(12 years, 3 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Robert Buckland (South Swindon) (Con)
1. What fiscal steps he plans to take to promote economic growth.
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Danny Alexander)
The Chancellor is at ECOFIN today.
As the experience of many European countries has demonstrated, loss of control of the public finances is catastrophic for growth. That was why, in the autumn statement, we set out plans to maintain the credibility of our fiscal stance while innovatively using the money that we do have to support home buyers, small firms and infrastructure and to tackle youth unemployment.
Mr Buckland
I was pleased to see in the autumn statement the proposed introduction of the new seed enterprise investment scheme, which will encourage investment in small and high-risk early-growth businesses. What other measures does my right hon. Friend propose to take to encourage equity investment and support for growing businesses?
Danny Alexander
As my hon. Friend knows, at the Budget last year we announced reforms to the enterprise investment scheme and the venture capital trusts scheme, which are subject to state aid approval. The Government are committed to finding innovative ways to invest in new firms, such as the seed enterprise investment scheme, and we will consider further ideas in the future.
John Healey (Wentworth and Dearne) (Lab)
The economy has flatlined for more than 12 months since the Chancellor’s spending review, unemployment has hit a 17-year high and the national debt has now topped £1 trillion. What has gone wrong?
Danny Alexander
I would have thought that the day on which it has been announced that the national debt has broken the £1 trillion mark would provide a good opportunity for the Labour party to apologise for its catastrophic economic mismanagement that led the country into the mess that the coalition Government are cleaning up.
Mr Andrew Tyrie (Chichester) (Con)
The Redknapp case and the public interest in it illustrate the need to reform taxation to ensure that top earners pay what is due. The Chief Secretary will not want to comment on an individual case, but what steps are the Government taking, consistent with the Treasury Committee’s report on the principles of tax reform, to ensure that all taxpayers, including top earners, pay the correct amount of tax?
Danny Alexander
Of course, as the hon. Gentleman says, I cannot and will not comment on ongoing individual cases, but he is right to say that the wealthiest need to pay their fair share. That was why we announced in the spending review an extra £900 million of funding for tackling tax avoidance and evasion, which has helped to set up a new specialist unit, which became operational last year, targeting offshore evasion. High-profile tax evasion cases could become more commonplace in future, and our message to tax dodgers is: “No matter how well known you are, how clever you think your accounts are or how far away you hide your money, we are coming to get you.”
Rachel Reeves (Leeds West) (Lab)
The Chief Secretary says that the Government’s fiscal plans are working and that only the eurozone has thrown them off course. Tomorrow, we will know by how much the UK economy grew in 2011, so let me ask him a simple question. In its last forecast, did the Office for Budget Responsibility revise up or down its estimate for growth in the eurozone in 2011?
Danny Alexander
The Office for Budget Responsibility made significant changes to its forecasts for the UK and for other countries. It made a significant change to its forecast for how much damage was done to the UK economy during the time when the hon. Lady’s party was in government, suggesting that our economy is now about 13% smaller than it otherwise would have been.
Yesterday was the eighth anniversary of the shadow Chancellor’s now infamous Ken Dixon lecture, when he rightly said that long-term interest rates were
“the simplest measure of monetary and fiscal policy credibility”.
Then, 10-year gilt rates were 4.76%. Yesterday, they were 2.16%. Case closed.
Rachel Reeves
Given that the Government went to the trouble of setting up the Office for Budget Responsibility, one would expect that the Chief Secretary would read its forecasts. The reality is that it revised up its forecast for growth in the eurozone in 2011 and revised down its forecast for growth in the United Kingdom. The Government like to blame everybody except themselves for the economic troubles. First they blamed the snow, then they blamed the royal wedding, now they are blaming the eurozone. When will they take responsibility for their own actions, which choked off the economic recovery a year ago by cutting too far and too fast? As a result, they are borrowing an extra £158 billion. That is the cost of this Government’s economic failure.
Danny Alexander
Once again, the hon. Lady is wrong in her economic policy pronouncements. The Office for Budget Responsibility has the UK growing more slowly this year, but faster than countries in the eurozone in the next few years. That is a testament to the Government’s economic policies. If she wants to know who is at least partly responsible for the mess that the country is in, she should just look immediately to her left. It has come to something when Katie Price’s tweets make more sense about the economy than Labour Front Benchers.
