Fuel Duty

Ian Swales Excerpts

Monday 12th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

If the hon. Lady is referring to the previous Budget, the changes we made to the top tax rate were covered more than six times by other changes that we announced. This Government want to create a tax system that is both efficient and helps to create jobs.

[Ian Swales (Redcar) (LD)]

Does the Minister share my surprise that the previous Government thought it was fine to give tax relief of £250,000 a year on pensions contributions, and may I confirm that not one of my constituents has complained about the cut to £50,000?

[Sajid Javid]

My hon. Friend makes a good point and shows again where this Government are taking action to balance the nation’s finances.

We are doing a lot more to try to help those in need. We are investing more than £4.5 billion over this Parliament in affordable housing, delivering 170,000 new homes. We have replaced Labour's ineffective stamp duty relief with schemes that work, such as Firstbuy and NewBuy, helping more than 25,000 first-time buyers to find their way on to the first rung of the housing ladder.

Let us look at Labour's claims on tax avoidance. It wants us to clamp down on a scheme that uses a specific tax relief around travel expenses—a relief about which in 2008 the Labour Government, when presented with the facts, chose to do nothing.