LAST week’s Budget rewards those who aspire to work hard and get on.

The amount people can earn before paying income tax – the personal allowance – will rise to £10,000 in April 2014. Income tax has been reduced for 24 million taxpayers up and down the country. Almost three million more of the lowest paid will pay no income tax at all.

In Thurrock, more than 46,000 people will benefit and by April 2014, 440 people will be lifted out of income tax, taking the total number of people in Thurrock lifted out of tax altogether by Conservatives to more than 4,700.

After freezing fuel duty for two years, we have also cancelled this September’s fuel duty increase. Petrol will be 13p per litre cheaper than under Labour’s plans.

We would have liked to have done more to enable people to keep more of what they earn, but we are not going to be reckless with the nation’s finances.

Labour’s answer to Britain’s borrowing problems is to borrow even more – £33billion more this year alone – that’s exactly how they got us into this mess in the first place. We’ve now cut the deficit by a third. Furthermore we have helped business create one-and-a-quarter million new jobs.

Our welfare reforms are working. Against a difficult economic backdrop we’re helping people to move off benefits and into work. There are still tough challenges ahead, which is why we’re working hard to give jobseekers all the help and support they need to realise their aspiration of finding a job. But we won’t shirk from restoring fairness to a welfare system that spiralled out of control with Labour.

The housing benefit bill alone stands at £23billion a year. This costs every family in this country £900 a year to sustain.

I make no apology for the so-called ‘bedroom tax’. It is unfair that the taxpayer picks up the bill to allow people to live in council housing which is bigger than their needs when at the same time there are so many families on the council waiting list.

Until we get to grips with giving welfare support where it is most needed, we will not get back to living within our means.