High Street Store Owner Backs Plaid Policy

Next owner, Simon Wolfson, yesterday told the Today programme that he thought the government's cut in VAT was wrong and they should have instead gone for an interest rate cut - as suggested by Plaid.

Robert Peston reports it thus:

"This reduction for a year in the VAT rate, from 17.5% to 15%, will cost £12bn. It's supposed to help groups like Next, Britain's second biggest fashion chain, by encouraging all of us to spend a bit more.

But Wolfson said that the expensive VAT reduction was a mistake, that it was a waste of taxpayers' money, and that the Treasury would have been far better to cut income taxes if it wanted to encourage spending."