Invest in getting people back into work - TUC

As speculation mounts that tomorrow’s Con Dem budget will see concessions on fuel and air passenger taxes but no reversal on austerity measures, the TUC has called on the Government ‘to use the budget to boost jobs through well-funded employment schemes and encourage growth through a green investment bank and an ambitious industrial strategy’: http://www.tuc.org.uk/economy/tuc-19346-f0.cfm

In its budget submission the TUC has set out a range of economic measures to boost economic recovery:

• a green investment bank - one that can borrow as well use available funds - to support low-carbon business start ups, to be operational within 12 months,•a modern industrial strategy to examine investment in key industries such as high value manufacturing and science,

• tougher action on tax avoidance and a Robin Hood Tax on financial transactions that could raise tens of billions a year,

• investment in high-quality employment programmes, including the re-instatement of the Future Jobs Fund, and

• a reversal of the government's damaging VAT rise and a commitment to ensure that, as a minimum, all low paid local government workers receive their promised £250 pay rise.