Mr Alan Reid (Argyll and Bute) (LD)
The economy in our islands will be greatly helped by the reduction in fuel duty that the Government are introducing. Will my right hon. Friend update the House on progress towards introducing that fuel duty discount?
Danny Alexander
I am grateful for the opportunity to do that. The fuel duty discount will come into force for customers, including on the islands in my hon. Friend’s constituency, from 1 March. That will reduce the cost of fuel by 5p a litre in the most remote island communities, reflecting the fact that they have the highest cost. The scheme has been open to retailers to register for it since 1 January, and I am pleased to report that almost every retailer has already signed up.
Roberta Blackman-Woods (City of Durham) (Lab)
2. What assessment he has made of the effects on families with children of taxation changes coming into force in 2012-13.
The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (Mr David Gauke)
The Government have taken unprecedented steps to increase the transparency of decision making, publishing detailed analysis of the impacts of individual measures in tax impact notes and presenting the overall impact of tax benefit reforms at fiscal events. The analysis shows that all but the top decile gain from direct tax changes, and that the Government continue to help protect the most vulnerable.
Roberta Blackman-Woods
Research by House of Commons Library and other independent sources shows that, of the £8.1 billion of tax rises and benefit cuts, women are paying £5.8 billion. That is a massive 72%. A further £2.4 billion of cuts will affect families with children. Why are the Government targeting the cuts on women and families? Does not that give the lie to the notion of our all being in this together?
George Freeman (Mid Norfolk) (Con)
Will the Minister also confirm that, as well as the 1.1 million people taken out of tax, we are reducing the tax bill of 20 million of the poorest families?
Mr Gauke
Absolutely. It is important to point out that it is not just those who are taken out of income tax altogether who benefit, but the approximately 25 million people overall who receive an increase in personal allowance. That should be supported by hon. Members of all parties.
Yvonne Fovargue (Makerfield) (Lab)
The Treasury has admitted that cutting tax credits will lead to an increase in child poverty. Rather than trying to change the definition of child poverty, was not the Prime Minister right in 2006 when he said:
“We need to think of poverty in relative terms”?
Mr Gauke
It is also important not just to think of poverty in terms of moving someone from one side of an arbitrary line based on a percentage of median income to another, but to look more widely. That includes improving poor children’s opportunities. The Government, through the pupil premium and other measures, are concentrating on opening up those opportunities.
Charlie Elphicke (Dover) (Con)
Will the Minister tell the House how families can have a greater option of part-time working under the taxation changes, and whether they will have more encouragement to work with the introduction of the benefits cap?
Cathy Jamieson (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (Lab/Co-op)
Yesterday, we heard the Prime Minister say that jobs in retail are a vital part of the economy. Why are the Government making changes to working tax credits that will hit part-time workers in the retail sector hard? Is that a fair deal for parents who are trying to do the right thing? Can the Minister tell us how many couples who work between 16 and 24 hours a week will lose out, and by how much?
Mr Mike Weir (Angus) (SNP)
3. What recent discussions he has had with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs on the operation of the COP26 process.
The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (Mr David Gauke)
Ministers have regular meetings to oversee and challenge HMRC business, including the administration of tax credits and the recovery of overpayments.
Mr Weir
I am grateful for the Minister’s answer, but does he understand the intense frustration and anger of many of my constituents who repeatedly tell HMRC about errors in tax credits that HMRC does not correct, which subsequently give rise to overpayments? How often can HMRC be allowed to make mistakes and hide behind COP26 to evade any responsibility?
Mr Gauke
I understand the hon. Gentleman’s concern—he has raised this matter on behalf of his constituents a number of times. The Treasury and HMRC are always seeking to improve the system. It is in a better place than it was four or five years ago, but none the less, there are still issues. I constantly tell HMRC that we need to find ways to address problems when information is provided but not taken up and used.
John Howell (Henley) (Con)
4. What progress he has made on implementation of the national infrastructure plan 2011.
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Danny Alexander)
Work on the implementation of the national infrastructure plan is now under way across Government, led by the Treasury. This month, for example, the Government have approved High Speed 2 to Birmingham and are working to resolve radar interference issues that are holding up wind farm developments. We will update the House on progress at the Budget on 21 March.
John Howell
Does my right hon. Friend agree that the national infrastructure plan is welcome and timely because it is about real investment in our infrastructure and because it shows that the Government are thinking for the long term, both of which will encourage co-investment in those projects?
