A PACKAGE of measures to boost industry -- which could include tax
changes -- will be announced by Chancellor Norman Lamont when he makes
his Autumn Statement to the Commons next Thursday.
Despite the evident desire of Whitehall sources to cloak the package
in mystery, it seems clear that it will include a number of measures to
fulfil the Prime Minister's commitment to go for growth and jobs.
New ways of involving private money in public projects and some
encouragement to employers -- perhaps by cutting their National
Insurance contributions per employee -- were being discussed by MPs last
night.
The Cabinet, after another two-and-a-half hours on public spending
plans for next year, ended their third session by agreeing that the
final tidying up would have to be done by the traditional method of
bilateral discussions between the Chancellor, his Treasury Chief
Secretary Michael Portillo and individual Ministers.
This did not mean that the round-the-Cabinet-table method had failed,
officials emphasised.
Ministers had succeeded in keeping to the #244.5 billion target they
had set themselves and had resolved the major spending questions with
the greatest political implications.
However, there still appears to be some work to be done on the
announcement of grant support for local authorities which will affect
the level of council tax bills, which will not be presented to the
Commons by the English, Scottish and Welsh Ministers responsible for
some time after the Autumn Statement.
Social Security Secretary Peter Lilley -- who has been defending his
budget which amounts to nearly a third of
total spending -- will make a statement after Mr Lamont. Pensions and
unemployment benefit are expected to be protected, but other benefits
could be frozen, increased by less than the inflation rate or taxed.
It emerged that the additional industry package has not been and will
not be discussed by the Cabinet as a whole but has been put together by
Mr Major, Mr Lamont and the few Ministers affected, who include Mr
Michael Heseltine, President of the Board of Trade, and Mr Lilley.
Despite her protests, the employment training budget of Employment
Secretary Gillian Shephard looks likely to be cut back.
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