Election Centre

The Conservative and Labour parties have announced that they would not raise VAT if they were to come into power after the general election in May.

David Cameron pledged that there will be no VAT rise during Prime Minister’s Questions after the Labour leader challenged him to explicitly rule out increasing the tax.

During a speech in Birmingham, Labour’s Ed Balls made a pledge not to increase the tax. He said “We will not put up VAT. And we will not extend it to food, children’s clothes, books, newspapers and public transport fares”.

ACS has responded to the Government’s launch of a fundamental review of business rates, calling for greater support for small businesses and high streets.

ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “We welcome this overdue review, and we are pleased that it will take a look at radical options for reforming the outdated business rates system. The review must deliver help for high streets, be simpler than the current system, and offer incentives for investment rather than penalising businesses which improve their premises.”

Stephen McPartland MP visited Kishor Patel’s NISA Local Stevenage store to see the store’s 5,000 product range and implementation of in store Wi-Fi.

Councillor Peter Dowd, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Bootle and Leader of Sefton Council, visited Adrian Costain's Nisa store in Bootle recently to hear his concerns about business rates, crime and parking policy.

David Cameron, leader of the Conservative party, urged businesses to give staff a pay rise in his speech. He also stated that the Conservatives planned to increase the amount of business rates that local areas could keep from 50% to at least two thirds. Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, also spoke at the conference, discussing the Lib Dem’s plans to prioritise small businesses for tax cuts. Chuka Umunna, Shadow Business Secretary, discussed Labour’s plans to devolve extra funding from central to local Government.