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How does the big sell-off help businesses?
• WHEN it comes to small business the Liberal Democrats are playing a familiar role.
They posture and pose, claiming to support small business, but their actions in power undermine those same businesses (Budget betrayal of low-paid, April 6).
Right now, the Lib Dem council is selling off shops across Islington, over the heads of local businesses, to property developers.
These are independent, long-established small shops that have served the community for years.
They can’t compete with property developers who are out to make a quick buck.
How exactly does the Lib Dem sell-off help small business?
LYNNE WELLS
Central Street, EC1
• THE biggest betrayal of the low-paid are the priorities of Islington’s Lib Dem council.
The Lib Dem policy of supporting luxury flats, rather than affordable housing for families, has made life more difficult for hard-working families.
The Lib Dems have outsourced care services for the elderly, replacing experienced in-house staff with low-paid contract workers. They have also attacked local businesses, selling off hundreds of properties to private developers.
At the same time as pursuing these disastrous policies, the Lib Dems have been paying themselves the highest councillor salaries in the country.
Indeed, the latest Islington Council budget has seen the Lib Dems award themselves an inflation-busting wage increase. Labour councillors won’t be accepting the rise because the money should be spent on frontline services.
Top Lib Dem councillors can now expect to take home £45,039 a year, while ordinary council workers who earn far less won’t see huge wage increases.
The experience of the Lib Dems in Islington shows they are the last to worry about the low-paid.
TIM MCLOUGHLIN
Highbury Grange, N5
• IT was disappointing to see Lib Dem Bridget Fox attacking tax credits.
Tax credits have raised the incomes of some of the poorest in society, including pensioners. Combined with responsible economic management and progressive policies, like the introduction of the minimum wage, tax credits have attracted more people into work, and ensured more people can earn a decent living.
The Lib Dems may scoff at policies like tax credits and the minimum wage, both of which they oppose, but they should consider what these policies mean for the people that benefit.
A recent visitor to one of MP Emily Thornberry’s surgeries, was Ms B. She is a single parent who works about 20 hours a week as a nursery nurse.
Her net wages are only £127 a week, which is about the same amount she would get if she stayed at home on benefits. However, working tax credit, child tax credit and child benefit together contribute another £123 a week, bringing her total to £250 a week.
As a result of the Budget, this figure will rise further so that by October this year a couple or lone parent, with one child, in full-time work would have a guaranteed minimum income of £276 a week.
Perhaps most welcome of all is extra specific help for London’s single parents going into work. There will be an extra credit of £60 a week for the first year in work, compared with £40 for parents in other parts of the UK.
JOHN GREENSHIELDS
PA to Emily Thornberry
Labour MP, Islington South and Finsbury
• FORMER Lib Dem councillor Bridget Fox’s comments on the Budget are laughable.
Let’s not forget that while she was deputy leader of the Lib Dem council she paid herself the highest councillor salary in the country – £44,000 a year.
At the same time, while in charge of planning she preferred luxury flats (on parkland) to affordable housing. When she was overseeing environmental policy, we saw the farce of Islington’s recycling being dumped in Indonesia.
No wonder she lost her seat at the council elections. Voters no doubt thought that, when it comes to budgeting, getting rid of her was an excellent efficiency saving.
RUTH ASHBEE
Wynford Road, N1 |
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