“A soufflé that never rose – flat, flat, flat” was the verdict on the Budget with which I most agreed. It came from the owner of Taunton’s own Little Wine Shop restaurant and brasserie in Riverside Place.
This truly was a Budget which put off all the big decisions we need to get our country growing again and help people see they can win in the game of life and living standards.
That was a shame, given some of the small shoots of recovery are potentially coming through. Our growth is one of the highest in the G7 and the government has managed to control borrowing in the recent period.
More’s the pity, therefore, that the Budget didn’t take the big decisions we can all see are obviously needed to boost growth – re-establish free trade with the biggest market on our doorstep, Europe, using the proceeds to unfreeze tax thresholds and finally give everyone the tax break they need.
Returning to the restaurants in our town centre (as I often do), I’ve long been calling for more help for the High Street – as have the Liberal Democrats.
Our proposal is a VAT cut for all hospitality businesses, pubs, restaurants and leisure venues, for at least the next quarter when energy prices are again scheduled to rise steeply.
The Chancellor upping the value at which such businesses start paying business rates – from £15,000 to £18,000 – is certainly welcome in principle, but early indications are that very few will actually be helped as a result.
For people’s bills the £100 payment to Council Tax homes valued A to D, is not to be sneezed at but really isn’t going to make a huge difference given average bills look like rising by £300 to £400 in the New Year.
John Healey has paid for some of this by reducing the headroom he has against rising borrowing costs, but it’s thanks to Trump’s idiotic war with Iran that we have these costs and energy price rises in the first place.
To square the circle, Healey has used up some of the headroom available, protecting £15 billion against these kinds of shocks, compared to the previous Chancellor’s £23.6 billion.
It seems to have done enough to keep lenders’ minds settled, at least for now, and it’s allowed him to do the smaller giveaways our new PM has been plugging on TikTok.
Moving to defence and, after I and the LibDem team in Parliament got the government to legislate for ‘Decent Homes’ for our service families, it’s deeply disappointing, to see the proposed taking of £1 billion away from those very improvement works.
Defence spending does need to increase to 3% of GDP but why ever not issue the £20 billion of defence bonds we have been calling for, and for everyone to invest in, rather than halt the work to make our military’s homes fit for purpose?
We’ll have a chance to ponder on how we can better support those who put their lives on the line for our country as we take part in Remembrance events this week.
I’m heartened to see the veterans among our Somerset Lib Dem councillors starting new work to ensure those who have served get better housing services locally. In support of their bid, I have written to the Minister urging support for the proposed Operation Valour veterans’ centre for Taunton.
As your MP, Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day are the most important events in my calendar but what we do between these events matters to our serving personnel and their families too.
We will remember them.