Chamber
Meeting of the Parliament 28 March 2012
28 Mar 2012 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
UK Government Budget
No, I am coming to the end.
The budget helped not only working people but businesses. Let us go through some of the changes, because SNP and Labour members do not seem to give credit for some of them.
Corporation tax will be cut to 22 per cent from April 2014. That is a big change. It will be the lowest rate of corporation tax in the G7 and the fourth lowest in the G20.
Our measures on credit easing will also help money get into businesses, and the coalition Government is delivering 100 per cent capital allowances for plant machinery in Irvine, Nigg and Dundee. The Scottish Government has admitted that 4,000 jobs could come from that. It is a great development.
Edinburgh will receive £11 million to deliver ultra-fast broadband and high-speed wireless connectivity. There will also be £50 million for which other cities can bid. Those are major improvements.
There are also the corporation tax reliefs for the video games industry and the changes to oil industry taxation.
The moves are significant, but one would not think it to judge by the comments from SNP members. Despite the challenges, the budget has delivered tax cuts for those on low and middle incomes, continued along the path of fiscal responsibility and provided support for businesses to help the country grow.
I move amendment S4M-02494.3, to leave out from “is disappointed” to end and insert:
“welcomes the measures in the recent UK Budget that will raise the income tax threshold to £9,205, meaning that 165,000 Scots will have been taken out of income tax since 2010 and more than two million working people on low and middle incomes in Scotland will have seen their tax bill fall by £550; welcomes the measures on tax avoidance and stamp duty that mean that the tax burden on the wealthiest increases fivefold, especially the steps that discourage the use of offshore tax havens by the well-off to avoid paying their fair share of tax in this country; notes that pensioners will enjoy the biggest ever cash increase in the state pension, leaving pensioners better off this year, next year and in future years thanks to the restoration of the link to average earnings as part of the triple-lock guarantee for pensioners, and also welcomes the package of measures to support the oil and gas sector, the provision of enhanced capital allowances for three of Scotland’s enterprise zones, funding for Edinburgh to become a super-connected city, a boost for Scottish ski centres through VAT changes, the National Loan Guarantee Scheme to help smaller businesses in Scotland receive cheaper loans, the introduction of tax relief for the video games industry and the introduction of a Patent Box from April 2013, which will apply a reduced 10% rate of corporation tax for profits attributed to patents and similar types of intellectual property.”
16:32
The budget helped not only working people but businesses. Let us go through some of the changes, because SNP and Labour members do not seem to give credit for some of them.
Corporation tax will be cut to 22 per cent from April 2014. That is a big change. It will be the lowest rate of corporation tax in the G7 and the fourth lowest in the G20.
Our measures on credit easing will also help money get into businesses, and the coalition Government is delivering 100 per cent capital allowances for plant machinery in Irvine, Nigg and Dundee. The Scottish Government has admitted that 4,000 jobs could come from that. It is a great development.
Edinburgh will receive £11 million to deliver ultra-fast broadband and high-speed wireless connectivity. There will also be £50 million for which other cities can bid. Those are major improvements.
There are also the corporation tax reliefs for the video games industry and the changes to oil industry taxation.
The moves are significant, but one would not think it to judge by the comments from SNP members. Despite the challenges, the budget has delivered tax cuts for those on low and middle incomes, continued along the path of fiscal responsibility and provided support for businesses to help the country grow.
I move amendment S4M-02494.3, to leave out from “is disappointed” to end and insert:
“welcomes the measures in the recent UK Budget that will raise the income tax threshold to £9,205, meaning that 165,000 Scots will have been taken out of income tax since 2010 and more than two million working people on low and middle incomes in Scotland will have seen their tax bill fall by £550; welcomes the measures on tax avoidance and stamp duty that mean that the tax burden on the wealthiest increases fivefold, especially the steps that discourage the use of offshore tax havens by the well-off to avoid paying their fair share of tax in this country; notes that pensioners will enjoy the biggest ever cash increase in the state pension, leaving pensioners better off this year, next year and in future years thanks to the restoration of the link to average earnings as part of the triple-lock guarantee for pensioners, and also welcomes the package of measures to support the oil and gas sector, the provision of enhanced capital allowances for three of Scotland’s enterprise zones, funding for Edinburgh to become a super-connected city, a boost for Scottish ski centres through VAT changes, the National Loan Guarantee Scheme to help smaller businesses in Scotland receive cheaper loans, the introduction of tax relief for the video games industry and the introduction of a Patent Box from April 2013, which will apply a reduced 10% rate of corporation tax for profits attributed to patents and similar types of intellectual property.”
