Millions of people are facing increasing energy bills, but the confusing number of different tariffs mean the best deal is difficult to find. To help people make the right choices, Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg has announced a landmark deal with the major energy suppliers so they let people know every year what the cheapest deal is.

The Coalition Government has announced that Oxfordshire will get an additional £5,520,025 this year to relieve the pressure on school places.

This is part of an additional £600m of capital spending in England this year, which is for investment in, for example, extra classrooms. This comes on top of the £800m to address the shortage in pupil places already announced for 2012-13.

Meet Party President, Tim Farron MP

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Oxfordshire Liberal Democrats have supported an cross-party motion at the County Council's meeting last Tuesday calling on the government to adopt an Activity Led Funding formulae methodology which will demonstrate fair funding for each school based on established need.

There have been concerns at the council that as schools convert to academies there will be less money available, which could then financially disadvantage those schools that choose to remain as part of the local authority. There is also a need to recognise the extra costs associated with rural sparsity which is not currently recognised in the formulae distribution.

Oxfordshire Liberal Democrats were pleased to receive all-party support for their motion at the County Council's full Council meeting this week calling for the review of transport to day centres to be "fair and affordable and easy to access".

Day centres are a valuable resource for the elderly, disabled and vulnerable and for some people it is their only way of being able to socialise with their friends and access a whole range of services which would otherwise not be available to them if left at home on their own. Under the new system of personalised budgets, the review of charges at both day centres, and the potential to increase charges for transport arrangements, means that some residents will feel that they are unable to afford to attend in the future. This puts at risk the viability of the centres in the long term, and Liberal Democrats are concerned that this could lead to closures in the future.

Commuters and bus passengers in Oxfordshire will see more eco-friendly buses on the roads, congestion reduced and services upgraded, thanks to a new £1,408,937 package of improvements approved by Lib Dem Transport Minister Norman Baker.

Across the country £101 million is being spent to improve bus services. £31 million of that will be spent on the Green Bus fund, which aims to bring down fuel emissions and air pollution levels.

As part of the Budget, the Chancellor has announced that from next year, the Income Tax threshold will be raised further, ensuring that no one pays any income tax on the first £9,200 they earn.

In Oxfordshire that means that 15,820 people will be lifted out of paying Income Tax all together and a further 263,300 will receive a £220 tax cut. This is on top of tax cuts of £200 last year and a further £130 next month.

Over 20 million working people will be better off next year after Liberal Democrats in the Coalition Government delivered the biggest ever increase in the income tax personal allowance in the Budget.

The massive £3.5bn tax cut for working people delivers:

• The biggest ever single uplift in the tax threshold
• A personal allowance of £9,205 in April 2013
• 21 million working people getting an extra £220 tax cut
• Brings the total tax cut for basic rate tax payers to £550
• Brings the total number of people lifted out of tax to 2 million.

Liberal Democrats in Oxfordshire have questioned the underspend in Children's Services in the recent Financial Monitoring report at Cabinet last Tuesday. Although it is good news that cost reduction targets are being met in most of the Council's operations, it does beg the question that perhaps the cuts are being implemented too aggressively.

Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg used his speech to the Party's Spring conference in NewcastleGateshead to call for the forthcoming budget to be a "budget for fairness" and pledged that it would help working familes.

The Deputy Prime Minister pledged that by 2015 Britain would have seen an end to control orders, the first gay marriages and the first elections to the House of Lords.