It is estimated that over a thousand of the lowest paid residents in Haringey will not have to pay income tax from April 2011 after the announcement by the government today that the tax threshold will increase by £630 to £8105.
The effect of the government’s change to income tax rates is estimated to reduce annual tax bills by £200 for 76,000 local residents and lift 1,300 people in the borough from paying any income tax at all.
The announcement by the coalition government is the next step in the implementation of a key Liberal Democrat policy to ensure, by 2015, that no-one earning less than £10,000 a year pays income tax.
Welcoming the announcement, Cllr Richard Wilson, Deputy Leader of Haringey Liberal Democrats, comments:
“I welcome the government’s recognition that local residents should be free from central government taxes on their income less than £8015. When people want to work they should have incentives that show work pays. This will help some of the lowest paid workers in Haringey and is a great step towards tackling the inequality in this borough which has festered under Labour.”
Lynne Featherstone MP added:
“This is another step towards achieving the Liberal Democrat aim to ensure that no-one has to pay tax on the first £10,000 of their hard-earned wages. I am glad that, even after the horrendous state Labour left our public finances, Liberal Democrats in government are still able to deliver real benefits for local people struggling on low wages.”
Lynne Featherstone
Lynne Featherstone 
Whilst I welcome the increase in the allowance, I was horrified to learn from the Office for Budget Responsibility’s OWN statistics that the net result of the budget will be a 9% increase in household debt over the next 4 years!
These are the figures from their publications:
Total household debt
19 Aug 2010 Pre-Budget
2011 £1,561bn debt 148% of income
2014 £1,718bn debt 143% of income
19 Aug 2010 Post-Budget forecast
2011 £1,564bn debt 149% of income
2014 £1,823bn debt 146% of income
However, on 22 February, they issued a correction to the latter
2010 £1,629bn debt 159% of income
2014 £1,956bn debt 168% of income
http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2011/03/25/youre-going-to-pay-for-the-cuts-in-the-governments-deficit-by-going-into-seriously-into-debt/
This 9% is likely to hit the poorer residents more, not less. Please, I know this is politics, but let’s have more realism and less spin!
Something tells me Lynne that the 1300 people will a) shortly be chucked out of their public sector jobs; b) not be voting for you; and c) not be impressed by your abject failure to see that a person who is working and being paid £8105 or less is a disgrace. Still I bet they are thrilled by the reduction of corporation tax by 1%.
I really do think you should give up these little tasters that are put on the site by your team as you can’t be ars*d to blog much these days being so busy with affairs of state and all.
Didn’t see you on the march today. Were you drinking champers at the boat race instead?
There were some great placards on the march. Was that you, Lynne, carrying a banner saying ‘It’s all Haringey Council’s fault’ or was that just a dream?