Offord backs tax cuts plan with online calculator

Malcolm Offord has promised to cut income tax (Main pic: Terry Murden)

Taxpayers can access an online calculator to see how much they could save under Reform UK’s commitment to cut income tax.

The calculator includes pre-set options for frontline workers and public service professionals, including police officers, NHS domestic and nursing staff, doctors, bus drivers, and teachers.

It is designed to clearly show how much money Reform’s plans could put back into people’s pockets.

Reform UK says someone earning an average Scottish salary of £31,000 will save £159 in the year after its first budget and then £527 by the end of the parliament in five years.

A newly-qualified nurse on £34,500 would be better off by £230 in the first year of a Reform Government and £667 by 2031. A teacher starting out in their career, will be £262 better off under a Reform Government and £734 by 2031.

A spokesperson from Reform UK Scotland said: “This is only the beginning. We want everyone who gets up in the morning and goes to work to reap the rewards of their hard graft.

“To incentivise talented people to live and work in Scotland, tax is the single most important lever that we can pull.

“By using this tax calculator, they can easily enter their income to find out how much they will save with our services.

Pay-wage-slip
Workers can use the calculator to see how much tax they will save

“We want to boost morale and reignite ambition in people. Reform will make sure Scotland becomes the most prosperous part of the UK and this is only the start.”

In his inaugural speech last month as Reform UK’s Scottish leader, Malcolm Offord said that if elected First Minister he would revert to three income tax bands in line with the rest of the UK.

He would cut 1p from each band with an objective of it being 3p below each band in the first five years of a Reform UK government in Scotland.

“This immediate alignment will cost £1.2 billion and every 1p cut thereafter will cost £850m each,” he said.

“Therefore, the immediate cost will be £2bn which will be paid for by re-allocation of the £9bn
currently spent on highly dubious environmental protection, economic development and 132 unaccountable quangos.”

He said the party would “invest in our people and they will pay us back many times over”.

The party is expected to unveil its manifesto early next month, possibly next week.

Tice pledges new Sovereign Wealth Fund

Richard Tice, the party’s spokeman on business, trade and energy, has pledged to create a new “British Sovereign Wealth Fund” using local government pension schemes.

In his first policy statement Mr Tice has vowed to wrap various arms of government, including housing and energy, into one office that focuses on growth, job creation and cutting bills. 

He will tell an audience of Reform supporters in Birmingham today that the party would scrap regulation, take a more aggressive approach on China, prioritise cheap energy and create a fund to invest in UK firms. 

Richard Tice in Aberdeen
Richard Tice: creating a “joined up office”

He is expected to say: “This new Great Office of State covering Business, Trade & Energy – including housing – will be a joined up, comprehensive department including the British Sovereign Fund. 

“Speed and action will be the order of the day. It will be a first for the UK and is the sort of coordinated, strategic, long term structure that has served other entrepreneurial high growth nations so well.”

The set of policy commitments come after Robert Jenrick, the ‘shadow chancellor’, said Reform would prioritise fiscal prudence and maintain the independence of the Bank of England. 

Mr Tice has shifted his focus from greater interference with the Bank of England and the Office for Budget Responsibility by concentrating on deregulation, trade, energy and state investment. 


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