EU's poorest crowd British job market

SEVEN TIMES as many migrants from the poorest countries in Europe registered to work in Britain last year after rules were relaxed.

Official figures showed 187,370 Romanians and Bulgarians were given National Insurance numbers over the course of 2014, up from 27,700 during the previous year.

This represented a 576 per cent increase in a year in the numbers of migrants from the two most deprived countries in the European Union who registered to work or receive state benefits.

Romanians and Bulgarians now make up a quarter of all new NI numbers allocated to foreigners, the Department for Work and Pensions said.

Experts said the figures suggested that many had been in Britain for months or even years, working illegally “in the shadows”. Jobs that pay cashin-hand, such as construction or cleaning, will have enabled them to support themselves while not paying full taxes, it was claimed.

The figures prompted warnings that the sudden increase in the number of Eastern Europeans registering for work could make it harder for British people to find jobs.

A NI number is a legal requirement for anyone wanting to work as an employee, or to claim state benefits and tax credits. The dramatic rise followed the lifting of restrictions on the kinds of work Romanians and Bulgarians could do in Britain on January 1, 2014.

Before then, under “transitional” rules introduced when Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007, migrants from these two countries could only work in the UK in seasonal

THE CONSERVATIVES will cut tax on company profits under plans to make Britain the best place in the world to run a business, Matthew Hancock, the enterprise minister, has said.

Ten days before the Coalition’s final Budget before the election, Mr Hancock, who is a close ally of George Osborne, hinted heavily that current plans to reduce corporation tax would be extended. In an interview with The

Sunday Telegraph, the Cabinet minister described Labour as “the butchers of business” and warned that Ed Miliband would wreck the recovery by putting up taxes on family homes and successful entrepreneurs, threatening thousands of jobs.

He confirmed that Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats are blocking Tory plans for a radical Budget on March 18, which will be the last major act of the Coalition Government before the general election.

If the Tories win a majority in May, Mr Hancock would be in line to become business secretary.

With less than nine weeks until the general election, he set out the Conservatives’ ambition to cut tax further for businesses.

“We are in the middle of writing the manifesto but we have a clear goal of making Britain the best place in the world to start and grow a business,” he said.

“It is about an attitude as much as anything,” the West Suffolk MP said during a visit to businesses in Hampshire. “We have made a lot of progress and corporation tax is coming down again in April [when the main rate will fall from 21 to 20 per cent].

“We have the lowest corporation tax in the G20. But we are still not as low as some of our near neighbours like Ireland.”

In Ireland, corporation tax on business profits has been set at 12.5 per cent, far lower than Britain. Any election pledge or Budget announcement cutting UK tax rates to close to this level would delight business leaders as well as grassroots Tories.

“I want to reduce the tax burden on businesses, not least because we have seen that helping the economy to grow has a big positive impact on people’s job security and opportunities in life.”

He said he could not be too specific because “we have got a Budget in 10 days”.

However, he added: “Labour wants to put up corporation tax, we want to reduce it because we think it shows that Britain is open for business.”

Labour has already promised to introduce a new tax on homes worth more than £2million, and would bring back the 50p top rate of income tax for high earners.

“Everywhere you look, Labour wants to put a new tax on,” Mr Hancock said. “They want to tax success, whether that’s a home or a good job. We want to back success.”

After the boss of Boots, Stefano Pessina, warned in The Sunday Telegraph earlier this year that Labour would be a “catastrophe” for Britain if the party won power, Mr Miliband launched an astonishing counter-attack which left business leaders and former Labour donors alarmed.

Mr Hancock criticised the Labour’s response as “crass”.

“The enterprise culture is completely undermined if senior politicians attack businesses and attack business leaders,” he said. “Based on their history and on their tone you can see that Labour are the butchers of business.”

The Conservatives have also promised to cut taxes for working people.

If re-elected in May, they would raise the threshold at which people start paying income tax – known as the “personal allowance” – to £12,500 over the next parliament.

The party would also cut tax for middle-class professionals by raising the earnings threshold at which people start paying the 40p higher rate of income tax to £50,000, up from £41,865 now.

There have been rumours the Chancellor is preparing to use the Budget to announce a pre-election vote winning policy, perhaps moving to cut taxes by raising the personal allowance sooner, or cutting National Insurance bills.

Another option being discussed would allow up to five million pensioners to sell their annuities for cash in retirement.

There has even been speculation that Mr Osborne could announce plans to cut inheritance tax, a long-held ambition for the Tories which has been blocked by Lib Dems.

Inheritance tax is levied at a rate of 40 per cent on estates worth more than £325,000.

Economists, tax experts and Tory MPs have called for radical reform, warning that growing numbers of middle-class families are being trapped as house prices rise. A typical property in London is worth more than £450,000.

Would Mr Hancock favour cutting inheritance tax as the Coalition’s final reform?

“There is a reason that policy was so widely welcomed: it speaks to a basic human instinct of wanting to provide for your family,” he said. “People aspire to own their own home and through no fault of their own have seen their houses increase in value and have been pulled into the inheritance tax net.”

The minister hinted that working with the Liberal Democrats had become especially difficult in the run up to the Budget. He has had to work with Vince Cable in the Business Department, and Ed Davey in the Energy Department, to make formal Budget submissions to the Treasury.

Mr Hancock said: “The Budget process is going ahead but clearly it has to be agreed across the Coalition. There is not a mood in the Liberal Democrats for big reforming bold strokes, although if I were in their political shoes I think they probably need it.”