Browse content similar to 25/11/2015. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Tonight at 6, we're at Westminster where the Chancellor has abandoned | :00:00. | :00:09. | |
his controversial plans to cut tax credits for millions | :00:10. | :00:12. | |
George Osborne, delivering his spending review, | :00:13. | :00:20. | |
says he's listened to concerns, and claims that improved public finances | :00:21. | :00:23. | |
Because I've been able to announce today an improvement in the public | :00:24. | :00:29. | |
finances, the simplest thing to do is not to phase these changes in, | :00:30. | :00:33. | |
But Labour says the tax credits change is a fiasco, and warns | :00:34. | :00:41. | |
that many families still face welfare cuts in the years ahead. | :00:42. | :00:44. | |
I'm convinced this is sheer economic incompetence and poor judgment. | :00:45. | :00:53. | |
And another surprise, this time on police spending | :00:54. | :00:58. | |
in England and Wales, there will be no cuts before 2020 partly | :00:59. | :01:01. | |
The downing of the Russian fighter jet | :01:02. | :01:10. | |
by Turkey, the pilot who survived speaks anonymously to the media. | :01:11. | :01:14. | |
TRANSLATION: There were no warnings, not on the radar, all visually. | :01:15. | :01:26. | |
There was no contact. In the sport, a 29% increase in funding for UK | :01:27. | :01:30. | |
sport in the Spending Review as the government says it is committed to | :01:31. | :01:33. | |
building on the success of London 2012. | :01:34. | :01:51. | |
We're at Westminster, where the Chancellor has taken everyone | :01:52. | :01:56. | |
by surprise and abandoned his plans to cut tax credits | :01:57. | :01:59. | |
He said he'd listened to concerns and claimed that he was able to | :02:00. | :02:08. | |
scrap the plans because the public finances had | :02:09. | :02:09. | |
Labour warned that people would still be affected by welfare cuts | :02:10. | :02:13. | |
There were lots of measures today, but the reverse on tax credits was | :02:14. | :02:20. | |
easily the most prominent announced by George Osborne today. | :02:21. | :02:22. | |
There was also a surprise announcement on police | :02:23. | :02:25. | |
spending in England and Wales, budgets will now be protected. | :02:26. | :02:28. | |
Many forces had been expecting a cut. | :02:29. | :02:31. | |
And on the bigger picture, the Chancellor's statement means | :02:32. | :02:33. | |
that government borrowing will go up between 2016 and 2020, | :02:34. | :02:36. | |
according to the independent Office for Budget Responsibility. | :02:37. | :02:41. | |
Let's have more details from our deputy political editor | :02:42. | :02:43. | |
In Downing Street they try and avoid U-turns. But today, one may have | :02:44. | :02:56. | |
been useful, at least for the prime minister's Jaguar, which had a bit | :02:57. | :02:59. | |
of a prank. No such mistake around the corner, the Chancellor was going | :03:00. | :03:05. | |
to make one of the biggest U-turns of his career to try and repair his | :03:06. | :03:09. | |
dented reputation. He had been expected to make massive cuts to | :03:10. | :03:14. | |
government spending and softening controversial benefit reductions. A | :03:15. | :03:18. | |
statement from the Chancellor. When Mr Osborne got to his feet no one | :03:19. | :03:22. | |
expected this, his tax credit cuts that had been blocked in the Lords | :03:23. | :03:29. | |
would not now happen. You can almost hear the tyres screeching. I have | :03:30. | :03:33. | |
had representations that these changes to the tax credits should be | :03:34. | :03:37. | |
phased in. I have listened to the concerns, I understand them and | :03:38. | :03:41. | |
because I've been able to announce an improvement in the public | :03:42. | :03:45. | |
finances the simplest thing to do is not to phase in the changes but to | :03:46. | :03:51. | |
avoid them altogether. Tax credits... An extraordinary reverse | :03:52. | :03:55. | |
that will lead the chance of breaking his own cap on welfare. If | :03:56. | :04:00. | |
one U-turn wasn't enough he surprised MPs by backing away from | :04:01. | :04:04. | |
