Anyone with income below £10,000 will not pay income tax from next April.

2.7 million extra will not be paying income tax and 24.5 million will be paying £700 less tax than under Labour.

The higher tax rate at 45% is still more than was applied during most of the term of office of the last Labour government

The budget includes a boost for house buyers and is better news for house builders.

A summary of today’s budget changes can be found be clicking here.

With changes to Housing Benefit regulations only days away, the York Council has admitted that it doesn’t know how many of its Council houses are under – occupied (have one or more spare bedrooms).

In response to a Freedom of Information request it has only been able to say that, on the North Yorkshire Home Choice register, there are 839 tenants who may be affected by the change. 546 have two or more empty rooms.

However, these figures include some who are renting privately and who have never qualified for an empty bedroom subsidy.

The figures exclude those, such as pensioners, who are not affected by the changes.

The Council have admitted that the initial sales of use any operator “all York” tickets totalled only 10,000 after the first quarter.

£25,000 of Council taxpayers money was used to publicise the facility. The £5 a day ticket has therefore enjoyed a 50% subsidy from taxpayers.

Around 16 million bus journeys are made in York each year.

Labour Councillors had gone to ridiculous lengths to prevent the sales figure being made public.

We understand that ticket sales have now dropped off.

The principle of having a “go anywhere, use any bus operator” ticket has wide support.

However the system, introduced by Labour, was clearly not thought through. They should have waited until a “smart card” option was available.

We now understand that “a ride around for £1 deal on bus transport for all young people of York” may also be launched shortly. We hope that this project has been more thoroughly audited to ensure that no additional burden falls on taxpayers

NB. The Council has yet to announce whether it will be bidding for government support from the “Green Bus Fund”. Bids have to be with the DpT by 26th March 2013.

The fund subsidises the introduction of low and zero emission buses.

With businesses and residents in York eagerly awaiting news of today’s budget, it has been revealed that only a small proportion of the York Council’s budget is spent in the City.

Asked what percentage of the local authority’s total procurement budget was spent on goods and services from suppliers and providers in the local authority area the Council responded?

Figures for the 2011/12 financial year indicate that of the Council’s third party expenditure, 17% was spent with local suppliers i.e.those with a York postcode.

The people now in charge of local NHS services (the rather grandly titled NHS Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group – which we will call NHS York for short) have moved into the West Offices where they will be co-located with the City of York Council.

Hopefully this will improve communications between the two organisations.

NHS York have their own web site. Click here to access it.

So far communications with residents have been patchy with an invitation to a public meeting today, about shaping local health services, going largely unpublicised.

They do however publish their board meeting agendas in advance and allow a 20 minute session for members of the public to ask questions. Click here for details

2012 winners

The deadline is approaching (Friday) for those people wishing to apply for the Lord Mayor of York’s Young Volunteers Award.

After a hugely successful first year with 180 applications, the Lord Mayor is looking forward to hearing from many more young people this year!

Details can be found by clicking here

The young people of Riding Lights Junior Youth Theatre and Strensall Barracks have joined forces in a collaborative term, in order to produce two nights of new theatre.

Each piece is inspired by testimonies from members of the Armed Forces, and their families, resulting in an evening of gripping and emotive theatre, presented by our talented young people.

Oceans by Matt Midgley
looks at the painful issue of a female solder as she prepared to leave her family behind before deployment.

Warground by Paul Birch
explores the concerns that children of serving families have when integrating into secondary school.

For Fierce Confusion, Peace by Morven Hamilton
addresses the difficult issue of PTSD, through the eyes of a family adjusting to the return of a troubled soldier.

19th March: Friargate Theatre – 7:30pm
21th March: Hurst Hall Community Centre -7:30pm

FREE ENTRY – call 01904 613000 to reserve your ticket

An Lotto prize of £56,083 has yet to be claimed in the City of York. National Lottery players are being urged to check and double-check their tickets for the chance to claim this life-enhancing prize.

The search is now on to find the owner of the winning ticket, bought in the City of York, who matched five numbers and the bonus ball in the Lotto draw on Saturday 2 March 2013. The winning Lotto numbers on that date were 6, 9, 23, 31, 35, 48 and the bonus ball was 11. The lucky ticket-holder has until Thursday 29 August 2013 to claim their prize1.