I gave an example of exactly the opposite of that. Exports, all the way from Taunton, are increasing. That is exactly what we want: companies taking advantage of the opportunities opening up and skilling up their workers.
I would like to reflect on one of the important tools in the Budget box: the welcome introduction of a compulsory new national living wage for all working people aged 25 and over. It will kick in at £7.20 an hour in April next year, rising to £9 by 2020. It will mean a pay rise for half a million people and translates into a cash rise of £5,000 for a full-time worker. It will benefit women especially—we had the equality and gender pay gap debate the other day—and quite a number of women are still in the low paid category. This measure will help them. Of course, it is businesses that will have to shoulder the changes, but the increase in employment allowance and the improvements to corporation tax should help businesses to pay the extra wages. I have consulted widely with businesses in my constituency. They welcome this measure and they agree that we need to raise the living wage.
I welcome the £7.2 million investment in transport infrastructure in the south-west. In particular, I welcome the Prime Minister’s and the Chancellor’s commitment to upgrading the key road in my constituency, the A358, and its junction with the M5. This is the busiest road in Somerset. There will be a new employment site right on the junction, and without the road upgrade we cannot have the business site. We need the business site because we need the new jobs and the new skills to move the economy in the right direction. I therefore applaud all that, and I applaud the £10 million in the Budget to improve broadband in the south-west. It is absolutely imperative that all the rural areas that are missing out can take advantage and get broadband.
In conclusion, I welcome the Budget. It will transform behaviour and move us to a higher-wage and lower-tax and lower-welfare economy. It will cut the deficit and enable us, at last, to live within our means.
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