Budget to help poorer families - Osborne

LONDON (Reuters)

Chancellor George Osborne said he would use his 2012 budget to help those at the bottom of the earnings ladder, hinting he could go further in lifting more people out of payingincome tax.

Osborne also said on Sunday the euro zone crisis and high oil prices posed a threat to the global economy.

"My priority is to help low and middle earners. That is where the bulk of the effort in the budget is going to be," he said on BBC television. "We want to see real and substantial progress on lifting low income people out of tax."

Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne

Osborne, under pressure to revive a stagnant economy with rising unemployment and a squeeze on household incomes, was expected to present a neutral budget on Wednesday, sticking to a tough austerity plan which critics say has stalled Britain's recovery from the global financial crisis.

Government officials have indicated economic forecasts for growth and government borrowing which underpin the budget will remain broadly in line with Osborne's so-called autumn statement in November, when the growth outlook was revised sharply lower.

Any effort to accelerate progress in raising the income tax threshold towards or above a 10,000 pound ($16,000) goal agreed between Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in the coalition government could allow Osborne to removed a 50 percent income tax rate on high earners.

TAX CRACKDOWN

Osborne, singling out a tax paid on house purchases, said he would launch a crackdown on tax avoidance - an area often cited by governments for savings but treated with scepticism by economists.

"People have had their warning - they have got to pay stamp duty on the homes they live in," he said. "And we are going to deal with that in a very aggressive way."

With three years still to go before the next election - time for the economy to improve before voters have their say - Osborne's team have calculated they do not need to panic yet or abandon their austerity plan.

Headwinds remain - such as high oil prices and problems in the euro zone - threatening Britain's economy and, possibly, Osborne's strategy.

"Just because the European Central Bank is putting a lot of money into the euro zone does not mean some of the fundamental problems have been resolved and that remains a major risk to the UK and the rest of the world," he said.

The government will extend store trading hours on Sundays during the 2012 Olympics in an effort to capitalise on a larger than usual influx of tourists over the summer, hoping to give the economy a further nudge in the right direction.

The opposition Labour's finance spokesman Ed Balls, also speaking on the BBC, said the government should act immediately to soften its austerity stance to boost growth.

"On the big judgments - going too far too fast, the top rate of tax, do we need action now on jobs - the arguments we have made are in line with public opinion," Balls said.

($1 = 0.6312 pound)

PM And Obama: World Counts On UK-US Alliance

David Cameron and Barack Obama have pledged to keep up the "essential relationship" between Britain and America, as the Prime Minister prepares to head to Washington for talks with the president.

Mr Cameron - accompanied by his wife Samantha, Foreign Secretary William Hague and Chancellor George Osborne - will arrive in Washington today for a two-day official visit.

The trip is one level below a full state visit, which only the Queen as Britain's head of state is entitled to in America.

The Camerons have been invited by Mr Obama following the president's visit to the UK in May last year.

The two leaders used a joint article in today's Washington Post to stress the warmth of trans-Atlantic relations.

"The alliance between the United States and Great Britain is a partnership of the heart, bound by the history, traditions and values we share," they wrote.

"But what makes our relationship special - a unique and essential asset for our nations and the world - is that we join hands across so many endeavours.

"Put simply, we count on each other and the world counts on our alliance."

The visit will include an official ceremonial welcome, including a 19-gun salute, a full state dinner and an unusual flying visit to a basketball tournament in Ohio .

Mr Obama will be whisking the Prime Minister to Dayton Ohio in Air Force One to view the March Madness championships of the college basketball season .

Mrs Cameron will be hosted by America's First Lady Michelle Obama on a series of visits to schools, helping promote her drive to prevent childhood obesity.

Away from the ceremony and symbolism, the agenda will be dominated by foreign policy and economic issues.

The world's failure to prevent the Syrian regime butchering its own people will be one issue the two leaders will need to address.

Events in Afghanistan have also made for a sombre backdrop.

The killing of 16 Afghan civilians by a US soldier is complicating efforts to plan for Nato's withdrawal from the country.

There is also mounting concern in Washington about Iran's nuclear programme and the possibility Israel may launch a unilateral operation to strike its facilities with potentially devastating consequences.

Mr Obama will be grateful for any British help in containing both the Iranian nuclear threat and the possibility of Israel taking matters into its own hands.

Both leaders will seek to exploit the political benefits of the visit.

