STROUD District councillors have denounced government plans to raise National Insurance contributions for the self-employed while cutting the corporation tax.

Chancellor Philip Hammond announced the two per cent rise in his Spring Budget yesterday.

Self-employed people on Class 4 earning between £8,060 and £43,000 will see their contribution go up to 10 per cent in April 2018 and to 11 per cent in April 2019.

The move breaks a pledge made in the 2015 Conservative Party manifesto.

Deputy Stroud District Council leader Doina Cornell (Labour, Dursley), runs a small family business and has been self-employed most of her working life.

She told the Gazette: “There are about 15,000 people registered as self-employed in the Stroud District so we want to do what we can to support them, as they are an essential part of the local economy and if they are worse off it'll have an impact on the whole district.

“My concern is that raising the NI rates will hit hardest those who can't afford it, for example women trying to support their families by working during school hours.

“I know personally a lot of people who are working very hard to keep their small enterprises going - and there isn't the employed work there as an option for them.

“I'd like to know why the government keeps cutting the rate of tax big businesses pay and putting the burden onto the lower paid.”

The plan has been proposed to level the tax rate between the employed and self-employed, in part to remove the risk of businesses classing their employees as self-employed to receive a reducation.

However the proposal could place more pressure on the self-employed, who don’t receive the same benefits as the employed, such as paid holidays, sick pay and maternity/paternity leave.

A Stroud Green Party spokesman said: “Philip Hammond talked a lot in his first budget about “fairness”, building an “economy that works for everyone” and, of course, the “ordinary working families” championed by Theresa May.

“But there were precious few measures to help her target group.

“The budget should have provided a plan for fair pay and support for all workers.

"Instead, the Tories showed how out of touch they are by failing to help these dedicated public servants - all the while giving tax breaks to big business.”

SDC Cllr Debbie Young (Con, Chalford), hopes that the longer than normal lead time for the tax change will give the self-employed time to adjust to the increase.

She said: “Locally we have a large number of self-employed people in our artists, tradespeople, and the service sector and they will pay £4.61 more per week, from 2018.

“For those who are very profitable the abolition of the additional flat rate for NIC2 will offset any additional costs, and hopefully this combined with measures to reduce the impact of the business rate revaluation will have a positive effect.

“These changes will affect each person differently, given the number of self-employed people we have locally.”

The Chancellor aims to raise £1 billion from the tax hike, there are currently 4.8 million self-employed people across the UK.