Westminster Week
Posted by Kitty Ussher, MP for Burnley, at 10:22, Fri 12 October 2007:
Dear Friend,
Parliament finally returned this week after the party conference season.
First up on the Monday was a statement by the prime minister on Iraq. He confirmed his intention to reduce British troop numbers serving in southern Iraq to 2,500 by the spring, down from the 5,500 currently serving there.
This phased withdrawal will coincide with the handing over of Basra to Iraqi control in the next few weeks, as announced by the Iraqi prime minister. It fits with our overall policy that we should only remain in Iraq for as long as the Iraqi government requires our presence there, and the prime minister reaffirmed to the House of Commons his overarching aim of “our long term aim of handing over security to the Iraqi armed forces and police, honouring our obligations to the Iraqi people and to their security, and ensuring the safety of our forces”.
The main event in parliament on Tuesday was the Chancellor’s statement on the pre-budget report and comprehensive spending review, with which I had some involvement as part of the team of ministers at the Treasury. It was the culmination of many months of work, setting out the budgets of all the main arms of government for the next three years and simultaneously explaining how they would be paid for.
The announcements were good news for Burnley with commitments to raise the overall level of spending on the NHS – from around £90 billion a year now to £110 billion over the next three years, an average increase after inflation of four per cent a year. There was also more money for education, enabling us to give more intensive support to young children who need it to stop them falling behind and more hours of free pre-school education for 3 and 4 year olds, on top of more new primary schools and sure start childrens centres across the country.
The Chancellor’s statement also confirmed that funding would be made available for free off peak nationwide bus travel in England for all pensioners and disabled people from April next year. That means 18,000 elderly people and 10,000 disabled people in Burnley wont have to pay a penny to travel anywhere they want in the country by bus from next year.
There are also rises to pension credit and child tax credit and other measures that will lift a further 100,000 children out of poverty and ensure that 600,000 fewer pensioners have to pay income tax.
There were also changes announced to the way that inheritance tax works. At the moment, if someone dies and passes their share of their house to their spouse, the surviving partner then faces an inheritance tax threshold of 300,000 as if they were a single person. We think, particularly in the light of rising house prices nationally, that couples should be able to roll up their allowances together if they want to. So the new inheritance tax allowance for married couples and civil partners will be £600,000 rising to £700,000 in 2010. And it will be backdated so that all widows and widowers will benefit.
The difference between this proposal and the one the Conservatives put forward at their party conference is that they are also proposing to spend an extra £1bn of taxpayers money exempting the top 1% of property owners (estates worth more than £950,000) from inheritance tax. We are proposing to spend more money instead, not on the millionaires, but on continued investment in health and education for everyone. So our proposal is fairer and more affordable than the one we heard from the Conservatives.
Back in Burnley this weekend, I will be visiting local schools and holding surgeries as usual in Padiham and in the Central Methodist Church in Hargreaves Street. Hope to see you there.
Kind Regards,
Kitty Ussher MP
6 ways to contact Kitty Ussher MP
Write to: House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA or 2 Victoria Street, Burnley BB11 1DD Phone: 01282 450840 Fax: 01282 839623 By email: ussherk@parliament.uk On-line: www.kittyussher.com In person: This weeks surgeries are Friday 12th October - 3.30pm - 5.00pm Padiham Town Hall, Padiham ; Saturday 13th October - 10.00am - 12.00am Burnley Central Methodist Church, Hargreaves Street
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