Election 2010: Getting the economy moving again in Stourbridge and the West Midlands

We have seen dramatic changes to the world economy in the last 18 months due to the global credit crunch. It has affected every region, city and town including Stourbridge and the West Midlands.

However, the UK economy has not just been affected by the global slowdown, it has been damaged by the economic incompetence of Labour. Labour started borrowing back in 2001. They have borrowed every year since then, even during the boom years when there was no need.

We cannot go on spending more than we are earning as a country.

Gordon Brown has presided over the doubling of our national debt, record youth unemployment (one in five young people are not in work or training, or education event) and the widening of the gap between rich and poor.

I believe we need a government that is supportive, and not hostile, to private enterprise. Whilst Labour came to power in 1997 claiming to be the party of business, it has increasingly changed its stripes.

Stourbridge has a thriving business community that must be supported. As someone that set up and ran a business for many years, if I am elected on Thursday I would place supporting jobs and the economy at the heart of all I do as an MP.

We are the only party that isn’t just talking about support for businesses; we have an action plan to do so that will start by:

• Stopping most of Labour’s jobs tax (proposed increase in National Insurance to take effect in 2011).
• Cutting corporation tax for small businesses to 20 percent.
• Exempting all new businesses in the first two years of a Conservative government from National Insurance on the first 10 employees in the first year.
• Introducing Ken Clarke’s ‘one in one out’ rule for new regulation so that any new regulation can’t be introduced unless the burden is reduced elsewhere.
• All regulations will have an end point beyond which their continued existence will have to be justified – this will also apply to Quangos.
• Creating 400,000 new apprenticeships and training places over two years.
• Foster improvements to the teaching of the sciences and support scientific research, encourage more young people to study science and engineering at university

These are just some of the things we will do to support businesses.

A healthy society requires a healthy economy and we will do everything we can to support businesses create wealth, jobs and prosperity both in Stourbridge and the country.