Danny Alexander
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The national infrastructure plan sets out a medium-term plan for £250 billion of much needed investment in this country’s infrastructure. Alongside that, we brought forward plans at the autumn statement for £6 billion of further investment in capital projects in this Parliament and announced a scheme working with pension funds to get £20 billion-worth of pension fund investment into infrastructure. Those are all the right things to ensure that in the long term, we rebalance our economy and make our infrastructure stronger.
Mr Andrew Love (Edmonton) (Lab/Co-op)
With unemployment at 2.7 million and rising rapidly, what contribution will the national infrastructure plan make to reducing unemployment this year and next year?
Danny Alexander
As I said in my answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Henley (John Howell), alongside the national infrastructure plan, we announced in the autumn statement significant new investment in infrastructure projects this year, next year and the year after that, all of which will both contribute to growth in the immediate term and help to build the better infrastructure we need to ensure that our growth is stronger in the medium term.
Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)
5. What assessment he has made of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s most recent forecast of levels of unemployment in 2012.
The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr Mark Hoban)
In line with the weaker outlook for gross domestic product growth, the OBR has revised up the projected level of unemployment over the near term, peaking at the end of this year before falling. In the autumn statement, the Government committed to important new steps to support private sector job creation and reduce unemployment, such as nearly £1 billion for the youth contract; an initial £1 billion for the regional growth fund; and a £21 billion package of credit easing to support firms and encourage job creation.
Seema Malhotra
I thank the Minister for his answer. The youth claimant count last year in my constituency of Feltham and Heston rose 25.2%. The long-term claimant count for over-50s rose 48%. Both statistics are more than twice the UK average. What measures have the Government taken to tackle unemployment in Feltham and Heston, and when does he expect the number of unemployed to fall?
Mr Hoban
The hon. Lady makes an important point, but let me be clear: as she will know, youth unemployment in her constituency peaked in December 2009—it is actually lower today than it was then. No one should be complacent about youth unemployment, but she should recognise, as the right hon. Member for South Shields (David Miliband) did, that youth unemployment is not a problem that this Government created, and that it is a long-term challenge and grew even when the economy was booming. We are taking steps—such as the youth contract and boosting the number of apprenticeship places—that will benefit every constituency in the country, including hers.
Mr John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con)
When will we see more of the details of the credit easing scheme and what is the Minister’s forecast of the monthly draw-down for the rest of this year?
Mr Hoban
We are working with banks on the details behind the national loan guarantee scheme. We have set aside £20 billion to enable the rates that are charged to small businesses to fall by up to 1%. The utilisation of the scheme will very much be driven by the demand from businesses for debt finance.
Owen Smith (Pontypridd) (Lab)
Yesterday the Chief Secretary appeared not to know too much about what the Work programme was going to do to deal with unemployment. This morning, the National Audit Office tells us that the programme will fail to get a third of the people the Government are targeting back into work. Can Ministers now tell us how much extra this latest failure to tackle unemployment will cost the Exchequer?
Mr Hoban
The NAO’s report this morning was based on guesswork. The scheme has not been fully implemented and there are no published figures as yet on the out-turn for the scheme. Let me just say that private sector providers expect that this scheme will be more effective than the schemes put in place by previous Governments.
Matthew Hancock (West Suffolk) (Con)
Given the increasing private sector employment levels, have the Government made any assessment of the impact on those levels if we lost all credibility of economic policy by having the sort of incoherence proposed by the Opposition?
Mr Hoban
The levels of interest that businesses in this country pay are determined by the credibility of our fiscal policy. If interest rates rose as a consequence of diverting from the fiscal plan the Government have set out, we would see higher interest rates and that would have a huge impact on families and businesses across the country.
Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East) (Lab)
6. What estimate he has made of the likely effect on the level of child poverty of the fiscal measures in his autumn statement.
Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)
8. What estimate he has made of the likely effect on the level of child poverty of the fiscal measures in his autumn statement.
The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Miss Chloe Smith)
When measured against previously announced policies, there will be an estimated increase of 100,00 in children living in households with less than 60% of median income in 2012-13.
Sheila Gilmore
We are constantly told by the Government that the way out of poverty is work and that work must pay. Is the Minister prepared to reconsider the decision not to uprate working tax credits this year in terms of inflation while at the same time uprating out-of-work benefits by inflation?
Miss Smith
The reason for that decision was to prioritise the resources we have available on those perhaps least able to deal with the difficulties of the cost of living.
