Labour Conference: Balls Says Stamp Duty Should Be Cut

In a move that risks a confrontation with trade union leaders, Ed Balls has begun to talk tough with regards to pay and public spending at the 2012 Labour conference.

In a speech on the second day of the Labour conference in Manchester, Balls said that another 100,000 affordable houses should be built to kick-start the economy.

Ed Balls At The Labour Conference

His speech as in danger of being overshadowed due to conflict with a number of unions who plan to vote against freezes in public sector pay.

One union leader remarked that Mr Balls "would give an aspirin a headache", whilst another added that proposing a pay freeze would result in a loss for Labour at the next election.

Ed Balls said that the plan to build you homes would be funded by selling the the 4G mobile phone spectrum, estimated to be worth four billion pounds.

Balls said: "Let's commit that money from the 4G sale and build over the next two years: 100,000 new homes - affordable homes to rent and to buy - creating hundreds of thousands of jobs and getting the construction industry moving again.

Add to that a stamp duty holiday for first-time buyers, and we can deliver real help for people aspiring to get on the property ladder. A clear and costed plan to kick-start the economy and get people back to work."

Commenting on the economy, Ed Balls said: "Hard times will last longer than all of us hoped. And we cannot promise to put everything right straight away.

Of course we'll make different choices - we'll do things in a fairer and more balanced way and put jobs and growth first.

But, however difficult this may be, when we don’t know what we will inherit, we cannot make any commitments now that the next Labour government will be able to reverse particular tax rises or spending cuts.

Because, unlike Nick Clegg, we will not make promises we cannot keep. And because we all know there can be no post-election spending spree, in our first year in government we will hold a zero-based spending review that will look at every pound spent by government."

Many union leaders are expected to mount a ferocious counter-attack. Paul Kenny, the head of GMB said: "He would give an aspirin a headache, wouldn't he?"

Kenny has threatened to read out his dossier of what he calls "Balls Ups", or mistakes he claims were made by Balls when in government, at a Labour conference fringe meeting.

Unite’s general secretary, Len McCluskey said that Labour was set to lose the next election if it was unable to relate to workers.

He also said that public sector pay freezes were beginning to make an impact with people working for private companies.

There is also pressure on Ed Balls make Labour’s tax policy clear at the Labour conference following Ed Miliband’s statement that he would restore the 50p income tax rate for the very high paid in a television interview.

Ed Milliband said:"If I was in government tomorrow one change I would make in relation to the better off - first change in a Labour budget - we wouldn't be cutting the top rate of income tax from 50 to 45p. If there was an election tomorrow, that is what we would do."

At the Labour conference, friends of Ed Balls' said that the Labour party's position is unchanged in a statement to Sky News.

One of them said: "Lots of people seem to have misinterpreted what Ed Miliband said. We would not cut the 50p rate if there was an election tomorrow.

We're making no commitments for what we would do on any tax rates in 2015." You can see the Labour conference on the BBC Parliament channel (Freeview channel 81).