David Cameron: Tories are committed to helping families cope with rising costs
David Cameron promised his party was committed to helping people cope with the rising cost of living and the impact of the credit crunch, as he spoke at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham.
Addressing delegates at the International Convention Centre, Mr Cameron said the Tories were united and had a clear plan to deal with the economic turmoil.
In the party’s reconstruction plan the Tories set out proposals for an independent body to monitor state spending and a beefed-up role for the Bank of England in overseeing the financial sector.
Mr Cameron said: “I have said to the shadow cabinet everything we do has got to be about trying to help people with the cost of living, helping them with the difficulties that they face.”
Other ideas set out in the Tory economic reconstruction plan include a fuel duty stabiliser to help even out the effects of rising oil prices.
The Tory leader contrasted his party with the disunity at the top of the Government.
He told the conference: “I want us to show that, at a time when the Government has completely lost its way, that there is a very clear, a very strong, a very united and a very positive alternative - the modern Conservative Party.”
Labour, he said, had spent their conference last week “talking about themselves to themselves”.
Tory plans include giving the Bank of England a far greater role in market oversight, so that it can intervene to tackle problems before they spiral out of control.
The Financial Services Authority will take a tougher line with banks lending money to borrowers, in particular by requiring banks to keep more cash back as capital, for use during economic downturns.
The FSA will particularly target banks paying high bonuses to staff which “encourage short-term risk-taking”, according to the Conservatives.
There will be more regulation of consumer credit, including a crackdown on store cards - which critics claim charge unreasonable interest - and clearer information for credit card users.
Conservatives say this will “protect vulnerable consumers and reduce problem debt”. In practice, one effect is likely to be that it becomes harder for some people to borrow.
Bank deposits of up to £50,000 would be protected using a new insurance system, up from £35,000.
Mr Cameron said: “We have to ask the question who brought us and our economy to this position? Who was it that spent and spent and borrowed and borrowed and gave us that massive budget deficit?
“The answer is our Prime Minister, the then Chancellor, Gordon Brown - and my message to Gordon Brown is this: You have had your boom and your reputation is now bust.”
That came as struggling mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley was hours away from becoming the second UK bank this year to face nationalisation and it emerged that a $700 billion (around £370 billion) Wall Street rescue bill will be debated on the floor of the US House of Representatives on Monday.
Tories focused on the economy on Sunday, after abandoning plans to hold a conference session celebrating recent election successes.
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