BUSINESS, INNOVATION AND SKILLS
· Helping skill the next generation through creating a record number of apprenticeships. There were half a million apprentices in the last year alone. Overall since David Cameron has been Prime Minister over 1 million apprenticeships have been created.
· The Apprenticeship Grants for Employers (AGE) scheme is being extended and the Government will be providing £85 million in both 2014-15 and 2015-16 for over 100,000 grants to employers and £20 million for post-graduate apprenticeships.
· 250,000 more small businesses have been created and £2 billion will be made available to viable small companies through to 2015.
· New Enterprise Allowance was introduced to support would-be entrepreneurs. The scheme has already helped to create more than 26,000 businesses and will be extended up until the end of 2014. This is creating a new generation of entrepreneurs who will contribute greatly to Britain.
· Through the Red Tape Challenge, 3,000 regulations are being scrapped or overhauled saving businesses over £850 million every single year. This is helping overturn 13 years of Labour rule when more and more costly regulations were introduced.
· Promoting inward investment in the car industry which saw Britain become a net car exporter in 2012 for the first time since 1976.
· The Government has delivered a £3.3 billion net cut in the cost of red tape to business. The red tape challenge is looking at further ways to reduce the costs of bureaucratic costs on business.
CULTURE MEDIA AND SPORTS
· Given the National Audit Office access to the BBC’s account to push for value for licence fee payers and to encourage transparency.
· Played a major role in the successful running of the London 2012 Olympics, with a long term legacy that will making a lasting change in improving sport and the economy across the country.
· To ensure that the First World War centenary is remembered the Government has announced help to restore many war memorials and is looking at other ways to remember those who fought valiantly for Britain in World War 1.
DEFENCE
· Ensuring a like for like replacement to Trident despite the opposition of the Liberal Democrats. This helps ensure our national security.
· Setting up of the National Security Council and appointing the country’s first National Security Adviser in May 2010.
· Gradually pulling British troops out of Afghanistan, so that by 2015 no British troops will be playing a combat role in Afghanistan.
EDUCATION (ENGLAND ONLY)
· Introduction of the pupil premium, helping the poorest pupils across the country. Worth an additional £623 per pupil in the current academic year – for all children on free school meals. This money is helping schools to provide extra support to boost the performance of disadvantaged pupils while also providing an incentive for good schools to attract disadvantaged children. In 2013-2014 the pupil premium will be increased to £900 per pupil. In the 2014 budget an additional £50 million was provided for 2015 to 2016 to extend the pupil premium to disadvantaged 3 and 4 year olds.
· The free schools revolution under Gove is helping bring back parental choice to the educational system and driving up standards. Free schools respond to local needs and are having a transformative effect for many pupils education. In September 2013 over 93 free schools opened bringing the total number to 174 and I am sure we will see this number continue to rise.
· Academies that have a proven track record of academic success have been boosted by Michael Gove. Academy status has been awarded to over 2,500 schools and almost 60% of secondary schools have become academies or are in the process of doing so.
· Grade inflation at GCSEs has stopped. For the past two years grades have not increased, showing that academic rigour has returned.
· The Education Act has been passed by Parliament which includes measures to tackle discipline. This has made it easier for teachers to deal with violent incidents and remove disruptive pupils or items from the classroom.
ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS
· £130 million invested in urgent repairs to critical flood defences and 42 new flood schemes, as well as a further 13 which were given funding last year. Construction will begin in 2014/15.
· The Prime Minister has pledged that £10 million will be made available for a one-off grant scheme to help farm businesses restore flooded agricultural land and bring it back into production as quickly as possible.
· £140 million of additional funding in the 2014 budget was provided in additional funding to repair and restore the condition of flood defences that have suffered damage.
ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE
· Green levies are being rolled back from consumers’ energy bills. These changes will save an average of £50 on household bills.
· No one should be in any doubt of one of the main causes of us paying higher green taxes and that is Ed Milliband. He was Climate Change Secretary when the 2008 Climate Change Act was introduced.
· Energy companies now have to to put customers on the lowest tariffs, which will help to reduce energy bills.
FOREIGN OFFICE
· Building closer relationships with China and India through trade visits to the country and ensuring that trade and political ties between the UK and these developing ties are made closer. This is in the national interest.
