Brown pledges on business tax
Gordon Brown has today attempted to woo back the business vote by promising cuts in capital gains tax in his next Budget.
The Chancellor, reacting to accusations that Labour had become anti-business, took the opportunity to spell out in today’s Times how he would cut CGT on business assets to 20% in the first year and 10% after two years.
Dismissing those that said the money should be spent on health and public services, Brown said: ‘Encouraging and democratising wealth creation is both the essential driver of a higher standard of living and surest long-term guarantee of better public services for all.’
He also made clear his commitment to the public private partnership policy, arguing that the government had moved ‘beyond the sterile conflict that posed private against public’.
Brown will announce his Budget on 17 April – the latest it will have been for many years.
The changes to CGT were trailed in Brown’s pre-Budget report, announced last November.