Why the Budget was a particular blow for Torbay

Local Conservative candidate Marcus Wood has claimed that last weeks budget was especially damaging for Torbay.

"If you had wanted to design a budget specifically to harm our economy you'd have been hard pressed to have come up with anything better than this Chancellor managed last Wednesday." says Marcus.

"We have done a special analysis of the budget proposals and concluded that the overall effect of this budget is the most damaging to two sectors of the economy that are especially prevalent in Torbay."

Two groups suffered disproportionately from increased tax and they were:

1) People without children earning less than the national average who lost the 10p tax rate. A single person without children earning £16,000, like an NHS maternity care assistant, hotel housekeeper, restaurant or a retail store manager, would pay more a year in tax, and not gain from tax credits.

Everyone earning between around £5,000 and £18,000 will pay more income tax, and many will become more dependant on the complex tax credits system.

2) Smaller companies will be hit by a double whammy from this Budget. The smaller companies’ rate of corporation tax is going up by 3 per cent. Changes to allowances are also skewed to benefit service sector businesses with significant cash flows, harming smaller firms that can afford to invest less like guest houses and hotels.

"Torbay is an economy that is dominated by small, local businesses including privately owned shops, service business and especially hotels and inns who have low profits but need high levels of investment.

"Furthermore Torbay has a much higher than average percentage of single people and couples without children on relatively low earnings -often the employees of the hotel and leisure businesses on which the bay depends"

"Quite why these two groups should be so drastically clobbered remains a mystery but the fact is that Torbay (and other coastal resorts like us) will be more seriously hit by these measures than anywhere else."

"I am appalled that a Labour chancellor would hit struggling small businesses and the lowest paid worker groups with a tax increase while dishing out tax cuts that benefit global corporations and the richest 10% of income earners."

APPEAL GOES OUT FOR PLAY AREA SPONSORS

A £200,000 project for a Torbay seafront children's play area is to be launched.If it comes off, the play area could be built on the council-owned Paignton Green, possibly close the Apollo Cinema.

A plea is to go to the public and businesses to chip in for the fun area.

There are hopes Torbay Council will allow its land to be used - even though it cannot afford to build it.

The idea is the brainchild of Marcus Wood, the Conservative candidate for Torbay.

He said: "I can understand the council has to prioritise its spending but we need this on the beach for children.

"There is a small play area at Preston Green but when the beach huts are there it is not the sort of place visitors go to.

"Paignton Green is where all the summer family visitors go."

He reckons the scheme will need £200,000 to pay for the project and have enough for a maintenance fund.

"I have been promised donations and I hope businesses and the Torbay Development Agency will help," he added.

"Essentially we want private donations and they will be the ones who will take the credit.

"Hopefully it will show the community does not need the council or Government to do something worthwhile."

A Torbay Council spokesman said: "Marcus Wood contacted us recently and raised this as a possibility, although no further discussions have taken place."

Concern at 'snoopers charter

Council tax revaluation taking place by stealth across England warns Marcus Wood

Marcus Wood the Conservatives Parliamentary candidate has expressed concern at a 'snoopers charter' of new rules allowing intrusive spying on private homes by the Valuation Office Agency – an arm of Inland Revenue.

In a stealth council tax revaluation exercise, every home in the country could find photographs of their home – inside and outside – being stored on a computer database in order to identify features which could be taxed.

· Two million homes already snapped without owners knowledge: Covert photography is already under way by the council tax inspectors, despite the supposed delay in the English council tax revaluation. New figures have revealed that in the last year, the number of photographs of homes stored on the system has soared from half a million to over two million.

· Estate agents collaborating in privacy raid: The Valuation Office Agency is also using taxpayers’ money to obtain information on the outside and inside of people’s homes – by buying up the data from estate agents, Rightmove. Unsuspecting homeowners are putting their property on the market without realising that the tax inspectors are using it to find out how to hike up council tax bills.

· Tax spies armed with clipboards and long-distance cameras: The ‘Health & Safety’ manual of the council tax inspectors reveals that they are being armed with telescopic lenses & cameras, clipboards, laser pens and location plans and maps of every home. The inspectors are instructed to record any abusive or hostile behaviour by householders. They now have the power to impose £500 fines, via the courts, on any household who refuses entry or obstructs them.

· Scrap these powers says Opposition: Conservatives are pledging that the next Conservative Government will abolish the powers of the inspectors to enter people’s homes and gardens.

Marcus said,

“I am very concerned at these astonishing revelations. We have enough snooping and spying going on of our daily lives with CCTV, speed and numberplate recognition cameras; security cameras and even policemen wearing helmet camera's everywhere and now we find that we may be 'under surveillance' even in our homes."

“There is already public unease at Labour plans for a compulsory national Identity Card Database and the new Children’s Database. The Government is now rolling out a property photo database to match and conducting a council tax revaluation by stealth across the country; and if you refuse to co-operate you can be fined or penalised."

"Why can't the revenue simply send each home a questionnaire? I bitterly resent the assumption that we are all dishonest citizens intent on defrauding the Treasury when in fact the vast majority of citizens are honest and law -abiding and can be trusted to give the authorities accurate and truthful information about any enlargements made to their home since the last valuations were made".

"Conservatives are campaigning against these plans to send camera-wielding inspectors into Torbay bedrooms, bathrooms and gardens, and we have specifically pledged to abolish the officers powers of entry.”

EXHILARATING EVENING WITH TEBBIT
South Devon residents have the chance to pick the brains of one of the 20th century's most high profile politicians.It's never easy to tempt prominent political figures to deepest Devon, but Torbay Tories have secured their former chairman Norman Tebbit as guest of honour at a social function in Torquay on Friday.

Lord Tebbit, currently The Spectators Peer of the Year, is an active and often provocative Member of the House of Lords known for his outspoken views on issues of the day. He was one of Margaret Thatcher's closest cabinet colleagues and continues to be in great demand at Conservative Association functions.

Torbay's Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate Marcus Wood said they were looking forward to an "exhilarating" evening.

Tickets are still available and anyone interested should telephone the Torbay Conservative office on 01803 557753 or email torbaytories@btconnect.com