· 20 new embassies to be opened by 2015, increasing Britain’s diplomatic outreach.
· The Government is backing legislation which will give British voters for the first time in over 40 years a vote whether to remain in the EU with a referendum on 2017. This shows how the Conservative Party is committed to giving people a say in the big issues of our day, shamefully denied by the last Labour Government.
· David Cameron is fighting for Britain as he leads serious re-negotiations with the EU to ensure the return of many sovereign powers for Britain before the EU referendum of 2017.
· David Cameron refused to budge on the amount we pay to the EU budget and this led to a cut.
HOME AFFAIRS
· Net immigration has been cut by more than a third meaning that immigration is at its lowest levels for over a decade, putting a control under the immigration system after years of an open door immigration policy under the last Labour Government.
· The immigration bill that will come to the house on the 22nd October 2013 will tighten the immigration system further and make it easier to kick out illegal immigrants from this country and also ensure that it is easier for border agencies and hospitals and landlords to check for illegal immigrants. Furthermore those on short term visas will under this bill have to pay towards their treatment on the NHS.
· Thanks to the determination of Theresa May and through standing up to nonsensically European Human Rights Law, terrorist mastermind Abu Qatada was kicked out from this country.
· Crime has been cut by more than 10%. Within this gun and knife crime are down 15%, burglaries down 8%, robberies down 13% and vehicle crime down 8%.
· Red tape that ballooned for police under Labour has been significantly reduced saving 4.5 million hours of police time.
HEALTH (ENGLAND ONLY)
· Health spending increases in real terms in each year of Parliament. This has delivered real-term increases in the NHS budget of £12.7 billion by 2014-15. This compares favourably to Wales, where the Welsh Labour Government have cut funding to the NHS in Wales.
· A complete overhaul of the top down recruitment structure put in place by the last Labour Government. Increasingthe number of health professionals in the NHS since the General Election. There are now over 1,300 more midwives, over 5,500 more doctors and around 7,800 fewer managers working in the NHS.
· Due to NHS reforms in England the NHS will save £5.5 billion on bureaucracy over the course of this Parliament, all of which will be reinvested into frontline services.
· £600 million Cancer Drugs Fund which has helped more 38,000 patients to access the drugs that would previously have been denied to them. This has helped improve cancer survival rates. The Prime Minister has announced a two-year £400 million extension.
· Mixed-sex accommodation down by 98%, improving the dignity of patients.
· MRSA rates have nearly halved since the 2010 general election.
· Additional funding has allowed an additional 1.1 million people to access NHS dental services since May 2010.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT (ENGLAND ONLY)
· Freezing of council tax for three years in a row, a nice change from the relentless rise in council taxes in the era of Labour. Indeed under Labour council tax doubled, showing how Labour is addicted to taxes.
· Abolition of Regional Development Agencies. This has saved £186 million for taxpayers and ended a situation where Regional Development Agencies were second guessing the requirements of local businesses.
· £200 million has been provided to set up a pot holes challenge fund. This will help improve the state of roads in Britain.
TRANSPORT
· Investment to Great Western significantly increased.
· Funding the electrification of over 850 miles of the rail network, including the electrification of lines run by Great Western.
· Creation of a specific drug driving offence.
TREASURY
· George Osborne was left an awful mess by the last Labour Government highlighted by the note given to the treasury from former Labour Treasury Minister, Liam Byrne that said “sorry there’s no money left”. Labour left Britain with the biggest deficit in peacetime history. The deficit has now been cut by a third.
· The reduction of the 50p rate of tax to 45p – helping encourage businesses in Britain and leading to more foreign direct investment.
· Corporation tax lowered from 28% - 24% and to be lowered to 22% in 2014-15 and then in April 2015 to 20 per cent, the lowest rate in the G20. This puts a big sign over Britain saying we are open to business. This was needed as we formerly had the highest corporation rate in the G20.
· Fuel duty has been frozen, saving motorists 14 a litre. Compare this to the Labour Party who on their watch raised the rate of fuel duty 12 times.
· According to the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) growth for this year will be 2.7%, this is up on the 2.4% estimate that was made in December.
