Chris Green MP: Protecting households from rising bills

Taxation has not been as high as it is now for about 70 years and that symbolises how much the Government has taken control over our daily lives.

For many, taxation is too high and it does not leave people with enough to live and enjoy their lives in the way that they feel to be best.

For some politicians, taxation and Government control is too low. They want taxes and Government intervention to go much further.

Some never believe that Government has too much power or is taking too much of your money. They do not care when people are taxed into poverty and feel proud when a fraction of those taxes are returned.

Part of the current reason for high taxes is that the economy suffered during the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Disrupting children’s education, restricting access to healthcare and shutting down swathes of the economy was always going to create huge and expensive problems.

Millions of people have not returned to work and are on out-of-work benefits of one form or another and are not contributing to the Exchequer.

Health services and education require additional funding to help the recovery.

To make a bad situation worse, Russian president Vladimir Putin sent his armies into Ukraine which is continuing to devastate that country and is having a knock-on effect with rocketing fuel bills.

The Government is stepping in with a huge programme of support for households, businesses and other organisations.

This was announced in the Chancellor’s ‘mini-Budget’ but those billions of pounds of extra spending has barely received any attention.

Households are being protected from the worst of the cost of energy and businesses are having nearly half of the potential costs cut from their bills.

The reason why the British economy and British people have collectively been able to get through these crisis as well as we have is because, over the

last 10 years, the economy has been strengthened and made more resilient.

The economy still needs to be made stronger to provide the jobs, opportunities and security that families need.

This is more so in parts of the country that have felt left behind.

This is why the Chancellor and Local Government Secretary have announced their plan for 32 new Investment Zones.

The zones are intended to have tax incentives and easier planning rules to encourage development where people need more job opportunities.

They will only be located where local authorities or sub-regional mayors agree but this has not stopped a huge campaign against them.

The early stage proposals have been interpreted as deliberately being designed to target Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, National Parks or Sites of Special Scientific Interest.

Campaigns have generated huge levels of anger but have no basis in reality.

The policy agenda is about revitalising areas where jobs are needed not trampling on mother nature.

We need a little more calm consideration rather than the anger we see.