Shadow Chancellor vows a lighter tax system and careful regulation
Shadow Chancellor George Osborne has vowed to recognise the “special needs” of the insurance industry if the Tories are elected into power.
Osborne told the ABI Biennal Conference on Tuesday insurers he would simplify the UK’s punishing tax regime which has forced insurers to redomicile.
On regulation, he said the Treasury had been ‘absent’ when it had come to helping the insurers cope with European regulation, such as Solvency II, and a Conservative Government would work much more closely with the industry.
He also revealed the Conservatives are developing plans to create an independent office for Budget responsibility which will take over responsibility from the Chancellor for publishing Budget forecasts, ensuring Government finances do not run out of control.
If they won the next general election, the Tories would firstly reduce the country’s ballooning budget defecit, move from a credit-driven economy to a savings and investment model, and refocus the city’s culture of short-term remuneration, Osborne said.
“We can emerge from it with a stronger and more geographically-based economy where more people are sharing in the economic success of the country”, he said. “You cannot build lasting prosperity on a mountain of debt”.
ABI chairman Archie Kane backed Osborne by calling for a reform of the Government’s tax regime.
He said: “We in the insurance industry have been hit by numerous unexpected changes to the way in which the industry has been taxed.”