PM And Obama: World
Counts On UK-US Alliance 

Mr Obama can profit from arriving in a key election battleground state with a world leader on his wing when the two land in Ohio.

With Europe in serious economic and political trouble, Mr Cameron can highlight his party's assiduous cultivation of a more powerful ally on this side of the Atlantic and stress the economic benefits that brings in these troubled times.

The two men are thought to have a business-like relationship, speaking to each when necessary but avoiding the controversial cosiness Tony Blair shared with George Bush.

But they have plenty in common and a friendship that this visit is likely to deepen.

Website begins sex attack campaign

A parenting website has launched a campaign to support sex attack victims as one in 10 women responding to its poll said they had been raped.

The survey of 1,600 women by Mumsnet found a tenth of those who responded had been raped and a third had been sexually assaulted.

But more than four in five of the victims did not report the attack to police due to concerns over low conviction rates, embarrassment and shame, the figures showed.

A total of 1,609 women chose to complete the survey online between February and March.

One in 10 women responding to a
Mumsnet poll said they had been raped

Launching the group's We Believe You campaign, co-founder Justine Roberts said society was less sympathetic to victims than it should be.

"We simply shouldn't accept that we live in a country where one in 10 women are raped and over one third sexually assaulted," she said.

"Things are made worse by the feeling among many women that they can't talk about these crimes for fear of being treated unsympathetically, denying them access to practical and emotional support when they need it most.

"The message from the men and women on Mumsnet is clear: we believe you - and we want others in society to start believing you too."

A total of 1,609 women chose to complete the survey by the Mumsnet Insight team online between February and March.

Alarm At 'Soaring Cost' Of London Olympics

MPs have expressed concern the London Olympics will go way over its £9.3bn budget - and said it was "staggering" the initial estimates about security costs were so wrong.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has also raised doubts about the Games' legacy and warned the Olympic Stadium in Stratford must not become a white elephant.

The Government says it is confident London 2012 will come in under budget.

PAC chair Margaret Hodge said: "The venues and infrastructure of the London Olympic Games are on track to be delivered on time and within budget.

"However, the £9.3bn public sector funding package is close to being used up and we are concerned about whether the running of the Games will be held within budget.

"Taking into account costs outside the package, the full cost to the public of the Games and legacy projects is already heading for around £11bn."

Mrs Hodge said the committee was particularly concerned about "significant" increases in the security bill.

Games organiser Locog 's original estimate for the number of security guards in and around the Olympic venues was 10,000 - a "finger in the air" figure, according to the PAC report.

The Government announced in December the number had more than doubled to 23,700, with security costs rising from £282m to £553m.

"Locog itself now has almost no contingency left to meet further costs, even though it has done well in its revenue generation," says the report.

On legacy, the PAC report raises concerns over sports participation targets and the future of the Olympic stadium after a deal for West Ham United Football Club to take it over was scrapped.

Alarm At 'Soaring Cost' Of London Olympics

The report states that with only 109,000 new people regularly involved in sport against the original 1m target - which the Coalition chose not to adopt.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has rejected the figure of £11bn as being the true cost of the Games and defended the legacy aims.

A DCMS spokesman said: "With 140 days to go until the Olympic Games, we are on time and under budget, with over £500m worth of uncommitted contingency remaining.

"As we told the PAC in December we do not recognise the figure of £11bn. We have always been transparent about what is included in the £9.3bn.

"The cost of purchasing the Olympic Park land will ultimately come back to the public purse through the resale of the land after the Games and was therefore not included.

"Funding for the legacy programmes, that the PAC refer to, comes from existing business-as-usual budgets and we have been clear about this. These are for projects designed to capitalise on hosting London 2012 but are not an additional Olympic cost."

The DCMS said the legacy included regenerating part of east London and that tenants have been secured for six out of eight venues on the Olympic Park.

Stalking law plans 'half-hearted'

David Cameron's plans to bring in a new law of stalking will leave the police needing to prove a fear of violence and will not solve the problems with the current system, Labour has said.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the plans risked being "half-hearted and over-complicated" and would not give victims the protection they needed.

Her criticism came after the Prime Minister told victims at a Downing Street reception to mark International Women's Day that the Government was determined to ensure "justice is done".

But Labour said bringing in two new offences in England and Wales - stalking, and stalking where there is a fear of violence - would leave police and prosecutors with the same problems.

Proving a fear of violence "has been very hard to make work in practice and has meant too many serious cases fell through the net", Ms Cooper said.

