Category: Wokingham and West Berkshire Issues

I have been in contact with the government to press for a strong and generous response to the crisis in Nepal by the UK. I was pleased to see this morning that the UK is going to send more aid. We are assisting with supplies, tents, lifting equipment and medical support.

The UK now has a large overseas aid budget, which allows us to respond well to a crisis. All too many people have lost their homes, need food, water and shelter. All too many have been injured by the earthquake and need medical treatment. The UK can help, and will once again show its willingness and ability to do so in a dreadful humanitarian crisis.

Published and promoted by Thomas Puddy for John Redwood, both at 30 Rose Street Wokingham RG40 1XU

I have received a further letter from Highways England following my various submissions and discussions on M4 noise reduction. They confirm that they will surface the whole M4 from Junction 3 to Junction 12 with noise reducing material when they complete the smart motorway.

They also now offer additional noise barrier at Mill Lane Bridge, Sindlesham. This is helpful, but Iwill wish to explore with  them other sites for barriers as well if elected.

Published and promoted by T homes Puddy for John Redwood, both at 30 Rose Street Wokingham RG40  1XU

Conservatives are offering a better state pension, which will go up by at least 2.5% a year or in line with earnings or prices,  whichever is the highest increase.

Conservatives will keep in place current pensioner benefits -winter fuel, tv licence, travel concessions – regardless of pensioner income

Conservatives have launched higher interest rate Pensioner bonds.

Conservatives offer £1000  of savings income tax free.

Published and promoted by T homes Puddy for John Redwood, both at 30 Rose Street RG40 1XU

There has been much heat and little light about getting rid of the deficit and about levels of pubic spending in this election. Some parties have hurled around allegations of big cuts to come. Let’s look again at the figures.

The story of the Coalition’s five years is very simple. They increased pubic spending by £1000 per head for every man, woman and child in the country. This increase was a little above inflation, so there was a small real increase in total spending. They increased tax revenues by £2000 a head, so the amount the state has to to borrow each year went down. Most of the increased revenue came from growth, but the increase in VAT rates also contributed.

The Conservatives wish to increase total public spending by a further £1000 per person over the next five years. This will allow, for example, the full increase in NHS spending which management is seeking. The aim is also to increase tax revenues again by £2000 per person, which will eliminate the deficit. At the rates of growth forecast by the independent Office of Budget Responsibility, the increased tax revenues all come from growth as more people get jobs and more people spend more, so there are no planned tax rises.

There should be sufficient spending in Conservative budgets to provide additional money for a new secondary school for Wokingham, new road links, and higher levels of annual funding for Wokingham schools.

Published and promoted by Thomas Puddy for John Redwood, both at 30 Rose Street Wokingham RG40 1XU

I was asked at a recent hustings meeting if I supported votes at 16. I said this issue had not come up for debate or vote in the last Parliament. I have not made up my mind about it. If elected to the next Parliament, then I will consult widely with constituents, should it become an issue.

In the meantime I would be interested to hear your views.

Published and promoted by Thomas Puddy for John Redwood, both at 30 Rose Street Wokingham RG40 1XU

If you turn to the Index in the Lib Dem Manifesto you can find rail, but there is no mention of roads. My read through the document confirmed that their Manifesto does not offer a roads policy. Clearly Lib Dems want to live in a world where we all go to work by train and to the shops by cycle so there is no need to mention cars, lorries and roads. The reality is more than 90% of our journeys are by road. Even a bike needs a road to travel on.

Road congestion is one of our biggest problems. Congestion means more fumes and worse fuel economy. Congestion means more frustrated drivers who then might make mistakes. Congestion means delay in getting goods to market, children to school and people to work. Congestion means more noise and dirt for those living near to congested roads.

We are not going to bust all our congestion in the Wokingham and West Berkshire area by encouraging more use of the train. The state has just spent a fortune on rail improvements at Reading and Wokingham, and there will be more trains available as a result. At the same time we do need more road capacity. We need smarter junctions, that are both safer and allow better flows of traffic. We need safer routes for pedestrians and cyclists as well. Where there is space we need to separate left and right turning traffic from straight on traffic, and separate pedestrians and cyclists from large lorries and buses.