his much predicted police cuts that many feared would let down | :04:05. | :04:06. | |
Britain's guard after the Paris attacks. But now is not the time for | :04:07. | :04:14. | |
further police cuts. Now is the time to back our police and give them the | :04:15. | :04:19. | |
tools to do the job. I am today announcing there will be no cuts in | :04:20. | :04:28. | |
the police budget at all. There will be a protection of police funding. | :04:29. | :04:37. | |
Mr Speaker... Mr Speaker, the police protect us, and we are going to | :04:38. | :04:45. | |
protect the police. All of which was remarkably generous from a chance | :04:46. | :04:47. | |
that supposed to be wielding the axe. How has he done it? He has been | :04:48. | :04:53. | |
lucky and got 20s of an billion pounds of unexpected tax revenue. He | :04:54. | :04:58. | |
is cutting spending by ?8 billion less than promised, he is raising | :04:59. | :05:01. | |
taxes on businesses including a ?3 billion apprenticeship levied and he | :05:02. | :05:06. | |
is cutting other welfare such as Universal Credit, housing benefit | :05:07. | :05:10. | |
and free childcare, saving him a lot of cash. That allowed him to protect | :05:11. | :05:14. | |
the schools budget for England, raising the state pension above | :05:15. | :05:18. | |
inflation, and give the NHS ?6 billion up front. As for housing, | :05:19. | :05:25. | |
massive new subsidies to help pay for affordable homes and shared | :05:26. | :05:29. | |
ownership schemes. The Spending Review delivers a doubling of the | :05:30. | :05:33. | |
housing budget, 400,000 new homes with extra support for London, the | :05:34. | :05:38. | |
right to buy will be rolled out, paid for by a tax on buy to let and | :05:39. | :05:44. | |
second homes, delivered by a Conservative government committed to | :05:45. | :05:46. | |
helping working people who want to buy their own home. We are the | :05:47. | :05:52. | |
builders. There was still ?12 billion of cuts to be ground out of | :05:53. | :05:56. | |
Whitehall, much of it coming from local government, transport and | :05:57. | :06:00. | |
business. He left town halls raise council tax by 2% to pay for social | :06:01. | :06:05. | |
care. We were elected as a 1 nation government. Today, we deliver the | :06:06. | :06:11. | |
Spending Review of a 1 nation government. The guardians are | :06:12. | :06:19. | |
economic security, the protectors of national security, the builders of | :06:20. | :06:24. | |
the better future, this government, the representatives of the working | :06:25. | :06:28. | |
people of Great Britain. The speech was aimed at the political centre | :06:29. | :06:33. | |
ground, gambling on rosy financial forecasts and what the Conservatives | :06:34. | :06:39. | |
see as a weak opposition. Today the Chancellor has been forced into a | :06:40. | :06:44. | |
U-turn on his tax credits. And I want to congratulate the members of | :06:45. | :06:49. | |
this house on also I who made this happen. I want to congratulate the | :06:50. | :06:54. | |
members of the other house as well. I'm glad he has listened to Labour | :06:55. | :07:00. | |
and seen sense. He teased Mr Osborne about his enthusiasm for China's | :07:01. | :07:04. | |
coming this leaders. To assist comrades Osborne with his dealings | :07:05. | :07:08. | |
with his new-found comrades, I brought with him Mao Tse-tung's | :07:09. | :07:14. | |
Little Red Book. It was a decision that amazed Labour MPs and then use | :07:15. | :07:21. | |
the Tories. Order, I want to hear about the contents of the book! I | :07:22. | :07:27. | |
thought it would come in handy for him with his new relationship. | :07:28. | :07:33. | |
Outside, others said that cuts meant cuts, however the chance spun it. He | :07:34. | :07:38. | |
said he -- should have said that he had cut enough and that there should | :07:39. | :07:43. | |
be investment in public services and household incomes. People have | :07:44. | :07:46. | |
already been squeezed to the bone and I fear that most people won't be | :07:47. | :07:52. | |
able to take much more. Quite bad, ongoing revenue cuts, the impact of | :07:53. | :07:58. | |
