Budget is little more than a sticking plaster for the election - Foster

6.13.21pm GMT Wed 16th Mar 2005

Responding to the budget, Bath's MP, Don Foster, said:

"The Chancellor has delivered a budget which is little more than a sticking plaster for the General Election. He is offering small bribes to people that Labour has let down, but no long-term solutions.

"How can it be right in Britain today that the poorest 20% pay more in tax, as a proportion of their income, than the richest 20%? But over the last eight years the Chancellor has tinkered an awful lot, but failed to tackle the fundamental unfairness in the system. This budget is just more of the same.

"The tax rise the Chancellor didn't mention is Council Tax revaluation which is due to start on 1st April. The Welsh experiment suggests that 7 million people in England will pay significantly more after revaluation.

"The Government cannot keep on patching up this unfair tax. It is high time that this Government listened to the Liberal Democrats and other groups concerned about the situation facing older people such as Age Concern and replaced Council Tax with a local tax based on the ability to pay. Whilst the extra help for pensioner will be welcome, the Chancellor still has done nothing to fundamentally fix this despicably unfair tax. Under Liberal Democrat plans, 6 million pensioners will not pay Local Income Tax and an average single pensioner will benefit by £209 a year."

Don Foster continued,

"Gordon Brown should introduce a Citizen's Pension that ends the discrimination against women and ends means testing for the oldest pensioners. Keeping pensioners below the poverty line and expecting them to jump through means tested hoops to claim Pension Credit simply isn't fair to our older people.

Commenting on the raising of the Stamp Duty threshold to £120,000, Don Foster said:

"This will be welcomed, and is something we've been calling for, for some time. It's a shame that the Chancellor couldn't commit as much as the Liberal Democrats, who have proposed to raise this to £150,000, and genuinely help first time buyers who on average pay £131,000 for a property."

In conclusion Don Foster said:

"The Chancellor talks about British economic success - but for us that is also about having a Government dedicated to fairness.

"Our policies will make social justice a priority while ensuring financial discipline and tough choices.

"It is the Liberal Democrats who are offering the real solutions and we are the real alternative."