2010 Budget

Here are the edited highlights of the budget as I see it and my own opinions on some of the topics covered.

The Chancellor, MP George Osborne has today laid out his budget, which the Treasury has described as “fiscally neutral”.  Let’s see…

The growth forecast is set to be 2.5% in 2012, 2.9% in 2013, 2.9% in 2014 and 2.8% in 2015.  This is all fine but when inflation is currently at over 4% we need to keep a check on this and make sure this doesn’t get totally out of hand.

Inflation is set to stay at around 4%-5% this year, 2.5% in 2013 and 2% in 2014.  For savers the high interest can be a good thing but for those who are looking to buy first time it could make things even harder.  Inflation has not been this high for some time and we do not want this to get out of hand.  There are already resonances from the last time the Conservatives were in charge.

Borrowing will reach £146 billion this year…wow.

43 tax reliefs will be abolished taking out around 100 pages.  Who will that affect?  We simply do not know just yet.

There will be a consultation on combining National Insurance and Income Tax.  This makes sense in principle as you may as well have it all coming out in one lump sum, but for public sector workers who have had a pay freeze the affect will be little.

40,000 apprenticeships will be made available over the next four years.  I hope people are kept on from these though as companies find it cheaper to have apprentices and then get rid of them and replace them, than pay the full wage.  This has happened to people I know, so can we have measures in place that keep people on?

There will be a single tier state pension of £140 per week.  I seem to remember there being some issue with this but it has escaped my mind right now.

The Treasury will accept the recommendations of the Hutton review of public sector pensions.  Now this is the one that concerns me.  I will get an average pension rather than final salary.  This is not something that appeals to me and I may have not taken out my pension knowing what I know now…

Inheritance tax will be cut for those people who leave 10% of their estate to charity, raising £300 million.  Let’s hope this does not create loop holes because if it is done properly then this could be a really good measure.

1.1  million people will be taken out of income tax by the £630 increase in tax allowance next April.  Sadly this will not be me, but it will benefit a few people.  I do wonder how this difference will be dealt with elsewhere though.

Tobacco will be up 2p above  inflation.  It is about time that we banned this habit for good in my opinion.  A rise in costs will not stop people smoking and we could save millions on the NHS each year.

There will be no change in alcohol duty so we will all still be able to get drunk relatively easily.

Fuel duty will be cut by 1p per litre from tonight…not sure that small cut will really help anyone…but thanks anyway George.

Labour’s proposed fuel duty increases to be abolished…ok but we still need to be seriously looking at alternative fuels then please.

Taxes on oil and gas production will rise…how…I mean…fuel duty cuts but then this…can someone please explain?

No cut in VAT on petrol as proposed by Labour…make up your own mind, I feel crap today for some reason anyway.

Full report can be found here: http://cdn.hm-treasury.gov.uk/2011budget_complete.pdf