In tough times, the Liberal Democrats believe you should keep more of the money that you earn. That’s why the Liberal Democrats have long called for the tax-free threshold raised to £10,000 – giving you a tax cut when you need it most.
Liberal Democrat plans would save working people £700 a year –that’s an extra £60 in your wages every month. And more than 3.5million older and low-paid people will be freed from paying any income tax altogether. This is a plan we put on the front page of our General Election manifesto and it went into the Coalition Agreement.
We have already started putting this in to practice.
In April last year, millions of ordinary working people were given a £200 annual tax cut and since last April 800,000 low paid people no longer pay any income tax at all. But we believe our tax cuts need to happen faster and go further. And we want your help in making it happen.
Ahead of the Budget next month, Nick Clegg and Liberal Democrats in the government will be pushing to speed up our tax plans. Please join this campaign and sign the petition which is on the Number 10 website here.
Liberal Democrats want tax cuts for working people, not the rich. Please help us to make that happen.
Comments(0) Ealing Lib Dem councillors moved a motion at the December council meeting welcoming the £5 million extra investment in schools across Ealing this year as a result of the Coalition Government delivering on the 2010 General election pledge by the Liberal Democrats to introduce a pupil premium to help the most disadvantaged pupils.
Unfortunately, the education system is failing far too many pupils who leave school without the knowledge and skills to be successful. Furthermore, the family background of a child is still a huge determinating factor in their life chances, with pupils from poor families three times less likely to achieve five good GCSEs than their more well off classmates.
Entitlement to Free School Meals is used as an indicator of numbers of poorer pupils in an area, and figures in Ealing are higher than the national average with 23% of children in primary schools and 26% at higher school.
Nigel Bakhai is a Governor at Greenfields Childrens Centre in Southall
Education is the best way to end the under achievement of disadvantaged pupils by supporting children all the way from early years straight through to secondary school. That is why I am pleased that the Lib Dems in Government have ensured that every school in Ealing will now receive £488 for every child on Free School Meals. Next year the Pupil Premium will rise to £600 per pupil.
For your information, I have included a list of the extra investment from the pupil premium in local schools across Elthorne ward:
| School Name | 2011-12 Allocation | 2012-13 DfE Indicative Allocation |
| St John’s Primary | £62,464 | £104,400 |
| St Mark’s Primary | £30,256 | £49,800 |
| Oaklands Primary | £62,464 | £91,800 |
| St Joseph’s Primary | £19,520 | £36,600 |
| Elthorne Park High | £78,568 | £148,200 |
| Total Elthorne | £253,272 | £430,800 |
Comments(0) At the December meeting of Ealing Council. I called for a cross-party campaign to save Ealing Hospital and suggested a joint letter to the Chief Executive of Ealing Hospital on behalf of all three political parties represented on Ealing Council and all residents to express their concern at the proposed merger between Ealing Hospital Trust and North West London Hospitals Trust.
Speaking on behalf of the Lib Dem council group, I raised a number of issues with the Outline Business Case for the merger “Stronger Together” approved by the board of Ealing Hospital Trust at its meeting in November, and in particular stated our total opposition to the unacceptable proposal of scenarios 3 and 4 in the report which would involve the downgrading Ealing Hospital from a District General Hospital to an Urgent Care Centre for the following reasons:
•Ambulance times and distances travelled would be longer which could be potentially life threatening if travelling through congested roads in an emergency if the A&E at Ealing Hospital is closed.
•Patients would be required to travel longer distances to access services which would greatly inconvenience patients attending appointments or their visitors in the event of a stay in hospital. This is compounded by the poor public transport connections between Ealing and Northwick Park.
•We are concerned about Northwick Park Hospital’s ability to cope with the additional patients it is likely to receive, especially in the Accident & Emergency unit. Following the recent announcement about overnight closures of the A&E at Central Middlesex Hospital, there is undoubtedly concern over the capacity of North West London Hospitals Trust to cope with existing demand, and this would be especially compounded if the A&E at Ealing Hospital were to close
•We would suggest Ealing Hospital Trust should re-consider other potential options for merger such as a merger with Hillingdon or even a merger for all 3 trusts. For many residents in Ealing it would be far more convenient to attend hospital appointments in Hillingdon than to go to Northwick Park. The financial savings estimated for a merger of all three trusts would also potentially be greater than the Outline Business Case envisages for the merger with NWLHT.
•We are concerned about the planned lack of consultation and communication with residents over the merger. Ealing Hospital Trust needs to consult with the public over the merger not just over service changes. Ealing Hospital does not currently meet Foundation Trust status and any merger potentially threatens A&E, Maternity and other services which do not currently meet government clinical best practice guidelines.
•NHS North West London is planning to begin a formal consultation on service changes across the whole of North West London in June while the current proposal in the Outline Business Case is for the merger to go ahead in July. We would therefore urge Ealing Hospital Trust to put its plans for merger on hold until we can understand the intentions of NHS North West London towards the future commissioning of services from Ealing Hospital.
I concluded my speech by saying: “We would urge all sides in this chamber to put our political differences aside over this issue. I would therefore like to propose that all 3 party leaders write a joint letter to the Chief Executive of Ealing Hospital trust expressing their concern over the proposed merger and its potential impact on the future of Ealing Hospital. And we should work together in a cross-party campaign on behalf of all residents in the borough to oppose service changes at Ealing Hospital.”
