Bath MP Don Foster has said that the Chancellor’s pre-budget report will not help people that are most in need of assistance.  The report contains a temporary cut in VAT which will only help big spenders, and a National Insurance hike. 

What people in Bath who are struggling to make ends meet wanted to hear was help for them now.  Instead we have a VAT decrease which does not apply to basic items such as food.  What we should have seen was a cut in the basic rate of income tax to put money in these people’s pockets now. 

The Government has missed a golden opportunity to make the tax system permanently fairer which it could have done by cutting income taxes for those on low and middle incomes, paid for by getting rid of tax loopholes for the wealthy. 

The new 45p Income Tax rate is nothing more than a fig leaf to cover a £5bn tax hike which will hit millions of low earners and businesses.