Kate Green
The Chancellor announced in the autumn statement an increase in the number of child care places for disadvantaged two-year-olds, but at the same time we are hearing of cuts to local authority funding for child care, and places are closing. How will the Government guarantee that these new places for disadvantaged children will be additional places and not simply a matter of money being moved out of one pot to pay for another?
Miss Smith
We expect that that policy will be additional in the sense that it is extending it to disadvantaged two-year-olds. We expect 130,000 disadvantaged two-year-olds to be assisted by the 15 hours of free child care, and we certainly expect local authorities to take sensible decisions with the limited resources that they also have.
Harriett Baldwin (West Worcestershire) (Con)
With 2 million children living in workless households, does the Minister agree that the essential steps include not only the additional child care places, but the universal credit and the fact that every hour of work will count towards increased reward for the household? That is an essential part of those fiscal measures.
Miss Smith
I certainly do agree with my hon. Friend, and on a couple of counts. First, poverty is not about income: it is about work. I am sure that she will agree that it is a crying shame that under the previous Government the number of children in workless households reached one in every six. I also agree with the chief executive of The Big Issue, who says in The Times today that
“You don’t help the poor by making them dependent on handouts”.
Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD)
Grandparents often play an important role in supporting their children’s children. So why is it that the Government’s welcome commitment to a more generous state pension bizarrely has the effect of increasing the number of children statistically said to be living in poverty? What is the sense in that?
Miss Smith
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. If I can, I would be happy to provide him with the workings that create that situation. That measure can have perverse effects, but we believe in measures that genuinely take children out of poverty, such as early intervention policies, rather than moving them over an imaginary line.
Neil Parish (Tiverton and Honiton) (Con)
7. What steps he is taking to encourage banks to charge competitive rates for loans to small and medium-sized businesses.
The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr Mark Hoban)
At the autumn statement the Government announced the launch of the national loan guarantee scheme. The scheme will provide up to £20 billion of Government guarantees for bank funding, which will lead to a reduction in loan interest rates to smaller businesses of up to 1%.
Neil Parish
I thank the Minister very much for that statement, but businesses in my constituency of Tiverton and Honiton are being held back by the banking sector, which is charging interest rates of up to 20% to financially sound businesses. When and how are we going to get much more competition into the banking sector?
Mr Hoban
My hon. Friend makes an important point. We need to see a more competitive banking system. At the moment we are seeing, for example, the acquisition by Santander of businesses from RBS, which will create a challenger. We have also seen the outline decision by the Co-op to buy branches from Lloyds bank. Those measures, together with the sale of Northern Rock to Virgin Money, point towards a more competitive landscape for banking and will lead to better outcomes for consumers and businesses.
Stewart Hosie (Dundee East) (SNP)
It is not only the cost and availability of bank lending that is the problem; it is what the nationalised banks are doing with that debt. They are selling it to private equity firms for discounts of 40% to 50%, which reflects a net loss to the taxpayer-shareholder and fundamentally changes the relationship between the business and the bank. Let me ask the Minister, first, whether he is aware of that; and, more importantly, whether he has any information that would tell him that equity funds have had access to bank records on individual companies that would allow them to cherry-pick the assets they are buying.
John Thurso (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD)
Following on from that question. Given that banks can lend only if they have capital and that 80% of financial transactions take place within the financial services industry, so that only 20% result in an end user, can the Minister say what steps the Government are taking to look at the marginal utility of the financial services industry, or what Lord Turner described as its “social usefulness”?
Mr Hoban
My hon. Friend makes an important point. It is vital that banks and other participants in the financial services sector play their full role in supporting growth across the economy and meeting the aspirations of families across the country. It is vital when banks are faced with difficult decisions about how to use their capital that they should focus their efforts on securing lending and boosting economic growth.
Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab)
The thing that my constituents who work for Peacocks do not understand is why there seems to be plenty of money in the banks, including RBS, to pay exorbitant bonuses to senior executives, when there is not enough money to keep the company afloat. What will the Government do to try to ensure that those jobs, in a company that is still making money, are protected?
Mr Hoban
I do not want to comment on particular decisions. I am well aware of the concerns that people in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency have about the prospect of Peacocks closing. It is vital that banks are in a position to lend to viable businesses. That is why we entered into Project Merlin, which has led to an increase in bank lending compared with last year. That is the right thing to do, and I would encourage the management of Peacocks to engage with the banks and other investors to get the right outcome for them and for their business.
