Lib Dems unveil spending plans
By Alex Stevenson
A boost for childcare funding and scrapping higher education fees are among the spending priorities announced by the Liberal Democrats today.
Party leader Nick Clegg said the proposals centred around Lib Dems’ commitment to social mobility and were a “direct challenge” to Gordon Brown’s “arrogant” dismissal of public spending criticisms.
Today’s funding proposals are the first indication of where much of the £20 billion of spending savings the party agreed on during its autumn conference will be placed.
In total it identified £6.7 billion of government spending which will be reallocated to Liberal priorities. The largest single cut is a £3.2 billion reduction in tax credits for those on above-average incomes, taking around 2.5 million people above the average national income out of the current tax credit system.
Other planned savings, previously billed as “inefficiencies”, include the abolition of the child trust fund, scrapping plans to raise the leaving age to 18 and cutting the national road building programme by 90 per cent.
Mr Clegg said the public would not be “tolerant” at the next election of parties who are not “spelling out the price tags” for their spending plans.
He admitted that “tough choices” had to be made but sought to point out the benefits expected from his party’s new priorities.
These include 20 hours per week of free childcare for every child over 18 months, costing £2.4 billion; an additional £2.5 billion of spending on the pupil premium to cut infant class sizes to 15; and further spending on adult training, community learning programmes and reversing second-degree funding cuts, together worth around £620 million.
Government spending has risen from around £300 billion in 1997 to over £600 billion today. The Lib Dems hope to reallocate around three per cent of the total under the current plans.
At the 2008 autumn conference in Bournemouth Lib Dems faced a major debate about whether to pass the bulk of the £20 billion savings on to the taxpayer in the form of tax cuts or spend it elsewhere.
Mr Clegg dismissed the suggestion this debate might be repeated in Harrogate, describing the Bournemouth crisis as “ideological”. But he admitted “we are having to make tough choices”.
A separate self-financing taxation review, which hopes to achieve a 4p cut for those on middle and lower incomes, is ongoing.
The Harrogate conference takes place from Friday March 6th to Sunday March 8th.
