Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Economy (Supply Side) – 14 July 1988

Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Economy (Supply Side) on 14th July 1988.

Mr. Dykes To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he has any plans to improve the capacity of the supply side of the United Kingdom economy.

Mr. Major We have introduced a number of reforms to improve the supply performance of the economy by increasing competition and flexibility and sharpening incentives to enterprise and effort. These complement the medium-term financial strategy which sets the macro economic framework needed to control inflation and give business the confidence to expand.

Since 1979 we have cut personal tax rates sharply, bringing the basic rate down from 33p to 25p and sweeping away all higher rates above 40p; cut the main corporation tax rate to 35 per cent., one of the very lowest in the industrialised world; privatised nearly 40 per cent. of the state-owned commercial sector; trebled the number of shareholders; abolished credit controls and created one of the world’s most open, competitive capital market centres; strengthened trade union democracy; ended incomes policies; increased value for money in the public sector; and swept away a battery of bureaucratic controls and regulations. We will continue to bring forward measures of this kind.