Annette Brooke (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (LD)
9. What steps he plans to take to ensure that the burden of taxation is fairly distributed.
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Danny Alexander)
We are significantly shifting the burden of taxation away from people on lower incomes and on to those with broader shoulders. The bank levy, the increase in capital gains tax, changes to pensions tax relief and the maintenance of the 50p rate all help to enable us to meet our commitment to increase the income tax personal allowance to £10,000, cutting taxes for millions of hard-pressed, hard-working families.
Annette Brooke
I thank my right hon. Friend for that answer. However, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said of the autumn statement:
“New tax and benefit measures are, on average, a takeaway from lower-income families with children, and giveaway to middle and top of income distribution”.
What further approaches will he take in the forthcoming Budget to ensure that we are all in it together, be it a demonstrable crackdown on tax avoidance, perhaps a mansion tax, and certainly more progressive tax measures?
Danny Alexander
Of course, the burden of the deficit reduction is fair overall, and we know that the burden falls most highly on the richest 20% of the population. However, with spending cuts needing to continue for longer—another two years—we need to redouble our efforts, both to tackle tax avoidance and to deliver the income tax cuts that we have promised, by lifting the personal allowance as rapidly as the nation can afford. Those are, of course, issues that we shall be considering in the run-up to the Budget.
Mr Dave Watts (St Helens North) (Lab)
Why does the Minister not look at employing more tax inspectors, given that billions of pounds are going unpaid because there are not enough tax inspectors to do the job?
Danny Alexander
Not only have we looked at that; we are doing it. In the spending review, we announced an extra £900 million for HMRC, which is creating an extra 2,000 specialist posts to tackle tax avoidance and tax evasion. It took the hon. Gentleman’s party 12 years just to set up a specialist unit at HMRC to deal with high net worth individuals. We have extended that to ensure that there is a specialist unit to deal with the tax affairs of all those who pay, or should pay, the 50p rate.
Andrea Leadsom (South Northamptonshire) (Con)
10. What steps he is taking to tackle excessive executive pay.
Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con)
14. What steps he is taking to tackle excessive executive pay.
Nadhim Zahawi (Stratford-on-Avon) (Con)
17. What steps he is taking to tackle excessive executive pay.
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Danny Alexander)
The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, my right hon. Friend the Member for Twickenham (Vince Cable), yesterday announced a package of proposals designed to address the market failure in setting executive pay. The proposals represent a major step forward in empowering shareholders, reforming remuneration committees and improving transparency in order to give shareholders the tools that they need in order to control unacceptable rewards for failure.
Andrea Leadsom
What consideration has my right hon. Friend given to a system of three-year rolling executive pay, in which the worsening of performance in one year would lead to a claw-back of remuneration from previous years? Does he think that putting pressure on companies to adopt such a system would be sufficient, or would it be necessary to legislate?
Danny Alexander
My hon. Friend makes a good point. That is already part of the Financial Services Authority’s code of practice for banking remuneration. It is particularly important to end the distorting effect of those kinds of incentives in the financial sector, but the additional powers that we are giving to shareholders, which my right hon. Friend the Business Secretary announced yesterday, will allow companies in other sectors to adopt that kind of practice, should they wish to do so.
Henry Smith
I welcome yesterday’s announcement by the Government on mitigating excessive executive pay. With regard to the UK honours system, may I seek an assurance from my right hon. Friend that the Government will be more circumspect in regard to the honours that are suggested, unlike the—
Mr Speaker
Order. I think that the hon. Gentleman might have been groping his way towards order, but he had not quite arrived. We will have to leave it there for today. We are specifically talking about excessive executive pay.
Nadhim Zahawi
In the forthcoming Financial Services Bill, should we not introduce criminal sanctions for gross negligence at the helm of a systemically important bank, to ensure that no rewards for failure would be forthcoming for those who are masters of nothing?
Danny Alexander
That was mentioned explicitly in the Financial Services Authority’s report on the failures of the Royal Bank of Scotland. Lord Turner suggested three options for changing the law, and the Joint Committee that has scrutinised the draft Financial Services Bill has recommended that the Government give consideration to the report’s recommendations. We agree with that, and we will be publishing a joint consultation document with the FSA later this spring, which will consider a range of possible measures.