16:32
References in this contribution
Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.
In the same item of business
The Deputy Presiding Officer (John Scott)
Con
The next item of business is a debate on motion S4M-02494, in the name of John Swinney, on the United Kingdom Government budget.15:57
The Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth (John Swinney)
SNP
The Chancellor of the Exchequer’s budget and the broadly unchanged economic forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility confirm the fragile state of the...
Gavin Brown (Lothian) (Con)
Con
Does the cabinet secretary seriously believe that the increase in the income tax threshold will not help families and households up and down the country?
John Swinney
SNP
If we consider that on its own, with no other factor taken into account, Mr Brown perhaps has a point but, as I will discuss later, we must also to take into...
Willie Rennie (Mid Scotland and Fife) (LD)
LD
The cabinet secretary has just talked about not looking at things in isolation, so surely he should look at the triple lock on pensions that has been deliver...
John Swinney
SNP
I would encourage Mr Rennie to think twice about his analogies. The triple lock looks as though it is the triple lock of giving people an increase in the sta...
Ken Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab)
Lab
Is Mr Swinney aware of the Labour Party’s stance on the 50p rate before the budget, during the budget and now?
John Swinney
SNP
I heard what the stance was before the budget and I heard about it during the debate on the budget but, when it came to the vote—the point at which they coul...
Gavin Brown
Con
Two minutes ago, the cabinet secretary was saying that the budget would do nothing for the economy. He is now on to the third part of the budget that he says...
John Swinney
SNP
It just demonstrates that I am an entirely fair man, in that I tell it as it is.The budget included three welcome measures: a measure to repair the damage th...
Willie Rennie
LD
If the cabinet secretary is a fair man, why does his motion not include a single mention of the substantial increase in the tax threshold? If he is a fair ma...
John Swinney
SNP
I have talked at length about the increase in personal tax allowances, and I have also talked at length about the cost at which that comes and the damage tha...
Ken Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab)
Lab
I do not normally feel sorry for the Tories, and I suspect that charity will be in short supply in today’s debate, but Conservatives must have winced with ea...
Gavin Brown
Con
Just to get rid of the hyperbole, is it Ken Macintosh’s view that somebody who earns £151,000 a year is a millionaire?
Ken Macintosh
Lab
No, but the point is that someone on £150,000 is in the top earning bracket, and it is not right for a Government that says that we are all in it together to...
Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con)
Con
If Labour is so fond of high taxation, why did it put the highest rate of tax up to 50p only one month before it lost the 2010 election? Would Ken Macintosh ...
Ken Macintosh
Lab
That is a series of questions. We introduced the top rate of tax as a temporary measure. We are not in favour of high taxes per se but, in a recession, if on...
Willie Rennie
LD
Will Ken Macintosh confirm that if it came to power in 2015, the Labour Party would take the tax rate back up to 50p?
Ken Macintosh
Lab
The 50p tax rate was introduced to pay for public services and to get the economy going. The simple answer is that we will make that assessment on its merits...
Stuart McMillan (West Scotland) (SNP)
SNP
We have heard much of what the member has to say, we have read the proposals in Labour’s amendment and we have seen what has happened since the Welfare Refor...
Ken Macintosh
Lab
I appreciate the subject that Mr McMillan has raised, but it is outrageous for a member of the SNP to question Inverclyde Council when 89 per cent of the cut...
The Minister for Local Government and Planning (Derek Mackay)
SNP
Can the member explain why it is that, under the SNP Government, the spending share that goes to local government is higher than the one we inherited from th...
Ken Macintosh
Lab
I am sorry, but talking about the spending share disguises the fact that 89 per cent of the cuts fall on local councils. I suggest that Mr Mackay should argu...
The Cabinet Secretary for Parliamentary Business and Government Strategy (Bruce Crawford)
SNP
Will the member give way?
Ken Macintosh
Lab
I had better make some progress, Presiding Officer.
The Deputy Presiding Officer
Con
You have two minutes.
Ken Macintosh
Lab
My goodness.I was going to say that there is much common ground between Labour and the SNP on the economic agenda, because we agree that the budget is both u...
Gavin Brown (Lothian) (Con)
Con
What a typically ungenerous, uncharitable, ungracious set of contributions to start the debate. The contributors could not even bring themselves to welcome t...
Ken Macintosh
Lab
Why, therefore, has the OBR revised downwards its forecast for growth from more than 2.5 per cent to 0.8 per cent?
Gavin Brown
Con
Just as I am attacking the SNP, Mr Macintosh steps in to their defence and tries to pull together the unholy alliance that has formed today—a very shaky alli...