welfare changes, he announced a cut for many people in Scotland and this | :07:59. | :08:03. | |
will be no comfort at all. A day of surprises that will shape the | :08:04. | :08:08. | |
nation's finances for years to come. Politics too. | :08:09. | :08:15. | |
Let's talk more about the reversal on tax credits. | :08:16. | :08:21. | |
of low paid workers will not have their benefits cut next April, | :08:22. | :08:25. | |
The plans were thrown into doubt when the House of Lords | :08:26. | :08:30. | |
voted to delay them and many MPs, including many Conservatives, | :08:31. | :08:33. | |
Our political correspondent Vicki Young is in the constituency | :08:34. | :08:37. | |
of Corby and she's been getting people's reaction there. | :08:38. | :08:41. | |
It's a busy time of year for this logistics firm in Corby. | :08:42. | :08:45. | |
In the run-up to Christmas they will be | :08:46. | :08:48. | |
distributing hundreds of lorry-loads of goods from these warehouses. | :08:49. | :08:51. | |
Workers here are paid more than the minimum wage, | :08:52. | :08:53. | |
So today's U-turn by the Chancellor is welcome. | :08:54. | :08:59. | |
Simon has three children and says the extra money has helped | :09:00. | :09:04. | |
It means that my children can still benefit from the full tax | :09:05. | :09:09. | |
And they can carry on doing their activities at school. | :09:10. | :09:16. | |
I can still put the same amount of food on the table, | :09:17. | :09:19. | |
and still have the heating on for exactly the same amount of time. | :09:20. | :09:22. | |
So, yeah, that's brilliant news for me. | :09:23. | :09:27. | |
And one of the company directors here says | :09:28. | :09:29. | |
George Osborne's change of heart will be a boost for his workers. | :09:30. | :09:33. | |
I'm very much in tune with what goes on on the shop floor. | :09:34. | :09:37. | |
I get involved with the staff and talk to them all the time. | :09:38. | :09:41. | |
It is something that has been a cloud hanging over them to | :09:42. | :09:44. | |
So the Chancellor has now changed his mind on all of that. | :09:45. | :09:47. | |
So, yeah, obviously of all the things that were mentioned today, | :09:48. | :09:50. | |
Future claimants won't get the family element in tax credits, which | :09:51. | :09:59. | |
George Osborne came under huge pressure, not just from Labour | :10:00. | :10:08. | |
but from those in his own party over his plans to cut tax credits. | :10:09. | :10:12. | |
In the end, he's decided to abandon the idea altogether, | :10:13. | :10:14. | |
but he's still determined to cut billions from the welfare budget. | :10:15. | :10:20. | |
The only question now is, who will be the losers? | :10:21. | :10:23. | |
The way to look at it is that the old benefits system, | :10:24. | :10:26. | |
tax credits, has had the cuts to it reversed, so people will not see | :10:27. | :10:31. | |
their incomes fall if on tax credits. | :10:32. | :10:33. | |
But as they move onto the new welfare system, Universal | :10:34. | :10:36. | |
Credit, largely towards the end of this Parliament, they will be | :10:37. | :10:38. | |
affected by these cuts, and they will see their incomes lower than | :10:39. | :10:41. | |
In Corby today there were mixed views about whether | :10:42. | :10:45. | |
I rely on it a lot, it gets my shopping, | :10:46. | :10:48. | |
Obviously I need that to cover me, because if not then I would be | :10:49. | :10:55. | |
I came here to work but some people came here just to | :10:56. | :11:01. | |
And of course I think they need to cancel some benefits. | :11:02. | :11:08. | |
George Osborne may have been in reverse gear today | :11:09. | :11:12. | |
but he's still heading for lower welfare spending down the line. | :11:13. | :11:15. | |
Tonight the independent public finance experts, the Institute | :11:16. | :11:23. | |
for Fiscal Studies, have warned that the Chancellor might have to raise | :11:24. | :11:26. | |
taxes if economic growth turns out to be slower than expected. | :11:27. | :11:29. | |
But Mr Osborne is sticking to his target, to move the public | :11:30. | :11:32. | |
Our economics correspondent Andrew Verity has been looking | :11:33. | :11:37. | |