Mr George Mudie (Leeds East) (Lab)
John Hourican of RBS is expected to get in excess of £4.3 million in his remuneration package in share options alone. When RBS was asked about this, it said that he had met his performance targets, but refused to say what those targets were. On the ground of transparency, will the Chief Secretary agree to put in the Library a copy of the performance targets of the chief executive of RBS and of Mr Hourican?
Danny Alexander
I will certainly look into the matter that the hon. Gentleman has raised, but it was his party that set up the contracts for many of the executives at RBS, and his party that allowed the bonuses to be paid out. It was also his party that awarded Fred Goodwin a knighthood that he should never have been given, so I do not think that we are going to take any lessons on this from him. We have certainly been looking hard at the remuneration proposals for this year, and I can assure him that bonuses will be far, far lower than they were last year.
Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)
May I remind the Minister that, when in opposition, the present Chancellor and the present Prime Minister promised a really tough regime to reduce the gap between the high earners and the rest of the people in this country. Yesterday’s announcement showed that they have backed away from that promise, but the people in my constituency want a fair society in the so-called big society.
Danny Alexander
I am certainly not going to attempt to take responsibility for things the Chancellor and the Prime Minister said in opposition, but I can take responsibility for what the coalition Government are doing. The announcements made yesterday by the Business Secretary on tackling executive pay went far further than anything the hon. Gentleman’s party did during 13 years in government. That alone should give him pause for thought.
Mark Durkan (Foyle) (SDLP)
Giving more powers to shareholders sounds welcome, but we know that their existing powers on executive pay have not been readily used. Should institutional investors not be made more accountable to the millions of ordinary savers whose money is at stake, and does the Chief Secretary believe that the Chancellor would be ready to exercise his reserve powers to make them disclose to their savers how they vote?
Danny Alexander
One of the striking things about how the climate of opinion on this subject is changing in recent times has been the change in attitude of institutional investors. The comments of Otto Thoresen, the head of the Association of British Insurers, for example, to the banks in this remuneration round suggests that such investors are interested in and seized of the importance of ensuring that proper levels of remuneration are paid, not unfair rewards for failure.
Stephen Williams (Bristol West) (LD)
The Business Secretary’s announcements will give more power to non-exec directors and shareholders to control pay in the private sector. The Government effectively discharge those roles in the public sector, so what measures is my right hon. Friend undertaking to control high pay in the public sector?
Danny Alexander
Ministerial salaries were cut by 5% and then frozen for the whole of this Parliament. As Chief Secretary, I now personally sign off any new pay above £142,000, the equivalent of the Prime Minister’s pay. That is a vital deterrent to the cycle of ever higher pay at the top of the public sector—so much so that in central Government alone the number of people paid more than £150,000 has dropped by 55 since May last year. When applications come in, I can and do reject them if I think they are too high. In fact, since May 2010 83 like-for-like cases have sought my approval. Pay was lowered in 45 of those cases and frozen in a further 23, saving more than £1 million a year for the taxpayer, including a £100,000 cut in the pay for the new chief executive of Royal Mail.
Mr Virendra Sharma (Ealing, Southall) (Lab)
11. What assessment he has made of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s most recent estimate of the size of the deficit in 2015.
The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Miss Chloe Smith)
The OBR forecast in November that borrowing in 2015-16 would be £53 billion, which is 2.9% of gross domestic product. That compares with £156 billion last year and £127 billion this financial year.
Mr Sharma
I thank the Economic Secretary for answering the question. Can she tell us why the Government are now forecast to borrow £37 billion more than the more balanced plan Labour set out before the election, despite the pain of £40 billion more spending cuts and tax rises?
Miss Smith
This Government are engaged in a credible deficit reduction plan. I would like to hear the hon. Gentleman and his colleagues tell us what their plan is and whether it veers towards credibility or the policies of the delusional left.
Michael Fallon (Sevenoaks) (Con)
What lesson should we draw from Standard & Poor’s warning that the UK’s rating could come under downward pressure if, against its expectation, the commitment to fiscal consolidation wavers? Should not that warning be addressed to those who want us to cut more slowly and to borrow even more as a result?
Miss Smith
My hon. Friend is absolutely correct. Our policies have kept the UK ahead of the curve. He and others in our House need only look to the French downgrade last week to see the value of the credibility we have restored to the UK economy.
Mr Geoffrey Robinson (Coventry North West) (Lab)
Is not the Minister aware that the figures show the total failure of the Government’s economic policy—not only on the deficit, but on all the contributory factors? Employment is down, way below their target, and so are growth and private sector employment. On every key index, their policies have failed. They own this policy, they are failing—when will they change it?
