The UK should not lower VAT rates

I apologise for this will not be my best debate as I have left this rather late. Although at this time of writing I do have ten hours remaining, I am tired and will soon sleep. So this has to be written now. However, to the point. 1) Economic recovery While austerity has had a very negative impact upon Britain, it is true that the economy is in slow recovery. The economy did grow by 0.8% in the first quarter of 2014, this marks the fifth consecutive period of GDP growth. With this "growth", I put in quotation marks as most Britons will tell you it is very unnoticeable that we are technically recovering, firstly implies that the UK Government should slowly be entering into a position in which it has recovered its "lost" money and so why can't the VAT return to what was considered the normal rate, which is 17.5%? 2) Is this actually worth it? VAT at 20% obviously makes everyone in the UK that little bit poorer, but for how much exactly? It is estimated that by 2015, this will grant the government an extra 13 billion pounds each year. 13 billion is by no means a small number, but relative to the costs that the State has to endure, it is a relatively small earning. From 2012/13, the National Health Service (NHS) cost 108 billion pounds. Health as I am sure you are aware, is one of many State provided services. Others obviously including defence, education, security, police etc. Is saving a trivial 13 billion worth it? The government and yourself may argue that every little bit is worth it, but I will now move onto why such a small number is not worth making the population pay. 3) Poverty During the early days of the recession, Labour (the previous party in power) lowered the VAT from 17.5% to 15%. To put this into perspective, the average Ford Focus was cheaper by 322 pounds, a JVC LCD television was down by 12.77 pounds, everything was just a bit (or potentially quite a lot) cheaper. However as you now know, this was increased to 20%, be it, for the reasons you gave, effectively recovering lost money at a time the government was poorer. But as I have stated, 13 billion is rather small and when you look at the ever increasing poverty rate in the UK, it does not seem worth it at all. In 2006 (two years before recession), the UK poverty rate was lower than that in the US standing at 14%. Now obviously due to recession itself as well as cuts in welfare, this number has risen. But can you deny that higher tax does not also contribute to an increasing poverty rate? The fact that everything is more expensive and although you can state that essentials stand at 0%, that is really for the bare minimum. To get to the point however, UK poverty now stands at 20%. One in five UK citizens now live in poverty, or roughly 15 million people out of 63 million. The UK now has a higher poverty rate than the US. It is estimated that by 2020, 3.4 million children will be living in poverty. This equals the same level as when Labour first took over from Thatcher, in their 13 year run thereafter, this was reduced to 2.8 million. It is noticeable how the Conservatives have tended to increase the VAT rate while Labour reduce it. Clearly we can see that Labour have had considerable more success in tackling poverty as opposed to the Conservatives. Poverty though, is still on the rise, throughout the UK. The fact that from 2006 to 2014, poverty has risen from 14% to 20% should be ringing alarm bells. How can we possibly justify such an increase in VAT? You claimed VAT in the UK is lower than other EU nations, correct, but the UK has far greater poverty than many EU nations. 4) Encouraging growth Austerity has provided for some growth but ultimately unless we provide some incentive for actual growth, much of the population will still struggle financially. If you look generally at British comments on the internet on Conservative policies, you will get the picture, most do not actually notice the apparent growth and recovery. It can only be recognised in statistics. What does this tell you? That the "recovery" is painfully slow, quite potentially not down to governmental action at all and purely coincidental. The whole ideology behind the reduction from 17.5% to 15% was to ease the blow to citizens and to provide growth. But as the UK technically is recovering, should we not now, more than EVER, be encouraging growth? What better way to start than lowering the VAT rate? Even id only by 1% to start with. But to address your final point. I do not understand. Introduce another rate? Add another tax? How does this help in the slightest? Sources used: (I should add these as end notes, but as I said, I am tired and so will simply list them here) [1] http://news.bbc.co.uk... [2] http://www.bbc.co.uk... [3] http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk... [4] http://en.wikipedia.org... [5] http://www.nhs.uk... [6] http://www.theguardian.com... [7] http://en.wikipedia.org...(United_Kingdom)#History