Both Labour and Conservative leaders indicated at the meeting that they were willing to accept this suggestion, but neither party responded to the text of my proposed letter to the Chief Executive of Ealing Hospital Trust and in the end the Lib Dem council group were the sole signatories to the letter.
Lib Dem Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has outlined a £1 billion pound Youth Contract to tackle youth unemployment. The aim is to ensure that all jobless young people are earning or learning again before long-term damage is done.
- Over three years, the Youth Contract will provide at least 410,000 new work places for 18 to 24 year olds into work. Starting April 2012
- Including 160,000 wage subsidies and 250,000 new work experience placements.
- In addition, there will be at least 20,000 more incentive payments to encourage employers to take on young apprentices.
- A new programme to help the most disengaged 16 and 17 year olds – getting them back to school or college, onto an apprenticeship or into a job with training.
Comments(0) Since 2008, Elthorne has been allocated a ward forum budget every year to spend on local environmental, transport, town centre regeneration or other projects in the area.
In 2010-2011, Elthorne had a budget of £40,000 and some of the funds from the ward forum went towards an alleygating scheme in Deans Road, establishing a new centre for providing arts in West Ealing, park benches in Elthorne Park, as well as lots of new cycle stands and street trees across the area.
Nigel Bakhai at King George's Field in Hanwell
The ward forum budget was initially reduced to £37,500 in 2011-2012, but Elthorne has been awarded an additional £10,000 for having the highest rate of recycling in the borough. This year, your local Lib Dem ward councillor has agreed to invest £30,000 from the ward forum budget in a shop front improvement scheme which will benefit 21 businesses on Boston Road and along the Uxbridge Road in Hanwell and West Ealing.
Projects 2011/12 |
Capital
(£k) |
Revenue (£k) |
Shop front scheme |
30.0 | |
Olde Hanwell R.A. Royal wedding party |
0.5 | |
Hanwell Carnival |
3.0 | |
Improvement’s to King George’s Field |
20.0 | |
Gating Scheme at Green Man Passage |
1.5 | |
| Gating scheme at 12-20 Montague Avenue, 2-6 Montague Road |
3.0 |
Deputy Prime Minister addresses the Party Conference in Birmingham. You can read the full text of the speech here.
Thousands of Liberal Democrats gathered for their annual conference in Birmingham this week. They discussed what has been achieved in the first 500 days of Government and policies for the future. Highlights include:
The Lib Dems are opposing calls for an immediate cut in the 50% tax rate paid by higher rate taxpayers.
Nick Clegg’s party instead wants to give more help to those on middle and low incomes who need it the most.
NIck Clegg: We need fairer taxes to help ordinary people, not tax cuts for the richest
Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said, “At a time when the whole country faces serious financial challenges, the priority needs to be people on low and middle incomes.”
A key part of the coalition agreement was the Lib Dem commitment to making taxes fairer. The Lib Dems are well on their way to delivering on their pledge that no one should pay tax on the first £10,000 they earn.
Nearly a million low paid workers are no longer paying income tax thanks to this. All basic rate tax payers are paying £200 less in income tax.
Each year more and more people on low and middle incomes will gain more thanks to the Lib Dem fairer tax plan.
Danny Alexander said, “Fairer taxes is our goal. I don’t see why, in the next parliament, we shouldn’t be trying to get to a situation where people in a full-time job on the minimum wage are paying no income tax at all.”
This would mean that no one would pay tax on the first £12,500 they earn.
Nick Clegg: NHS reforms must deliver for patients
The Lib Dems are continuing to work in Parliament to ensure NHS reforms deliver a better deal for patients.
Nick Clegg’s party won major changes to the reforms earlier this summer.
These included measures to ensure there will be no privatisation of the NHS and no special favours for the private sector.
Nick Clegg said, “With the Lib Dems, the NHS will always be free at the point of use and will deliver top quality treatment for patients. We want to deliver a better NHS that can cope with the increasing demand and rising health costs.”
The NHS reforms will cut waste and bureaucracy that costs billions of pounds. They will help the NHS cope with the costs of Britain’s steadily ageing population and the rising cost of many treatments.
By making the NHS more efficient and by protecting the NHS budget from cuts, more money can be spent on improving care for patients.
NHS faced disaster with Labour
Had Labour won the last election, the NHS would have faced deep spending cuts. That along with Labour’s refusal to tackle waste and inefficiency would have been a disaster for our health services.
Labour rigged the market in favour of the private sector by giving contracts that were unfair for the taxpayer and for patients.
Over £250million of taxpayers’ money was handed over by the last Labour government to private providers for operations they didn’t even perform.
The Liberal Democrats have made sure that this kind of favouritism towards the private sector will now be illegal.
Lib Dem MP Simon Hughes has led a review of access to higher education. He spent six months traveling around the country to speak with thousands of young people about the changes to university financing and all other concerns they have about access to higher education
Last week he published his final report. It contains over 30 recommendations directed towards schools and colleges, universities, government and regulators on what they can do to encourage participation in higher education. You can download a copy of the report from the Cabinet Office website here: Hughes Report
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