Chancellor announces city deal for West Yorkshire

CHANCELLOR George Osborne has confirmed a city deal for West Yorkshire Combined Authority in his Budget speech.

With the general election now just weeks away, time had been running out for a devolution deal for the region, following announcements for Manchester and Sheffield last year.

Mr Osborne stressed today that the government’s economic plan is delivering growth and jobs as he delivered the final budget of this government.

He was keen to paint a rosy picture for voters and there was plenty of political rhetoric in his speech as he reminded the Labour Party of its track record on the economy under the last government.

“The critical choice for British people is to return to the chaos of the past or go on working on a plan that is delivering,” he said.

“The sun is starting to shine and we are fixing the roof”, he proclaimed, as he hailed a “truly national recovery” and a country moving from “austerity to prosperity”.

Boosted by official employment figures which showed the number of people in work at an all-time high and average earnings rising too, he told a packed House of Commons that the economy in the North had grown faster than the south.

Andrew Coticelli, partner and head of tax for Deloitte in Yorkshire and the North East, said: “It’s 50 days before the election and there were a number of political messages in the Budget. However we are in unchartered territory with the coalition Government so the usual pre-election giveaway wasn’t there.

“Overall it was a fiscally-neutral Budget. There are measures for first-time buyers, pensioners, low earners and higher-rate taxpayers.

“He made shout-outs to all of the UK, including that more jobs had been created in Yorkshire than in France. It was aimed at quite a broad population – it was a Budget for voters.”

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On tax, Mr Osborne announced a further clampdown on banks’ earnings to raise £5bn, and said new rules on tax avoidance and evasion would raise £3.1bn in the next fiscal period.

He said the goal was to make Britain to be the most prosperous major economy in the world as he unveiled further funding for the Northern Powerhouse initiative to rebalance the UK economy by fuelling growth in cities such as Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield.

Greater Manchester scored another win in regional devolution as the Chancellor revealed it could keep 100% of its business rate growth.

In further popularist moves 50 days ahead of the election, there was an increase in personal tax allowances fropm £10,600 to £11,000 and 1p cut in beer duty.

Furthermore a planned increase in fuel duty will be scrapped. Mr Osborne said this would save motorists £10 every time they fill up.

In response Labour leader Ed Miliband claimed it was a “Budget they [the British people] won’t believe from a Government they don’t trust.”

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