Tougher laws have been
announced to protect victims of stalking

"Under the government's proposals there is a serious risk that low sentencing will continue and many persistent stalkers could still be out of prison within weeks free to continue their behaviour. The Government must not waste time with half-hearted measures which deny victims the protection they need."

She called for a system based on the Scottish model instead, saying the Government should back a Labour amendment to the Protection of Freedoms Bill on the issue in the House of Lords on Monday.

But Mr Cameron said the Government was explicitly criminalising stalking, which he said "makes life a living hell for victims", to "show beyond doubt that stalking is a crime".

Home Secretary Theresa May added: "Stalking is an issue which affects many lives, often in devastating ways. That is why we are taking it seriously and introducing these new offences. Offenders need to know that they will be brought to justice for making others' lives a misery."

Police will also be given new powers of entry to investigate stalking offences, the Home Office said. At the moment, officers only have a right of entry in respect of conduct that puts people in fear of violence.

©Press Association 2012

UK 'Unprepared' For Key Security Threats

The UK is unprepared for key threats to national security, according to a committee of Lords and MPs.

In its first report published today, the National Security Strategy (NSS) committee says key oversights include a lack of a long-term strategy over Afghanistan.

It questions why Afghanistan is not featured as part of our National Security Risk Assessment.

The committee's chair Margaret Beckett told Sky News: "The committee was concerned from the beginning that Afghanistan didn't feature in the National Security Strategy, and we were told that was because it was a current issue and the National Security Strategy was for the longer term.

• UK 'Unprepared' For Key Security Threats

"But the committee felt quite strongly that even though a date is set for the withdrawal of British troops, that doesn't mean it will cease to be a matter of national security."

The committee, which includes the former head of MI5, Baroness Manningham-Buller, also suggests a strategy to deal with the eurozone crisis is needed as "a matter of urgency".

It says the collapse of the single currency is "a plausible scenario" which could lead to "domestic and social unrest" as well as a surge of economic migrants.

As for the Arab Spring, the committee suggested the Government has been side-tracked by short-term crisis management dealing with issues like Libya and losing focus on risks over the horizon.

Mrs Beckett said: "The faster the world changes, the more necessary it is not to lose that capacity for long-term thinking. Otherwise you are just stumbling from one crisis to another without regard for where you are trying to get in the long-term. 

"Because the Government hasn't really thought through and identified the long-term goals, when something unexpected comes up like the Arab Spring, like Libya, they don't have a proper context that guides the choices."

The NSS committee also suggested the Government "reflect deeply on its defence partnership with the US".

With Washington focusing away from Europe, the committee said: "It raises fundamental questions if our pre-eminent defence and security relationship is with an ally who has interests which are increasingly divergent from our own.

"The Government needs to decide if the UK will continue to be as involved in US military action as we have in the past if the US focuses on Asia Pacific."

A UK Government spokesman said: "A strategy for Britain's long-term security and prosperity is at the heart of the Government's approach to foreign policy.

"We remain vigilant and regularly take stock of the changing global environment and threats to our security, as well as opportunities for our country to make the most of all its assets and advantages in a networked world."

The NSS committee says the UK's security strategy needs to be subject to a much wider public debate.

Remploy closures risk to 1,700 jobs

Remploy is proposing to close 36 of its 54 factories, with potential compulsory redundancies of more than 1,700 disabled workers.

Minister for disabled people Maria Miller said the Remploy board was proposing to close the sites by the end of the year because they were unlikely to achieve independent financial viability.

She said the £320 million budget for disability employment has been protected, adding that the money will be spent more effectively.

Minister for disabled people Maria Miller said Remploy
was proposing to close 36 factories by the end of 2012

In a written ministerial statement responding to a Government-commissioned review into disability employment, Ms Miller said savings from policy changes being announced will be used on "proven employment programmes" to benefit "many more" disabled people.

The minister said she had assessed "very carefully" the needs of Remploy workers, as well as the 6.9 million disabled people of working age who could benefit from greater specialist employment support.

She said: "The Government will reduce its current subsidy to Remploy from the beginning of the new financial year so that we cease funding factories which make significant losses year after year and restrict funding to those factories which might have a prospect of a viable future without Government subsidy."

Remploy will shortly begin consulting with unions on the proposed closure of the 36 factories and on the potential compulsory redundancy of 1,752 people at the sites, most of them disabled workers, she said.

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