Miss Smith
We have a plan A, to which we are sticking because it is working—unlike the policies proposed by the Opposition, which have yet to emerge in any credible detail whatsoever.
Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con)
12. What recent estimate he has made of the level of the UK’s current account balance with the EU.
The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr Mark Hoban)
In 2010, the UK had a current account deficit of £49 billion. That deficit results from a deficits of £48 billion with the EU and of £1 billion with non-EU countries.
Mr Bone
That was a most incredible figure of a deficit of nearly £50 billion to the EU. Does the Minister agree that the Deputy Prime Minister is quite wrong to go around to the television studios claiming that the EU creates 3 million jobs for British workers when it is quite clear from those figures that the EU costs millions of British jobs?
Mr Hoban
My hon. Friend should bear in mind that the deficit on traded goods between the UK and the EU is £43.9 billion but that the deficit outside the EU is even larger at £54.7 billion. We should be encouraging businesses across the UK to invest more and to export more to places in the EU, as well as to Brazil, Russia, India and China. I encourage him to talk to businesses in his constituency and encourage them to export more to close that gap.
Geraint Davies (Swansea West) (Lab/Co-op)
Does the Minister accept that, unlike some other EU members, we have flexible exchange rates, flexible interest rates, market access and very limited exposure to the euro bail-out? Is it not time that we invested in a growth strategy to take advantage of those opportunities and build Britain so that it is strong again, getting rid of the deficit to growth and not cutting?
Mr Hoban
The key thing is to have a credible fiscal and economic policy. The Conservative party and this Government have that credible economic policy, whereas the Labour party has no idea where it wants to take the economy. The measures we are taking to tackle the deficit which keep interests rates low are providing the biggest benefit we can give to businesses to help them grow in future.
Mr David Hanson (Delyn) (Lab)
13. What assessment he has made of the likely level of economic growth in 2012.
The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Miss Chloe Smith)
The Office for Budget Responsibility forecast 0.7% economic growth in 2012 and that the economy would grow every year after that within the forecast.
Mr Hanson
With unemployment at a 17-year high, with growth having flatlined over the past 12 months, and with targets for future growth having been missed in every month so far to date, may I gently suggest to the Minister that she should look positively at some of the alternative suggestions that have been made, such as for a cut in VAT on construction, which is supported by the Federation of Small Businesses, to help growth in the next 12 months?
Miss Smith
Like recoveries from all deep recessions, this one has been choppy, and we are facing subdued growth, as the Office for Budget Responsibility has laid out. There are many reasons for that, one of which is that the Labour party simply turned on the taps when it came to spending and left them running. What the right hon. Gentleman has to recognise is that in policies that deal with business we do not pick ones that have an extra £20 billion price tag that cannot be sourced. Perhaps it is his leader who needs to take a lesson in understanding business, as his adviser has said that he
“doesn’t understand business…there was always something missing.”
Christopher Pincher (Tamworth) (Con)
Will my hon. Friend congratulate Jaguar Land Rover, BMW, B&Q and John Lewis, among others, on driving down long-term unemployment in Tamworth by a whacking 22%? Does not that demonstrate that it is through the private sector’s developing sustainable jobs that we will build sustainable economic growth?
Miss Smith
I certainly will join my hon. Friend in congratulating those firms. It is exactly through the private sector that we will find a more balanced recovery. I would also like to place on record my interest in the record numbers of apprenticeships in which such firms are participating, such as 440,000 more this year—up by half on the year before.
Naomi Long (Belfast East) (Alliance)
15. On what basis HM Revenue and Customs calculates surcharges levied for handling payments made by credit cards.
The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr Mark Hoban)
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs is able to levy a reasonable charge for the use of credit cards for payments. There are many other ways in which people can pay their tax bill without paying a surcharge. HMRC also flagged up quite early in the process how much it would cost to pay by credit card. HMRC adopts best practice, and that is why we have decided to extend these practices across business. We are launching a consultation paper later this year on banning unreasonable credit card surcharges.
Naomi Long
I thank the Minister for his answer. We know that the amount charged by different credit card companies varies depending on the transaction amount and the size of the institution receiving the money. Will he undertake to keep this issue under review to ensure that individuals pay only the charge that is levied by the company, and that there is no benefit to HMRC from its making additional charges?