What we were expecting from the spending review was austerity, | :11:38. | :11:45. | |
But what was surprising how un-austere it sounded, so where | :11:46. | :11:51. | |
When you listened to the Chancellor this afternoon there was some | :11:52. | :12:01. | |
Biggest was scrapping his key welfare reform, the tax credit | :12:02. | :12:04. | |
The police but it won't be slashed but it will rise with inflation and | :12:05. | :12:13. | |
the defence budget will rise by ?6 billion a year, just under one | :12:14. | :12:18. | |
fifth. How can he do that? The Chancellor said there had been a ?27 | :12:19. | :12:23. | |
billion improvement in the public finances. But careful, that's spread | :12:24. | :12:28. | |
over five years. Oh yeah it is just 5 billion, so where is that coming | :12:29. | :12:35. | |
from? -- a year. He is expecting corporation tax to be paid and he | :12:36. | :12:38. | |
isn't expecting to pay as much interest on the government's debt | :12:39. | :12:42. | |
because interest rates and inflation are low. He is raising new taxes | :12:43. | :12:50. | |
from making employers pay for a Princess -- apprentice tips and | :12:51. | :12:56. | |
higher taxes for second homes. The job parliament has given us is to | :12:57. | :13:01. | |
pay for a central forecast based on our best forecast and it is | :13:02. | :13:04. | |
important that we don't decide whether to include things or not on | :13:05. | :13:06. | |
the basis of whether they are helpful, or unhelpful to the | :13:07. | :13:11. | |
politicians. We try and do a professional job. People may | :13:12. | :13:13. | |
disagree with the conclusions but that is the basis on which we do | :13:14. | :13:19. | |
them. The Chancellor is still planning to cut ?12 billion worth of | :13:20. | :13:24. | |
welfare cuts. He was due to make his biggest saving, 3.4 billion, by | :13:25. | :13:27. | |
slashing the amount you could earn before your money was clawed back | :13:28. | :13:31. | |
but he has scrapped it but he's still going to get the money soon | :13:32. | :13:36. | |
enough because tax credits are being replaced by Universal Credit, which | :13:37. | :13:40. | |
is still being cut. People in future claiming that will be hit in much | :13:41. | :13:46. | |
the same way. The fact that tax credits will not be cut next year | :13:47. | :13:49. | |
means the fact that tax credits will not be cut next year Mr Chancellor | :13:50. | :13:51. | |
will borrow more next year than he otherwise would have done. In the | :13:52. | :13:54. | |
long run, the cancellation is not costing him much at all because the | :13:55. | :13:59. | |
cuts to the Universal Credit, which will replace tax credits, are still | :14:00. | :14:03. | |
in place so in the long run we are saving almost as much from the | :14:04. | :14:06. | |
welfare bill as he wanted to do. There is no doubt that this is a | :14:07. | :14:10. | |
tax-raising budget. With the cuts going through, that's where the | :14:11. | :14:13. | |
money is coming from to get the Chancellor into surplus in five | :14:14. | :14:16. | |
years but only if the forecasts are right and that is a big if. | :14:17. | :14:23. | |
We had been focusing on the U-turn to do with tax credits but there | :14:24. | :14:28. | |
were lots of other measures announced. Let me take you through | :14:29. | :14:30. | |
some of them. The state pension is to rise by | :14:31. | :14:35. | |
?3.35 a week from April next year. The defence, health, | :14:36. | :14:38. | |
overseas aid and schools budgets There will be cuts to | :14:39. | :14:40. | |
the budgets for transport, business, The buyers | :14:41. | :14:44. | |
of buy-to-let properties and second homes will have to pay more stamp | :14:45. | :14:47. | |
duty, there'll be a 3% surcharge. On childcare, | :14:48. | :14:51. | |
only those working more than 16 hours a week will be eligible | :14:52. | :14:55. | |
for 30 hours of free provision. And the ?15 million raised | :14:56. | :15:01. | |
from charging VAT on sanitary products will be given | :15:02. | :15:03. | |
to women's health charities. Just a sense of the wide range of | :15:04. | :15:15. | |