· The OBR have said that GDP will surpass its pre-recession peak by the end of June.
· Unemployment will be 6.8% in this financial year. It is predicted that it will fall to 6.5% in 2015, 6.1% in 2016 and 5.7% in 2017. CCHQ believes this will lead to 1.5 million new jobs in the next five years.
· Number of people out of work fell by 18,000 to 2.49 million in the three months to August according to figures from the ONS. Jobseeker's Allowance - fell by 41,700 to 1.35 million in September, the lowest level since January 2009- ONS. This is on the back of figures that show from May to July 2013 unemployment figures fell by 7.7% and in the same period JSA falling by 32,6000.
· The raising of the income tax threshold to £10,000 gave an average tax cut of £600 for 24 million people and 2.2 million taken out of income tax altogether. The tax threshold will rise to £10,500 in 2015/16, which works out as a tax cut for 25.4 million people. This will mean by April 2015, a typical basic rate taxpayer will be pay £800 less income tax a year and 3.2 million individuals will be taken out of income tax completely. In contrast the Labour Party showed how superficial their claim is to be the party of the poor with the abolition of the 10p tax rate that hurt the poorest in society the most.
· Highlighted that you can decrease the public sector and rely on the wealth creating private sector to create jobs. Since the Coalition Government has been in place 1.3 million jobs have been created in the private sector. It is now expected that private sector jobs will grow by 3.3 million from 2011-2019.
· Inflation is expected to be 1.9% this year. This will cause real wages to start to climb for the first time properly since the recession last year. The estimates from the OBR are that average earnings will grow 2.5% this year and by 3.2% next year and by 3.6% in 2016.
· This fiscal year the deficit was equivalent to 6.6% of GDP, in the coming year this will go down to 5.5% and will keep going down year by year if the economic plans are kept to until 2018-19 where it will lead to a 0.2% surplus. This shows how the Government’s economic policies are putting the Britain on a sounder financial footing.
· From April 2014 businesses and charities will have an entitlement to a £2,000 Employment Allowance per year towards their employer National Insurance contributions (NICs) bill. This will help reduced employment costs.
· ISAs have been made much simply by merging the cash and stocks ISAs into a single new ISA. The annual limit will increase to £15,000 a year for either shares, or cash, or a combination of both. This is a massive boost to savers and could benefit up to 299,000 ISA holders in Wales.
· Thanks to these policies on the KPMG league of where it is best to do business in, Britain is at the top.
WORK AND PENSIONS
· A series of reforms to our benefit system, so that no out of work household can claim more than the average working family earns. This is helping target welfare dependency that reached endemic levels under the last Labour Government and is also making sure that work pays.
· Benefits have been capped at £26,000 a concept that Labour despite all their talk of being tough on benefits doesn’t seem to understand. This was necessary as under Labour 1.4 million people were out of work for more than a decade.
· Putting rigorous tests in relation to incapacity benefits to cut fraud in the system. Through this incapacity benefit numbers have decreased by £145,000. This has helped those who are genuinely disabled, whilst money for taxpayers.
· Long-term benefit claimants who fail to find work are now required to “work for the dole” on community work programmes. People who refuse to accept reasonable offers now forfeit their benefits for up to 3 years.
· The basic state pension has been increased through the Triple Lock, which makes sure it always rises by whichever of these is the highest: inflation, earnings or 2.5%. In doing so this ensures that pensioners have the best chance of not living a life of poverty.
· Housing benefit has been capped to stop unlimited payouts and to stop abuse of the system and to ensure that the abuses that happened under the last Labour Government where some households were claiming over £100, 000 a year on housing benefits.
· A new pensioner bond will be put in place by January 2015. This will offer a better return than any equivalent in the market today. Alongside this the amount people can invest in Premium Bonds will also rise, first to £40,000 in June 2014 and then to £50,000 in 2015/16. This will benefit pensioners and savers.
· From April 2015 no one will be forced to buy an annuity if they do not want to. This will give pensioners far more flexibility and give them freedom to choose whether they want to have the certainty of an annuity or choose other options. It puts the individual in the driving seat by giving them the power to look around for the best deal.
· There will be no punitive 55% tax rate for those who want to take more than their tax free sum from their pension pot.
