Autumn Statement Recap

BACK 26-11-2016

The Chancellor recently delivered his Autumn Statement in the House. Key announcements for Amber Valley residents and our area were:

Fuel Duty: Fuel duty will remain frozen for the seventh year in a row, saving the average car driver £130 a year.

Many constituents contacted me in the run up to the Autumn Statement asking for lower fuel prices to help families and businesses in Amber Valley. I therefore co-signed a letter calling on the Chancellor to maintain the fuel duty freeze; I'm pleased that he's done this and that several supermarkets have already cut their prices to put more money back into constituents’ pockets.

Roads: The Chancellor has allocated £1.462 million to Derbyshire to fix more than 27,000 potholes in 2017/18, or stop them forming in the first place. This is welcome news for Amber Valley residents, many of whom have contacted me to express their frustration about the awful state of many of our roads. So, I’ll be encouraging the Council to make full use of their funding allocation locally.

Health infrastructure investment: I've been supporting Queen's Medical Centre's bid for a new helipad at the East Midlands Trauma Centre in Nottingham, and I'm pleased that the Chancellor confirmed £1.3 million of LIBOR funding (from fines levied on banks). This will allow the project to go ahead - and save many more lives in our region.

Broadband: This Government is investing a further £1 billion in our digital infrastructure to help more UK homes and businesses get superfast broadband. There will also be funding to support trials of 5G mobile communications.

Income Tax thresholds: The personal tax allowance will rise to £11,500 next year. This is a welcome boost to the incomes of low and middle earners, and means that 28 million people have had tax cuts since 2010 whilst 4 million people have been taken out of income tax altogether.

The Chancellor also reconfirmed this Government's commitment to support my campaign to raise the personal allowance even further, to £12,500 by the end of this Parliament.

Universal Credit: From April 2017 the Universal Credit taper will be reduced from 65% to 63%. Currently, for every £1 earned after tax above an income threshold, a person receiving Universal Credit has their benefit award reduced by 65p and keeps 35p. They will now keep 37p for every £1, from April 2017. This will be a tax cut for more than 3 million households, including many in Amber Valley.

You can read about more of the announcements from the Autumn Statement (including new policies on housing, letting agent fees, improving savings, tax avoidance and increases in the National Living Wage)  here, and you can look at the Statement in full here.

 

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