At Thursday’s Sefton Council meeting at Bootle Town Hall, Conservative Leader, Mike Prendergast, is calling on all Sefton councillors to support calls for the cancellation of the proposed increases to National Insurance.
Across Sefton, there are around 8,000 businesses, employing tens of thousands of people across the borough. The most recent figures show almost 15,000 people are also classed as self-employed with a higher than average proportion in Sefton compared to the rest of the North West.
All of these people are going to be impacted by hikes to Employer’s National Insurance contributions.
Mike Prendergast said, “Employers across Sefton are going to be hammered in April when these tax rises come into effect. It’s going to lead to job losses, fewer jobs being created, lower salary increases and higher prices for goods and services.”
“It’s also going to increase the cost to the council of providing services and organisations like hospices and nurseries, vital services often run outside the public sector, may no longer be viable.”
“As with the cuts to Winter Fuel Allowance; none of this was mentioned during the General Election campaign and many people, quite simply, feel duped.”
“It’s an anti-growth policy and will do more harm than good. We know that a lot of Sefton Labour councillors are unhappy with their own party and the way they are handling being in government; punishing pensioners and hammering small businesses to name just two issues.”
“Our job as councillors is to stand up for our local communities, local residents and local businesses. We have some fantastic businesses across Sefton across a huge range of industries, the gateway to the world with the docks and thousands of entrepreneurial people who have struck out on their own, generating wealth and opportunity.“
“We should support them and make it clear to Labour in London that we think increasing Employer’s National Insurance won’t grow the economy and, despite the verbal gymnastics some Labour ministers have engaged in, is a tax on working people.”
“All of the evidence indicates this policy is going to be a disaster and, locally at least, we should all make it clear that central government should reconsider before it’s too late.”
