Let’s invest in jobs – not pay for more people on the dole

8:11am Thursday 13th November 2008

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Tory leader David Cameron writes exclusively for The Northern Echo about how his party would ease the economic crisis for ordinary people.

"I KNOW just how tough times are right now.

Businesses are going bust, people are losing their jobs, families are worried about paying the bills each month.

I’m not just going to stand by as people lose everything they’ve spent their lives working for.

People need help – and they need it fast.

This week, we announced our plan to tackle unemployment.

There are already 1.8 million out of work in this country. The North-East has the highest unemployment rate of any region in the UK, at eight per cent.

Each statistic is someone struggling right now. We have a moral obligation to help these people. The modern Conservative Party will not stand aside and let mass unemployment ruin lives. So here’s our plan.

It’s based on a simple idea: that instead of government paying for more people to be unemployed, through more benefits, it should use that money to pay for them to be in work. We’d do that by giving tax breaks to employers to hire people.

Companies that hire someone they have not previously employed in the past year – who has been registered for unemployment benefits for more than three months – should get a tax break.

Of course, during a recession many companies are shedding staff. But still many are hiring. This will help all those looking to expand, providing work that otherwise wouldn’t have been available.

Based on the evidence from where it’s been done abroad, this could reduce unemployment by 350,000 over the next year by giving £2.6bn in tax breaks for new jobs. It’s just one of our plans to take people through the bad times.

For families that are suffering, we will freeze council tax for two years.

We will take family homes out of inheritance tax and nine out of ten first-time buyers out of stamp duty by introducing a levy on non-domiciles.

For small businesses that are struggling, we will allow them to delay their VAT payments for six months to help them with their cash flow.

The smallest companies will be given a boost when we cut payroll taxes, so that two million more people stay in work through the winter.

All of these plans are fully costed. All of these things could be introduced tomorrow. And there will be more.

Lower taxes are in my DNA – it’s one of the reasons I came into politics. I know it’s your money and I know you want some of it back. I want to give it to you.

And if Gordon Brown had fixed the roof when the sun was shining, I could give you much more.

But he thought he’d ended boom and bust and splashed the cash like there was no tomorrow.

Now the cupboard is bare and government borrowing is predicted to hit at least £11,000 for every family reading this newspaper.

Even worse – he’s talking about borrowing much, much more. And what does that mean?

The risk of higher interest rates – and mortgage bills – today.

And higher taxes – on you – to pay tomorrow. That is the last thing our economy needs.

So that’s the choice.

This Government has maxed out our nation’s credit card – and they want to keep on spending by getting another.

We believe we need to get a grip, be responsible and help families now in a way that doesn’t cost us our future.