measures announced beyond the tax credit policy. | :15:16. | :15:16. | |
Our political editor Laura Kuenssberg is with me. | :15:17. | :15:19. | |
I have heard one or two people say oh, that's it, austerity, it has | :15:20. | :15:29. | |
gone. Are they right? It is -- in its pure, full throttle version, | :15:30. | :15:32. | |
yes, it is, but it is hanging around. The Chancellor has made two | :15:33. | :15:38. | |
big climb-down is on tax credits and police cuts, both claimed as | :15:39. | :15:40. | |
rectories for the Labour Party but we also have a Chancellor who has | :15:41. | :15:45. | |
been lucky, he has had a healthier prediction of the country's future | :15:46. | :15:48. | |
bank balance, allowing him to make those moves -- as Victor reads. He | :15:49. | :15:53. | |
is still making them more slowly but he is still making very significant | :15:54. | :15:59. | |
cuts. ?12 billion being cut from the welfare budget, still big cuts to | :16:00. | :16:04. | |
the budgets for local councils who provide vital services, still big | :16:05. | :16:10. | |
decisions that will have a big impact on millions of families | :16:11. | :16:14. | |
around the country. The Chancellor believes that the decisions he has | :16:15. | :16:18. | |
made are exactly what he was elected to do. The overall goal will be | :16:19. | :16:22. | |
worth it but the pain he has inflicted today is not as great as | :16:23. | :16:27. | |
some had predicted. Don't forget he has been lucky with these numbers | :16:28. | :16:31. | |
today. Luck does not always last for ever. | :16:32. | :16:34. | |
Thanks very much. We will talk later again tonight, Laura Kuenssberg, our | :16:35. | :16:38. | |
political editor. There's lots more detail | :16:39. | :16:40. | |
on the Chancellor's plans and how There are lots of links and blogs | :16:41. | :16:52. | |
and material from Laura and other colleagues on that website page. | :16:53. | :16:53. | |
I'll be back with more from Westminster later | :16:54. | :16:55. | |
in the programme, but for now it's back to Reeta in the studio. | :16:56. | :16:58. | |
The Chancellor's abandoned plans to cut tax credits, | :16:59. | :17:09. | |
claiming improved public finances have allowed him to change course. | :17:10. | :17:11. | |
And still to come, can new measures announced in the Spending Review | :17:12. | :17:14. | |
And coming up on Reporting Scotland at 6:30pm: | :17:15. | :17:20. | |
Is it time to downsize? The scheme to shrink wineglass sizes in pubs | :17:21. | :17:28. | |
and bars for the good of our health. The latest from Belgium as Andy | :17:29. | :17:33. | |
Murray and Britain's Davis Cup team prepare for the final. | :17:34. | :17:37. | |
A Russian fighter jet pilot shot down yesterday by the Turkish air | :17:38. | :17:40. | |
force was presented to the media at a Russian air base in Syria today. | :17:41. | :17:45. | |
Turkey has released a recording of what it says are warnings to the | :17:46. | :17:52. | |
jet not to cross into its airspace, warnings it claims were ignored. | :17:53. | :17:55. | |
Our Moscow correspondent Steve Rosenberg reports. | :17:56. | :18:02. | |
In flames and out of control, a Russian bomber plummets to earth | :18:03. | :18:06. | |
and crashes in Syria, shot down by a Turkish F-15 fighter jets. | :18:07. | :18:14. | |
and crashes in Syria, shot down by a Turkish fighter jet. | :18:15. | :18:17. | |
One was killed, but could Russia find the other | :18:18. | :18:21. | |
After a 12-hour search, the Russian military released these images. | :18:22. | :18:26. | |
Captain Konstantin Murahtin had been rescued. | :18:27. | :18:27. | |
Hiding his face from the camera he spoke to journalists. | :18:28. | :18:30. | |
I can't wait to get back to my duties, he told them. | :18:31. | :18:37. | |
It's my duty to avenge the killing of my commander. | :18:38. | :18:42. | |
Back in Russia, President Putin announced that Captain Murahtin | :18:43. | :18:45. | |
would receive a state award for bravery. | :18:46. | :18:47. | |
And there would be posthumous awards for the dead pilot and a Russian | :18:48. | :18:50. | |
marine, killed in the rescue operation. | :18:51. | :18:59. | |
