Antony Little for Norwich South

Hundreds of Norwich residents have signed a petition calling for tax cuts for savers and pensioners.

Conservatives in Norwich have led the calls for special help for these “innocent victims” of Labour’s recession, who are suffering as the income from their savings falls. Over the long term, cutting taxes on savings would help build a savings culture and end Britain’s addiction to debt under Gordon Brown.

In locations around Norwich, Prospective Parliamentary Candidates Chloe Smith and Antony Little have gained hundreds of signatures on a petition which will be sent to Gordon Brown before the Budget next week. Thousands of signatures will be gained from all parts of the country.

The petition highlights Conservative plans whereby:

Basic rate taxpayers would pay no tax at all on their income from savings, making them up to £7,200 a year better off.

The income tax allowance for pensioners would be increased, with age-related personal allowances rising by £2,000, helping them by up to £400 a year.

The package would be paid for by reducing the growth in government spending by £5 billion. Instead of rising by £30 billion next year, the increase would be £25 billion.

Spending on the NHS, schools, defence and international development would all be protected.

An estimated 2 million people across the Eastern region would benefit from these tax cuts.

Chloe Smith says: “Norwich’s savers and pensioners are the innocent victims of Gordon Brown’s recession. They are being punished for putting aside money. We need to cut taxes for them and help turn Britain from a spend, spend, spend society into a save, save, save society.”

Antony Little says: “We need change to deliver a culture of thrift at the heart of government and a culture of saving at the heart of our economy.”

Ed Vaizey MP, the Shadow Arts Minister, visited Norwich yesterday (Tuesday 7 April) on a fact finding tour to learn more about the culture and heritage of the historic City and how these might be supported by a future Conservative government.

Mr Vaizey, who is a close ally of Tory leader David Cameron, was joined by Norwich South Parliamentary spokesman Antony Little.

Cllr Little said: “This is part of a series of visits by Shadow Ministers to listen and learn from local people. It is very important we look forward to talking to the staff in some of the City’s best cultural attractions and the experts to see what we can do to support them in the future.”

Mr Vaizey met with officers from English Heritage, the Norwich Preservation Trust and the National Lottery Heritage Fund who guided him around the Elm Hill Conservation Area, several Trust projects around Colegate and Norwich Cathedral to see how construction work for the new Hostry was proceeding.

He also visited the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the UEA where he met with the Estates Development Director.

Cllr Little added: “I was thrilled to welcome Ed Vaizey to Norwich and show him round our beautiful City. He was certainly impressed by the amount of work preserving Norwich’s fine heritage and culture.

“Following the visit of the Shadow Business Minister last Friday, it shows how seriously the Conservatives are taking Norwich South in the run up to the next election.”

The Conservative challenger who will take on Charles Clarke at the next election has rounded on the Norwich South MP for claiming £152,948 in Parliamentary allowances.

Antony Little, who is also a city councillor, accused Mr Clarke of being an extravagant MP and said he was outraged to learn how much money he was claiming from the taxpayer whilst the UK was deep in recession.

The figures were released today by the House of Commons and cover the 2007/08 Parliamentary session.

Cllr Little said: “Charles Clarke is the twenty first most expensive MP in the UK out of 646. At £152,948 he’s not that far from the most expensive MP, Labour’s Ann Keen who claimed £167,306. LibDem Norman Lamb claimed £155,937. By stark contrast the cheapest MP at just £40,433 was the Conservative Philip Hollobone.

“Statistics like this only fuel the perception that politicians are in it for themselves. It is time that the Parliamentary allowances system is reformed to end this outrageous use of taxpayers’ money.”

Norwich’s Conservative Parliamentary Candidates today welcomed plans outlined by the Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Grayling MP, that will allow police to ground young people caught causing trouble in their communities. The plans are part of tough new measures to stop youths before they are dragged into the cycle of crime, announced during a keynote speech at the Local Government Association in London.Chloe Smith, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Norwich North, said:

“Everyone here in Norwich wants an end to anti-social behaviour. What we have to do is find a 21st century alternative to what would once have been a clip around the ear from the local bobby. Plenty of teenagers stray off the straight and narrow sometimes. But today there are no consequences when they do, and that has to change. All too often if you look at the case of a fifteen or sixteen year old who is starting to commit serious crimes, you find a story of years of minor misdemeanours that have all too often gone unpunished.”

Cllr Antony Little, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Norwich South, said:

“We also need to reform licensing – residents across Norwich all know of kids who can get drink at the corner shop. We need to put more police on the streets, and we need to end the ‘caution culture’ that lets youngsters get away with anti-social behaviour. The government should be on people’s side, not the side of the criminals – but Labour has failed us.”

Antony Little, Conservative Parliamentary spokesman for Norwich South, has commented on results from the BBC survey showing that two thirds of university vice-chancellors want to raise tuition fees to a figure between £4,000 and £20,000 per year.Mr Little, who is also Tory group leader at City Hall, said he was worried that higher tuition fees would deter thousands of students in lower income families from going to university during the recession.

Cllr Little said: “It is obvious that an increase to existing tuition fees will completely put off students from going into Higher Education. Hiking tuition fees to the astronomical level of £20,000 during this economically turbulent time will simply price out thousands of students from attending university.

“I completely understand why so many students are furious with this news. If these fees had been set when I started at UEA, I would not have been able to graduate with a degree in History because I came from a modest background. High fees are grossly unfair to students and their families with small incomes.”

