Vince Cable

The Budget and Twickenham

As the Liberal Democrats Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, Vincent Cable was heavily involved in responding to the budget nationally. But he gave a local assessment of its impact:

"First, we shouldn't lose sight of the big picture. The British economy is generally doing well and our borough is becoming a prosperous place. But large numbers of people, especially pensioners are missing out."

"The £200 towards pensioners' council tax bills is welcome and together with the Chancellors other proposals for pensioners is more generous than Michael Howard's offering, but doesn't deal with the underlying problem. In our area council tax is exceptionally high and many people will get a terrible shock in a year's time when they are put into higher bands and don't have the means to pay. Thank is why my colleagues and I reject the Conservatives and Labour support for council tax and propose a different system based on ability to pay: income."

"Second, I recognise that the Chancellor has taken one of my policies to lift the threshold of stamp duty. But in our borough a threshold of only £120,000 is hopeless; I doubt if there is a single house locally which would qualify. The threshold should be at least £150,000 to help young, first time buyers."

"I welcome too the raising of the inheritance tax threshold though lifting it to £300,000 will still leave large numbers of local middle income families in the tax net. This tax needs fundamental reform to avoid cruel anomalies like the family I have encountered in Teddington where orphaned children left with no savings and no income in a family home face a big IHT bill".