By Cllr Pauline Jorgensen
This week, the Conservative Government has announced its plans to ensure a strong economy for the next five years.
Nationally, the number of people in unemployment has fallen by over a million people since 2010 when the last Labour Government left office. Inflation is coming down, real wages are rising, and the economy is growing.
All this has been possible because people across the country, including in Wokingham Borough, have worked hard to overcome the challenges for the economy caused by Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine.
Originally National Insurance was used to fund NHS care, pensions and other welfare benefits. Now, National Insurance is just one of a number of taxes, like Income Tax, that are pooled together for the Government to fund services.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has previously reduced National Insurance contributions by 4p in the last year, because it is an unfair form of double taxation on people in work. The independent Office for Budget Responsibility has said that reducing this penalty on work would lead to the equivalent of 94,000 more people in work.
That’s why the Conservatives have announced that if we are re-elected on July 4, National Insurance contributions will be cut by another 2p, meaning that more than £1,350 will have been saved for the average worker since the start of this year. And the longer-term ambition is to simplify the tax system, continuing to reduce National Insurance contributions until the tax is abolished.
Owning a home makes people more financially secure and gives them a stake in society. As the party of the property-owning democracy, we want to give more people the chance to buy their own home.
As a desirable place to live, the cost of housing in Wokingham Borough is high – for example, the average price of a terrace house in Wokingham £403,958, while the average house price in Earley is £492,197.
That is why the Conservatives are making a manifesto commitment to ensure the vast majority of first-time buyers pay no Stamp Duty at all. This will be done by increasing the threshold from £300,000 to £425,000 and increasing the threshold at which first-time buyers can access Stamp Duty relief.
But it’s also important that more is done to deliver more affordable homes in sustainable numbers in the right location, which is the hands of local authorities.
In Wokingham Borough, your Conservative councillors have repeatedly pressed the Liberal Democrat administration, propped up by Labour, to get on with producing a Local Plan for housing that would get this moving.
On the Liberal Democrats’ watch, the Council’s housing companies, which are meant to deliver affordable homes in place of worn-out Council housing, are not developing any sites.
An independent report on the companies commissioned by the Council said “there is a feeling both within the Council and the companies that, at least in relation to delivery, that there is currently a state of ‘limbo'”.
The report adds that the Council acknowledges that in the past the housing companies under the Conservatives “managed to develop a number of schemes successfully”.
The Government will also boost the economy by moving to a household system for calculating Child Benefit, guaranteeing increases in the State Pension, delivering 100,000 new apprenticeships and investing £36 billion more in transport.
The Liberal Democrats and Labour are both making commitments on the economy – but after two years of them being in charge in our Borough, we can already see the damage they would do.
While inflation is currently at 2.3%, the Council’s fees and charges will increase on average by 8% for this year. The cost of parking in Wokingham has more than doubled, and free evening and Sunday parking have been scrapped. Parking has also gone up for our country parks. If you visit to walk the dog, have a picnic or let your kids run around, expect it to cost you 15% more.
These are all crippling for the local economy.
And when residents and businesses protested, the Liberal Democrats and Labour simply ignored them, with the Liberal Democrat Executive member saying to those affected “I am afraid that for some it is too easy to blame Wokingham Borough Council if they have a problem.”
Conservatives believe that we need a strong economy to secure the future, including for people in Wokingham Borough. The Government has an achievable and fully-costed plan to get there.
Cllr Pauline Jorgensen is the leader of Wokingham Conservatives on Wokingham Borough Council and ward member for Hillside
