Local Parliamentary Candidate welcomes budget

Date published: 27 March 2007

Simon Danczuk, Rochdale’s Labour Parliamentary Candidate, has welcomed Gordon Brown’s Budget, saying: "This Budget increases spending on public services; increases education spending to its highest ever levels; reforms the tax system to reward work, supports families with children, and takes 600,000 pensioners out of income tax".

Mr Danczuk said: "Families in Rochdale will benefit from a number of the changes Gordon Brown has set out. Increases in Child Tax Credit, increasing the threshold for Working Tax Credit, and increasing Child Benefit until it reaches £20 per week all mean Rochdale families, particularly those in work, will be better off.

"Brown’s introduction of Tax Credits has been a real success for helping families and for enabling people back into work. This budget alone sees a further 200,000 children lifted out of poverty. It’s almost £2 billion extra invested in Tax Credits. Rochdale has some real pockets of deprivation and Brown’s approach to reducing child poverty will really help".

Mr Danczuk had a go at the other political parties: "Even the Tories accept that Tax Credits are working successfully, to the point where they would retain them if they ever regained power. Even Sir Ming Campbell, the leader of the Liberal Democrats had to admit in his Parliamentary response to the Budget that "we have a very strong economy’ and "very low unemployment’. The two other political parties have no choice but to accept that Gordon Brown is one of the best Chancellors’ Britain has ever had.

"The investment Rochdale has seen and is going to see is very much a result of a Labour Government and Gordon Brown’s management of public finances. Building Schools for the Future, investment in childcare and Sure Start, increases in the amount of money spent per pupil in education, Housing Market Renewal, Regional Development Agency funding for the Kingsway development, and overall reductions in the number of Rochdale children in poverty are all a result of a strong economy managed by a Labour Government".