Outside the Defence Ministry tonight, Russians came to pay their | :19:00. | :19:05. | |
respects. These are the first confirmed deaths of Russian soldiers | :19:06. | :19:10. | |
in combat in Syria. Today, Moscow made it clear it doesn't want to go | :19:11. | :19:13. | |
to war with Turkey over what happened to its aircraft and to its | :19:14. | :19:17. | |
soldiers. . It described the shooting down of the jet as a | :19:18. | :19:25. | |
deliberate, planned act, an ambush. But Ankara insists this was | :19:26. | :19:31. | |
Moscow's fault and that the Russian jet violated Turkish airspace. | :19:32. | :19:34. | |
Today, Turkish President said his country did not want an escalation | :19:35. | :19:38. | |
we're just defending security, he said. But Turkey is also defending | :19:39. | :19:44. | |
these people, the Turkmen, they are Syrians of Turkish descent. Russia | :19:45. | :19:50. | |
has been carrying out air strikes here, claiming there are terrorists | :19:51. | :19:54. | |
in the area. Just a few days ago Turkey told Russia to stop the | :19:55. | :20:01. | |
bombing here. Russians, though, are in no mood to listen. In Moscow this | :20:02. | :20:05. | |
crowd attacked the Turkish embassy with eggs and rocks, furious that | :20:06. | :20:10. | |
Turkey had shot down a Russian bomber. They are chanting: We won't | :20:11. | :20:17. | |
forgive or forget. Steve Rosenberg, BBC News, Moscow. | :20:18. | :20:18. | |
A brief look at some of the day's other news stories. | :20:19. | :20:23. | |
Police investigating the death of Sheffield student Caroline | :20:24. | :20:25. | |
Everest have arrested a 31-year-old man on suspicion of rape. | :20:26. | :20:27. | |
The 18-year-old's body was found in a river yesterday. | :20:28. | :20:31. | |
She'd been reported missing at the weekend, after leaving | :20:32. | :20:33. | |
The Government has agreed to conciliation talks in the junior | :20:34. | :20:45. | |
doctors' dispute, but the strikes have not been called off. | :20:46. | :20:47. | |
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the action should be cancelled to | :20:48. | :20:50. | |
The first strike is due to be on Tuesday, starting at 8am | :20:51. | :20:54. | |
There were almost 44,000 extra deaths last winter in England | :20:55. | :21:01. | |
and Wales compared to the rest of the year, according to | :21:02. | :21:04. | |
It's the highest number of so-called "excess winter deaths" for 15 years. | :21:05. | :21:09. | |
Most of those who died were aged 75 or over. | :21:10. | :21:17. | |
Schools and some metro lines have reopened in Brussels, | :21:18. | :21:19. | |
as the city starts to return to normal after four days in lockdown. | :21:20. | :21:23. | |
The Belgian capital remains on the highest state of alert, | :21:24. | :21:25. | |
with armed police and soldiers patrolling the streets. | :21:26. | :21:28. | |
The Belgian Interior Minister says the threat level was raised because | :21:29. | :21:31. | |
intelligence had suggested an attack was planned for Sunday evening. | :21:32. | :21:41. | |
The United Nation's World Meteorological Organisation says | :21:42. | :21:43. | |
that 2015 is likely to be the hottest year on record. | :21:44. | :21:46. | |
It says the cause is a combination of greenhouse gas | :21:47. | :21:48. | |
emissions, and climatic changes due to the El Nino weather event. | :21:49. | :21:55. | |
More now on the Chancellor's Spending Review. | :21:56. | :22:02. | |
Let's go back to Huw at Westminster - Huw. | :22:03. | :22:04. | |
One of the biggest areas of policy | :22:05. | :22:07. | |
Mr Osborne announced plans to give billions of pounds to | :22:08. | :22:13. | |
private developers to build 400,000 new homes in England. | :22:14. | :22:16. | |
But critics say that a failure to invest more in social | :22:17. | :22:20. | |
housing is a major weakness in the Government's approach. | :22:21. | :22:22. | |
There will also be a new 3% surcharge on stamp duty | :22:23. | :22:25. | |
for buy-to-let properties and second homes, from April 2016. | :22:26. | :22:27. | |
Our home editor Mark Easton looks at the housing element | :22:28. | :22:30. | |
