St Albans MP Anne Main has today welcomed in parliament the announcement that the chancellor will not increase Class 4 National Insurance Contributions (NICs).  

 

Speaking in the house of commons, Anne said: ‘There are 7,000 self-employed individuals in St Albans representing 16 per cent of the economically active.  Can I thank the chancellor for listening to the representations that I made in my letter to him.’  

 

The MP went on to say that constituents affected will welcome the commitment and that he was honouring the manifesto. 

 

In response, the Chancellor said: ‘I am grateful to my honourable friend, and I have to say that I generally find it much more fruitful listening to the advice and thoughts of my honourable friends than I do of listening to the comments from opposite.’ 

 

After speaking in the House, Anne said that this was ‘good news for small businesses and for the self-employed workers in my constituency. The government had a manifesto pledge not to raise NICs, and they will honour this.’ 

 

Mrs Main added, ‘I made this point to the chancellor in my letter last week.  I thought that the concerns local people expressed to me were entirely justified given what was in our manifesto in 2015.’   

 

The chancellor said in his letter to Anne today: ‘I have decided not to proceed with the Class 4 NIC measures set out in the Budget.  There will be no increases in NICs rates in this parliament.  We will continue with the abolition of Class 2 NICS from April 2018.  The cost of the changes I am announcing today will be funded by measures announced in the Autumn Budget.’