Following the Chancellor’s 50-minute Autumn Statemnt this morning, Balls said: “The average person is £1,600 worse off than when they [the Coalition] came into power in 2010.”
“After the slowest recovery in over 100 years and from a chancellor and a Prime Minister who said we are all in this together then gave a tax cut to millionaires,” he added.
“Working people are not better off under the Tories, they are worse off,” he said.
On mortgages and housing, challenger banks Aldermore and Virgin Money confirmed they will be launching Help to Buy 2 schemes this month. Aldermore is set to offer a remortgage product as part of its plans.
The government also announced plans to charge non-UK residents Capital Gains Tax on residential property sales from April 2015.
Osborne said today while overseas investment in residential property is welcome, non-UK residents selling properties in the UK must pay a levy on any gains.
The Chancellor also raised GDP expectations for 2013 to 1.4%, well above the 0.6% predicted by the Office of Budget Responsibility in March.