In Knutsford in the heart of the Chancellor's Cheshire constituency | :22:31. | :22:40. | |
they are busy building homes for sale. And this is what George | :22:41. | :22:45. | |
Osborne wants much more of. After years cutting government cash for | :22:46. | :22:49. | |
new houses today the Chancellor announced ?6.9 billion to help build | :22:50. | :22:55. | |
hundreds of thousands of subsidised homes, most aimed at first-time | :22:56. | :22:59. | |
buyers. At the hairdresser in the high street I met some of Mr | :23:00. | :23:03. | |
Osborne's generation rent constituents. What did they think of | :23:04. | :23:09. | |
the state giving people like them a leg up on the property ladder | :23:10. | :23:12. | |
through shared ownership or discounted starter homes? I think | :23:13. | :23:19. | |
the Help To Buy schemes are encouraging for the younger | :23:20. | :23:21. | |
generations. Would you take advantage? I'd be one of the first | :23:22. | :23:26. | |
people knocking on the door. It is essential to help people out and get | :23:27. | :23:30. | |
people on the ladder. Perhaps the biggest surprise in the housing | :23:31. | :23:34. | |
sector was the Chancellor's 3% additional stamp duty charge on | :23:35. | :23:38. | |
people purchasing any buy-to-let, or second home. For every pound over | :23:39. | :23:46. | |
125,000 they will pay 5%, beyond 675,008 is 8%, over 925,000 it is | :23:47. | :23:53. | |
13% the proportion of a price over 1.5 million will be charged at 15%. | :23:54. | :23:58. | |
The Chancellor thinks it will raise over ?1 billion. In Knutsford estate | :23:59. | :24:01. | |
agents say it will kill the buy-to-let sector. It will have a | :24:02. | :24:05. | |
hugely devastating effect on the market in terms of buy-to-let | :24:06. | :24:09. | |
investors coming in, because they were seriously question where they | :24:10. | :24:12. | |
put their money now. It will have a negative effect in that regard but a | :24:13. | :24:15. | |
positive effect for first-time buyers and the lower end of the | :24:16. | :24:19. | |
market looking to coming who would normally be competing with | :24:20. | :24:23. | |
buy-to-let investors. The Chancellor doesn't talk about the housing | :24:24. | :24:26. | |
crisis, for him it is a crisis of homeownership. His focus is on | :24:27. | :24:29. | |
helping people onto the housing ladder, on homes for sale. But his | :24:30. | :24:34. | |
critics will say, it's all right for these people, but where are the poor | :24:35. | :24:39. | |
going to live? The government has no ambition to expand social housing. | :24:40. | :24:43. | |
In fact, supply is likely to dwindle as developers focus on starter homes | :24:44. | :24:48. | |
for first-time buyers. There are some people for whom homeownership | :24:49. | :24:51. | |
will just not be an option. Those people might look at today's review | :24:52. | :24:56. | |
and think what is in it for me? Housing associations help those | :24:57. | :24:58. | |
people and they want to in the future and we have to find a way to | :24:59. | :25:01. | |
do that. The plan to build more homes has been announced before but | :25:02. | :25:05. | |
what is new today is the Chancellor putting in the money to back the | :25:06. | :25:08. | |
ambition. Mark Easton, BBC News, Knutsford. | :25:09. | :25:12. | |
A wide range of figures and statistics offered by the Chancellor | :25:13. | :25:15. | |
today. We suggested at the start of the programme that borrowing for the | :25:16. | :25:18. | |
next few years would go up but that's not true, I apologise for | :25:19. | :25:20. | |
that. Our economics editor Robert Peston | :25:21. | :25:24. | |
is with me here. Please clarify the situation. | :25:25. | :25:32. | |
The deficit is forecast to be a bit over 70 billion this year, the | :25:33. | :25:36. | |
Office for Budget Responsibility, Government's forecasting operation, | :25:37. | :25:40. | |
expects that to turn into a surplus by 2020, of about ?10 billion. Now, | :25:41. | :25:50. | |
the OBR also said that the policy decisions taken by the Chancellor, | :25:51. | :25:56. | |
that's his U-turn on tax credits, that's making lesser cuts to public | :25:57. | :26:00. | |