Cllr Little added: “The Conservatives are calling for the government to conduct the student finance review now and to make it as comprehensive as possible.”

Norwich’s Conservative Parliamentary Candidates today welcomed David Cameron’s major policy paper outlining Conservative plans to give power back to communities.The proposals include stripping EEDA and the other Regional Development Agencies of their powers over planning; and giving local authorities in the region the power to establish their own local enterprise partnerships to take over development functions from RDAs.

In addition, the Conservatives will end all forced amalgamations of local authorities. The next Conservative government will stop the unitary restructuring plans for Norfolk and Suffolk, where recent delays mean the process will not have reached a conclusion prior to the next general election.

And furthermore, a Conservative government will introduce a new system that uses local referendums to control the level of local taxation.

Antony Little, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Norwich South, said:

“In the current economic downturn the last thing that millions of families need is yet another increase in their council tax bill. That is why I welcome these proposals on top of our existing policy which, for the first two years of a Conservative government, allows councils to contract with Whitehall to freeze council tax.”

Chloe Smith, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Norwich North, said:

“The next election won’t just be about whether to transfer power from Labour to the Conservatives. It will also be about whether to transfer power from Whitehall to us here locally. We can have an end to house building targets if we want it; we can have a way to hold the likes of Norwich City Council to account when it abuses our tax money by giving sheltered housing to its own employees; we can stop the unwanted, expensive unitary government proposals.”

A leading Norwich politician has welcomed support to assist charities through the recession but has called for help to go “even further”.Antony Little, Conservative Parliamentary spokesman for Norwich South, made his comments as a £40m package to help the voluntary sector was announced by the Government.

Mr Little, who is also a Bowthorpe ward councillor, said: “Like so many businesses in the UK, charities are suffering hard from the credit crunch. Their incomes are falling due to interest rates and declining donations, and this has been compounded by the fallout from the Icelandic banking collapse. I warmly welcome any support to help the voluntary sector help those in need.

“Yet this comes at a time when the Government is slashing funding to the Citizens Advice Bureau by crudely restructuring the way that legal advice is provided to local communities. It seems that what the Government gives with one hand, it takes away with another. The Government’s talk about helping charities needs to be matched by action and must go even further.”

A leading City Councillor has responded to the announcement that there will be a public inquiry into the future of a bowling alley by urging residents and bowling groups to get involved and ensure that it survives.There have been controversial proposals to change the No.10 Bowling Alley in Bowthorpe into a mixed use alley with a hotel. A public inquiry has been confirmed for Wednesday 11 March at City Hall.

Antony Little, who is a councillor for Bowthorpe, has urged all local residents and users of the alley to contact him and make their views known.

Cllr Little said: “Many bowling groups are opposed to this change and I have to agree that this issue has gone on for far too long without any clear resolution. There needs to be an economic case made for the bowling alley to work otherwise this popular facility will shut completely.

“I will be attending the inquiry and would urge all residents and bowling groups to contact me so together we can make sure that this important local facility survives. However there is no reason whatsoever for there not to be a bowling facility for clubs and local people to enjoy at a reasonable price”

A leading Norwich councillor has accused the Government of dithering over the disruption of European gas supplies which would leave the UK dependent on imported gas and force British consumers to pay more.Councillor Antony Little, who is also the Conservative Parliamentary spokesman for Norwich South, made his comments after Russia cut its gas supplies to Ukraine following a dispute over unpaid bills.

Cllr Little said: “The disruption of European gas supplies as a result of the dispute between Russia and the Ukraine is unacceptable and very worrying. The Government has dithered for ten years, despite knowing that dwindling North Sea gas reserves would leave us increasingly dependent on imported gas.

“As a result Britain is one of the most vulnerable countries in Europe to the disruption of gas supplies. France has 122 days of gas storage capacity, Germany has ninety nine days, but Britain has just 15 days. And it is British consumers who pay the price because we are more exposed to volatile gas prices than our neighbours. The Government has totally neglected this issue and is effectively forcing the UK to be held to ransom over gas prices. “

A Norwich politician has urged the Government to take urgent action to help savers and pensioners from the effects of the economic downturn.Antony Little, Conservative Parliamentary spokesman for Norwich South, has called for income tax on savings for basic rate taxpayers to be abolished and wants the pensioners’ personal allowance to be raised by £2,000 to £11,490.

Mr Little, who is also a City Councillor for Bowthorpe ward, said: “Savers have been affected by the necessary reductions in interest rates whilst pensioners have suffered from a decade of Gordon Brown’s tax raids.

“As well as supporting pensioners and savers during this turbulent time of financial turmoil, the Conservatives will take further economic measures to help the victims of Gordon Brown’s recession.”

The Conservatives’ proposals include improving the flow of credit and saving jobs with a £50 billion National Loan Guarantee Scheme, freezing council tax for two years by cutting wasteful government spending, encouraging companies to hire again through a tax break for new jobs, reducing employment costs for small businesses by cutting National Insurance and helping them with cashflow by delaying VAT bills for six months.

Cllr Little said: “Labour’s tax and debt bombshells are taking Britain to the brink of bankruptcy. Their answer to the debt crisis is yet more borrowing. It is clear that the longer Labour is in power, the worse the economic situation will become.

“Only the Conservatives can make the long-term decisions to get the public finances back under control with the proposed National Loan Guarantee Scheme and an Office for Budget Responsibility which would ensure that no Labour Government could bankrupt the country again.”