The taxman says three and a half million people are due a refund, but two million will have to fork out for underpaid tax.
Gap to widen between rich and poor
The gap between the richest and poorest UK regions is set to widen under the coalition's "winner takes all" economic strategy, a report has claimed.
Coalition politicians have to target funding at the poorest communities, a report claims
The gap between the richest and poorest UK regions is set to widen under the coalition's "winner takes all" economic strategy, a report has claimed.
Government growth policies are geared to rewarding already successful areas and will hasten the decline of deprived towns and cities, according to the Work Foundation think tank. It warned of "serious social and economic" consequences unless the ministers begin to target funding at the poorest communities.
Report author Lizzie Crowley said: "While the Government has committed itself to rebalancing the UK economy, their current hands-off approach is set to have quite the opposite effect. Current policies are likely to exacerbate regional economic differences via a 'winner takes all' approach, with poorer areas left to further decline.
"Doing nothing about deprived communities is not an option. The resulting economic decline is likely to bring about serious social and economic costs for individuals, local areas and national government.
"On the one hand, we need measures that allow more people to benefit from those areas that are more successful. But at the same time, we need targeted measures to ensure that struggling areas are not left without any support."
According to the report, policies such as Business Rates Retention, which allows councils to keep a proportion of the levy instead of handing it over to the Treasury, will contribute to the increasing divide. The Government admits the policy will benefit wealthier authorities but insists it poorer authorities will benefit from top up payments.
It also raises concerns there is no national programme aimed at regenerating the most deprived communities for the first time in 40 years and claims regeneration funding was halved in the last financial year.
The report calls for government to make it easier for more people to benefit from economically successful areas by boosting affordable housing and transport networks.
A Department for Business, Innovation and Skills spokesman said: "The Government's top priority is to achieve strong and sustainable growth that is more evenly balanced across the country and between regions.
"That's why we are investing £2.4 billion via the Regional Growth Fund. Each £1 of public money leverages £6 of private investment in the parts of the country that need it most."
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17Comments
19/09/2012 09:36
The myth of a recession has been created to keep wages down, while the companies are still making profits which are shared between directors & shareholders. Most workers are worse off in real terms than 20 years ago because wages haven't risen in line with prices.
If we are in a recession, how come the only car market thriving is the luxury one, such as Bentley, Jaguar, BMW, & Land Rover,( and they're not all going abroad) while the more affordable brands are struggling? Million pound plus houses are selling very well, while people trying to sell a house in the lower price brackets are struggling to find a buyer?
This has all been brought about by the inequality of the distribution of company profits, with a lot of companies with the attitude " if we can't get people to work for a lower wage here, we'll just take our business abroad".
I'm not a 'loony leftie', i'm actually very right wing, but i am a realist.
19/09/2012 09:15
19/09/2012 11:17
What went really wrong is that the life style of the poor working class person was improving to such an extent that the rich resented us having an equal chance at education and higher wage packets which allowed us to travel the world buy property and advance in life to an extent that those who chose to could begin to infiltrate the realms of the wealthy. As house prices moved in an upward spiral we were then able to leave monies and properties to our kin as do the Rich.
This gave us a louder social voice which was getting too loud for the elite.
Now all this upset the rich as they think they are more deserving of wealth as they feel that they are better than us and more deserving of a higher status than us the plebs who work for them.
So as they fund the Governments and the media in general the so called elite of the world caused this financial crash to put us back in the place they think we should reside in ( the gutter ).
our house prices are crashing, our pay is being decimated and our children's future wealth/work prospects eroded. While throughout this downgrading of the working classes the RICH are seeing their wealth grow at a rate that it will soon be impossible for us working classes to grow above our stations and are being put back in our place.
Just a Thought
19/09/2012 09:49
Hi whats new the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, the thing is we poor people have to pay our taxes I have to pay tax on my very small privet pension the thing is we have no choice but to pay as it is taken, but the rich got all sort of scams for not paying tax and the govement lets them get away with it shame on them, but the goverment has not got the balls to stop them what a sad world we live in
19/09/2012 10:50
This govts top priority is too suppress the poor in favour of the rich why do you think they got a 5% tax cut during a recession, its going the same way as it did in 1920s which ended in ww2, i wonder how many mps would get called up if it did happen, no doubt they would be the first to bleat about their human rights. We need to clear out these fools in power ALL OF THEM then start again, maybe we should use lie detectors in the house of commons???
19/09/2012 10:58
19/09/2012 12:32
19/09/2012 12:31
Tell us something we don't already know, it has been the case since Thatcher brought in privatisation to increase competition? The Competition, must be to see which companies can rip off the people the longest and get away with it because the government bodies set up to regulate, ie OFCOM, OFWAT, OFGEN and many more seem to take years to investigate then react and ultimately do nothing!
We Nedd a REVOLUTION REVOLUTION REVOLUTION!
19/09/2012 09:11
19/09/2012 12:37
19/09/2012 13:23
19/09/2012 13:05
they are heading for another riot or a country wide strike can't they see what they are doing are they so blind if you look at the country everyone is quiet they are boiling up ready to take action come on Cameron if you have the balls to have an election do it see how many votes you get nobody likes you...your ok with your 30+ millions...you don't care about anyone go leave the country to someone who will care....
19/09/2012 10:58
19/09/2012 11:09
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