The backdrop to the budget remained tough. The amount we are spending as a country more than we raise is half what it was in 2010. However this is still £90bn a year and the debt that successive Governments have wracked up is now equivalent to 80 per cent of our total national output – it was 30 percent.
Unfortunately this does matter: future generations will have to pay interest and ultimately pay off the debts that we create.
However one of the reasons why the Budget was well received was that George Osborne showed that he was not going to allow the successful elimination of the deficit to be the “be all and end all”, there is much more he wants to achieve.
I was delighted to see the proposals on increasing low pay – a principle I have long supported and said so in the election campaign. I believe this is right in itself but I also believe that we have to move beyond our current system in which taxpayers, through tax credits, subsidise employment. This system is creating a hugely expensive “money go round” while underpricing the work people do. It can also provide a disincentive for getting people into certain jobs.
The Chancellor has also managed to increase spending on the NHS: providing all the money it is asking for – a significant increase - to implement its 5 year plan.
Speaking on the Budget this week I specifically raised this in the context of increased demands on the NHS in Horsham. I followed this up with a meeting with the Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt. The national demands on the NHS are huge – an extra one million older people to look after this parliament alone. However I am determined that we secure the resources we need in the coming years.