UK Parliament / Open data

Pre-Budget Report

Proceeding contribution from George Osborne (Conservative) in the House of Commons on Wednesday, 26 November 2008. It occurred during Emergency debate on Pre-Budget Report.
I shall make some progress, if hon. Members will allow me. They may want to hear this, because they are concerned about it. It remains the case that more than 500,000 of the lowest-paid people in this country have lost out as a result of the abolition of the 10p tax band, and their loss was not compensated for on Monday. That is the truth. The Government are giving £20 billion in temporary tax giveaways, and taking back £40 billion in permanent tax rises—giveaways for Christmas, tax rises for life. That is not a stimulus, it is a tax bombshell. It will make the recession worse because it will make the recovery more difficult. What the Chancellor should have done on Monday was take radical action on monetary policy to get credit flowing again. That is what we have been arguing for weeks. Mervyn King said to the Select Committee yesterday:"““I am in no doubt that the single most pressing challenge to domestic economic policy is to get the banking system…lending in any normal sense. That is more important than anything else at present.””" The CBI says:"““Getting the credit markets working properly is much more important than the fiscal boost.””" The Chancellor told us in October that the purpose of the bank recapitalisation was to restart lending to the real economy. On that test, even he must agree that it has failed. It may have rescued the banks and the bankers, but it has not rescued the economy. The country has lost count of the number of times we have been told that the Government were summoning the banks to a crisis summit, ordering them to lend to small businesses and forcing them to pass on rate cuts. That may have secured newspaper headlines, but it has not helped businesses to get the credit they need. Now is the time for more direct action.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
483 c747-8 
Session
2007-08
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
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