The government are implementing a key Liberal Democrat manifesto pledge and changing the tax system to make it fairer, by lifting the poorest workers out of Income Tax altogether and cutting taxes for most people.

This April 880,000 workers will stop paying Income Tax when the lower threshold is raised from £6,475 to 7,475.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies says the tax changes will mean the richest tenth will lose around 3% more of their income and that the main winners from the 2011 tax changes will be lone parents who are not working, and low-to-middle income households.

The IFS report concluded that:

·         The main winners from the 2011 tax changes will be lone parents who are not working, and low-to-middle income households

·         For example a family with two children and one person earning £20k will be £530 better off

·         Those earning up to about £42.5k a year (including tax credit) will also be better off owing to the changes being introduced in April

·         The biggest losers are the very richest households owing to restrictions on the amount that can be contributed to a private pension. They have also been affected by the 50% income tax rate on earnings above £150,000 and withdrawal of the income tax personal allowance above £100,000

While Salford City Council started to publish a breakdown of their expenditure (more on this later), as per the coalition’s new initiative on transparent government, a council house rent rise three times the rate of inflation went largely un-noticed.

Salix Homes tenants will be faced with rent rises of around £4 per week, which may not sound much – but if you are a minimum wage worker or struggling to survive on benefits, it’s a significant rise.

The rent rise is doubly annoying when you look at how Salford Council spends your money – they bleat about government cuts, but the shear amount of wastage on ice rinks, proms in the park, sponsoring the BBC Philharmonic, management and consultancy fees has ended up costing the poorest people in our city a collosal amount in rent rises.

Perhaps then, it would be no surprise to learn that Salford Council spends more on management fees to Salix Homes (£12.3m) than it does on repairs of council homes managed by Salix (£11.6m). This, perhaps, explains why Salford Council predicts that by next year 60% of it’s council homes will not meet the Decent Homes Standard. According to the Government, ‘A decent home is one which is wind and weather tight, warm and has modern facilities.’  That’s around 5,500 homes that will not meet these basic of standards.

Our Labour-led Salford Council has it’s priorities wrong and nothing I have seen in 2011 is leading me to believe they are likely to change their ways. Times are tough and the council should not be wasting our money on frivolous projects (such as spending £750,000 moving 2 blue cranes up the road) and all the others I mentioned above.

It’s time for a change on Salford City Council.

So much has been written about Tuition Fees of late, it’s not surprising this bit of good news for pensioners hasn’t made it to any mainstream media. The state pension will rise for single people from next April, it was announced today.

Liberal Democrat Pensions Minister Steve Webb said the pension for a single person will rise by £4.50 to £102.15 a week.

Single people on the pensions credit would receive an above-earnings increase to their minimum guarantee of £4.75 to take their weekly income to £137.35.

For couples, the increase on their minimum guarantee would be £7.30, taking their new total to £209.70 a week, Steve Webb said in a Commons statement.

Steve Webb said the Government believed it was “right” to move to the consumer price index (CPI) for uprating additional state pensions, public and private pensions and social security benefits.

But he conceded: “I do acknowledge that over the long-term the CPI tends to rise more slowly than the RPI but the question of course is not which is the higher or lower number, it is which is the most appropriate way to track and measure the changes in average prices.

Mr Webb had earlier told MPs: “At a time when the nations’ finances are under severe pressure, this Government will be spending an extra £4.3 billion in 2011/12 to ensure that people are protected against cost of living increases.”

I was honoured to be invited to talk this morning on Gaydio, Manchester’s first radio station for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. Gaydio became the UK’s first full time LGBT FM radio service in June of this year.

It was a delight to talk about my involvement over the past few years in the Liberal Democrats and I was joined by the Secretary of DELGA Hollie Matthies who talked with passion and authority about a policy being put forward on Tuesday at the Lib Dem Conference in Liverpool entitled ‘Marriage without Borders’.

DELGA are the Lib Dem LGBT body and they have been at the forefront of LGBT equality for decades and have the best record in Parliament of any political party on LGBT equality issues. Prior to the last three general elections DELGA issued seperate LGBT manifestos and on each occasion these were all accepted into the full party’s election manifestos.

As such, DELGA are encouraged to put forward motions at our party conferences, and new St. Austell & Newquay MP Steve Gilbert will be introducing the Marriage without Borders motion, which argues that no matter what gender or sexuality someone is, marriage and civil partnerships should be available to all.

This motion comes during the week that I am celebrating the 10th anniversary of my marriage to the gorgeous and intelligent Kat Middleton, so it seems so wrong and unfair that while I can enjoy the benefits of marriage, other couples cannot simply because they identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transexual/transgender.

Equally, there are many mixed gender couples who do not wish to marry in a church, but would like the commitment of a civil partnership – the fact they cannot enter into civil partnerships is also wrong. Fortunately, as Liberal Democrats, fairness is at the heart of everything we do and I am 100% convinced DELGA’s motion will be approved and we can put this to government.

It’s worth pointing out that the motion is called Marriage without Borders because those who get married (no matter what their beliefs, gender or sexual orientation) should have their marriage recognised throughout the world. It’s a sad fact that many countries do not recognise UK civil partnerships and this can affect the right to work in, live in or even visit foreign countries.

The hour seemed to wizz by, but I am grateful to Gaydio and the host of the morning show, Andrew Edwards, for allowing me the opportunity to respond to the TUC’s disappointing comments about government cuts that may target LBGT groups. I’m unsure why the TUC seems to think the coalition might target LBGT groups, as I am convinced this is simply not the case. Savings need to be made across the whole of government spending and until the details of the comprehensive spending review are revealed, we do not know what they will be. Scaremongering and idle speculation is unhelpful, but then I expect nothing less from an organisation aligned with Labour, the party that left the coalition with a huge mess to clear up.

I have been spending the last month following hot on the heels of the Heatseeker van (no pun intended!) that has been driving around the streets of Salford, detecting heat-loss from poorly insulated homes in the area. With the full blessing of Salford City Council, Heatseekers is a new scheme aimed at homeowners and private tenants – with the intention of ensuring that homes are kept warm this winter.

The results have been staggering – we’ve only contacted a few hundred homeowners and private residents so far, but in the majority of cases loft insulation has either been non-existent or well under the governments current recommended level. Further, I was surprised to find many homes in Salford without cavity wall insulation (which could provide a potential saving of up to £160 per year on your energy bills alone).

Many Salfordians qualify for free loft & cavity wall insulation (those over 60 years of age or anyone on certain types of benefits), but everyone else can take advantage of heavily-subsidised prices – which will save you money and arrest the release of up to 1 tonne of CO2 per year.

We’re only a small team and Salford is a big area, so if you haven’t been contacted by the Heatseekers team yet, and want to take advantage of the scheme while it is still running, simply call Salford City Council’s hotline on 0845 390 9390,  open from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

Click here for press release from Salford City Council.