The Budget, delivered yesterday, has taken fair choices to deliver on the public’s priorities and the change Labour promised.
Economic growth has been upgraded to 1.5%, and wages are rising faster in the first year of this Government than they did in the entire first decade of Conservative rule. But growth alone is not enough. Families need relief from rising costs, which this Budget delivers. Households will save £150 on energy bills from April, thanks to the removal of unfair levies. Six million households will benefit from an expanded Warm Homes Discount, with another £150 off their bills. NHS prescription charges are frozen, whilst rail fares have been frozen for the first time in 30 years. These measures will ease everyday expenses and raise living standards.
Most importantly, Labour is tackling child poverty head on. The cruel two-child benefit cap is gone. Its removal will lift 450,000 children out of poverty, including thousands in Rawmarsh and Conisbrough. Add to that 2,000 new free breakfast clubs, joining the likes of Edlington Victoria Primary, and free school meals for half a million children, and we are witnessing the biggest reduction in child poverty over a Parliament since records began.
And for pensioners, Labour’s commitment to the triple lock remains firm. Basic and New State Pensions will rise by 4.8%, marking an increase of £440 and £575.
The Budget also delivers justice for mineworkers in our coalfield communities, with the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme investment reserve returned to former mineworkers and their families. Forty thousand ex-miners across the UK will see a 41% boost to their annual pensions, an average increase of £100 per week. For communities like Rawmarsh and Conisbrough, with 755 ex mineworkers, it is recognition of the sacrifices coalfield communities made to power Britain’s past.
For the first time in a long time, Britain has a Government that is not just managing decline but building a stronger, more secure economy for everyone.