The Conservative manifesto contains plans to improve our national highways network and expand its capacity. A Conservative government will also make money available to the Council to build the local roads and improved junctions we need so people can get to work and school in reasonable time.

Published and promoted by Thomas Puddy for John Redwood, both at 30 Rose Street Wokingham RG40 1XU

The Coalition parties shared an aim of promoting better education in our maintained schools. Both parties agreed with the idea of a higher pupil premium, more money to help children most in need of assistance. This was implemented.
There are now 1 million more pupils in schools ranked “good” or “outstanding” by Ofsted as a result of the work done by teachers in the last five years. Maths is now the most popular subject at A level, partly as a result of successive Conservative Education Secretaries stressing the need for more students to study maths and science. Conservatives will continue to encourage more young people to take maths , science and technology, as we are short of well qualified engineers and scientists.
There has been a large new schools building programme. Wokingham has benefitted with three new primaries, a new free secondary school, and a new secondary in plan for Arborfield.
Conservatives are pledged to provide more money for Wokingham and West Berkshire schools in the next Parliament. There would be a real increase in schools funding, allowing for increased numbers. More importantly, the Conservatives support “fairer funding” for schools. By 2010 Wokingham schools were getting small amounts of cash per pupil compared to other places Labour favoured more. As the Conservative Manifesto says “We have already increased funding for the 69 least well funded local authorities in the country”. I will wish to press Ministers further on this if elected.

Published and promoted by Thomas Puddy for John Redwood, both at 30 Rose Street Wokingham RG40 1XU

If you write to my election email I reply myself. Each reply will have published and promoted by my agent on the bottom to comply with election law, but this does not mean my agent is writing the answers. Please return your email reply to me,if you want my reply. It slows down replies if you write back to my agent.

Published and promoted by Thomas Puddy for John Redwood, both at 30 Rose Street Wokingham RG40 1XU

Hidden in the long Liberal Democrat Manifesto are some higher and new taxes for many who own property or have saved and invested in shares and bonds.

Most people know they want to impose a “High Value Property levy” with bands with progressively higher tax rates. They say it will start off at £2 million, but if they ever got it going they would be tempted to bring the starting point down.
Few people know they want to impose a Land Value Tax on all property. They wish to order the Land Registry to register every piece of land in the country quickly so they could get on with a new tax on it. They have not explained how much they want to raise, but have said it will raise more than business rates which of course only apply to commercial premises anyway.
They state they want to increase the take from Capital Gains Tax. They wanted a higher rate in the last Parliament.
They wish to cut dividend tax relief.
They want a general anti avoidance rule, without saying which current legal ways of paying less tax they would wish to ban.

To pay for all the other things in their Manifesto they would need to get a lot of money from property owners and savers. Beware.

Published and promoted by Thomas Puddy for John Redwood, both at 30 Rose Street Wokingham RG40 1XU

This year according to the Treasury figures every man, woman and child on average will pay £9,700 in tax. That means many of you reading this will pay more than £9,700, as children do not of course pay tax. People on low incomes or benefits rightly pay less.

The government will spend £11,600 on average on every man, woman and child in the country. The elderly and the children will receive rather more of this spending than people of working age, as the bills for pensions, education and health are three of the biggest.

The gap between what is spent and what is collected in tax will mainly be borrowed, though the government does have some non tax income which helps.

On Conservative plans reported in the last Budget book from the Treasury by 2019-20 the amount spent per person will be above £12,400 on average for every man, woman and child in the country. That’s an increase of 7% compared to this year, which could buy us more public service if inflation stays low.

In that year the Treasury forecasts tax revenues of £11,600 for every man, woman and child on average. This large increase of almost £2000 or over 20% does not require any tax rate rises. It comes about from economic growth. As more people get jobs so they pay more income tax. As people have more money to spend, so they pay more VAT.

This forecast higher level of tax receipts means the deficit is eliminated. The state would not then need to borrow, as the tax revenues and other income pay for the spending.

Labour, the Lib Dems and the SNP all want to put up taxes and they want to borrow more. The more they borrow , the more tax they will in due course have to impose to pay the interest on the borrowings and then to repay them. They want to tax higher earners more, and want to impose additional taxes on some people’s homes.

Published and promoted by Thomas Puddy for John Redwood, both at 30 Rose Street Wokingham RG40 1XU