services than he originally indicated he would do. But the | :26:01. | :26:05. | |
effect of those policy decisions would have been to push up | :26:06. | :26:11. | |
borrowing. But he has a windfall. The OBR has in effect found ?23 | :26:12. | :26:17. | |
billion down the back of the sofa. Quite a lot of money. Where has the | :26:18. | :26:23. | |
?23 billion come from? From the fact that the OBR thinks that tax | :26:24. | :26:27. | |
revenues from existing taxes will be higher than it thought only back in | :26:28. | :26:31. | |
July and it thinks that the interest of the Government will have to shell | :26:32. | :26:35. | |
out on the enormous ?1.5 trillion of debt will be a bit less. George | :26:36. | :26:41. | |
Osborne would say he's being prudent in the sense that although he has | :26:42. | :26:46. | |
missed ?23 billion win for by 2020 it will be ?27 billion, the number | :26:47. | :26:53. | |
you have heard today, by 2021, he's only spending 19 billion, or only | :26:54. | :26:59. | |
using ?19 billion of the ?23 billion windfall. He would say he's been | :27:00. | :27:04. | |
prudent. However, forecasts, as you and I know, don't always turn into | :27:05. | :27:08. | |
reality. We saw some not very nice borrowing figures only a few days | :27:09. | :27:13. | |
ago. If the OBR is wrong, then actually that money won't be there. | :27:14. | :27:17. | |
But, today, George Osborne was looking very chipper because he's | :27:18. | :27:21. | |
been able to appease his critics who said he was cutting too much by | :27:22. | :27:28. | |
doing nothing in terms of additional taxes, or nothing very significant | :27:29. | :27:31. | |
for people. He is imposing additional taxes as we have heard in | :27:32. | :27:34. | |
this programme, or additional costs on business. Robert Peston, thank | :27:35. | :27:41. | |
you, our economics editor. It is a little cold outside | :27:42. | :27:44. | |
Time for a look at the weather. Here's Jay Wynne. | :27:45. | :27:47. | |
Parliament, it is pretty quiet in the Atlantic. This area of high | :27:48. | :27:58. | |
pressure will not last much longer. By the end of the week low pressure | :27:59. | :28:01. | |
will take over and it will turn wet and windy. A bit of rain out of the | :28:02. | :28:04. | |
cloud across the north and west of the UK and that will fizzle out | :28:05. | :28:07. | |
overnight as the cloud drifts from west to East. Not a solid blanket of | :28:08. | :28:10. | |
cloud but by the end of the night most of us will be in single | :28:11. | :28:12. | |
figures. Where there are breaks in the cloud the lower end of single | :28:13. | :28:15. | |
figures, maybe a touch of frost. Some rain in the North West early | :28:16. | :28:19. | |
on, quite grey in many western areas, low cloud. The next batch of | :28:20. | :28:23. | |
rain will be heavy of Northern Ireland and western Scotland. The | :28:24. | :28:27. | |
western side of England and Wales a low cloud, light rain, may be heavy | :28:28. | :28:30. | |
rain later. Central and eastern areas do well with sunshine in the | :28:31. | :28:33. | |
afternoon across East Anglia and south-east. Relatively mild, double | :28:34. | :28:39. | |
figures for many. Changing picture on Thursday night into Friday, low | :28:40. | :28:42. | |
pressure develops in the Atlantic the weather front heading our way, | :28:43. | :28:46. | |
lots of isobars on the chart, it will be windy and cloudy with light | :28:47. | :28:49. | |
rain and drizzle across England and Wales but the band of rain in the | :28:50. | :28:53. | |
north-west, squally band of rain, gusty winds working in from the | :28:54. | :28:56. | |
Northwest to the south-east. There it goes, clearing from the | :28:57. | :29:00. | |
south-east on Friday night. Behind its temperatures drop away quickly. | :29:01. | :29:04. | |
Friday night into Saturday morning snow showers in the north of the UK | :29:05. | :29:07. | |
and the next weather system heads our way turning increasingly wet and | :29:08. | :29:11. | |
windy on Saturday. Very strong gusts of wind. Back to you, Huw. | :29:12. | :29:17. | |
Many thanks come about is all | :29:18. | :29:18. |