders around the country, including Wirral, urging George Osborne to make helping those on low and middle incomes a priority in the Government’s Budget by speeding up the raising of the income tax threshold.

(e)  The announcement in the Budget 2012 that from next year, the Income Tax threshold will be raised further, ensuring that no one pays any income tax on the first £9,200 they earn.

(2)  Council believes that raising the income tax threshold will have a clear impact on improving the lives of lower paid people in Wirral and those on benefits seeking work.

(3)  Therefore, Council welcomes this measure to speed up the raising of the tax threshold and notes that, in Wirral, 9,880 people will have been lifted out of paying income tax altogether by 2013 and 103,400 will receive an income tax cut.