Mr Hoban
The hon. Lady makes an important point. It is absolutely vital that HMRC looks carefully at the costs it incurs in processing credit card transactions and that it charges taxpayers only what are reasonable costs. We want that same approach to be adopted in the private sector as well, as that would bring huge benefit to consumers.
Mr Stewart Jackson (Peterborough) (Con)
16. What steps he is taking to maintain the UK’s triple A credit rating.
The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr Mark Hoban)
The Government’s macro-economic strategy is designed to protect the economy through this period of instability, and to lay the foundations for a stronger, more balanced economy in the future. The autumn statement set out a comprehensive plan to return the public finances to a sustainable position and meet the Government’s fiscal targets. In recent months, the major credit rating agencies have reaffirmed the UK’s sovereign credit triple A rating, with a stable outlook.
Mr Jackson
Does the Minister agree that the systemic risk to our triple A credit rating is unlikely to be ameliorated by a form of state-sponsored laundering of UK taxpayers’ money through the International Monetary Fund to the failed eurozone, which hitherto has not received the confidence of the bond markets?
Mr Hoban
My hon. Friend raises an issue about resources for the IMF. It is absolutely vital that the IMF has the resources it needs to play its part in ensuring that there is a stable global economy, which is in our economic interest. My right hon. Friend the Chancellor has said that if there is a request from the IMF for more resources, he will look at it carefully. If he agrees to the request, and the amount requested exceeds the limit in place at the moment, we shall seek parliamentary approval, but it is absolutely vital, and in our interest, to ensure that there is a stable global economy, because that is of benefit to the UK economy. I hope that the Opposition have changed the approach they adopted last year of opposing increases in the IMF subscription.
Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Selly Oak) (Lab)
With borrowing set to grow by £158 billion more than the Government planned, how many more miscalculations can the Minister afford before the precious credit rating goes the same way as all the other economic indicators?
Mr Hoban
Let me just tell the hon. Gentleman what Moody’s said in December last year:
“The currently stable outlook on the government’s Aaa rating depends in part on the assumption that the government will stay on track with its fiscal consolidation programme.”
We will stay on track. The Opposition, with their policies on debt and borrowing, would throw this country off course, leading to higher interest rates that would hit families and businesses. We will stick to our course.
Nicky Morgan (Loughborough) (Con)
T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Danny Alexander)
The core purpose of the Treasury is to ensure the stability of the economy, promote growth and employment, reform banking, and manage the public finances so that Britain lives within her means. I am pleased to tell the House that the Chancellor has decided to reappoint David Miles as external member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England. This morning, the Chancellor wrote to the Chair of the Treasury Committee to make the Committee aware of the reappointment, and it will decide whether to hold reconfirmation hearings. Mr Miles’s knowledge of the UK economy and his background in the financial sector will be invaluable to the Monetary Policy Committee through this challenging period.
Nicky Morgan
The Government’s plans to index-link public sector pensions to the consumer prices index rather than the retail prices index have been the subject of much debate in the House. Has the Treasury received any representations or support for that approach from private sector organisations that are planning to make changes to their pensions?
Danny Alexander
It is a very good question. We made that change, which has had an effect on public service pensions, for good reasons. The change has been made in many private sector organisations—most recently, I read, in the Labour party’s pension scheme. The Opposition’s attacks on the move being ideologically driven are belied by the decisions they have had to make because of the deficit their party is running.
Ed Balls (Morley and Outwood) (Lab/Co-op)
With the Chancellor away in Brussels in his new role as an observer at European Finance Ministers meetings, it is nice to welcome the Chief Secretary to his new starring role at Treasury questions. I am sure he will know, although he has not told the House, that in the last 15 minutes the International Monetary Fund has announced that it is once again downgrading its growth forecast for the UK economy, saying that action is now needed to support economic activity in Britain. With unemployment rising too, continued pay restraint is now inevitable, but it must be done fairly, so let me ask the Chief Secretary this. In 2010, he promised a £250 rise for every one of the 1.7 million public sector workers paid less than £21,000 a year. Can he tell the House how many of those low-paid public sector workers actually got the £250 rise?
Danny Alexander
It is good to see the shadow Chancellor after the Christmas recess. Many of us who missed the chance to go to a panto over Christmas have enjoyed the Opposition’s pantomime economic policy changes. It is not clear whether today the right hon. Gentleman supports cuts or opposes them, but this is one show that will run and run. On the point about public sector pay, for all work forces under central Government control, the £250 was paid in full.
Ed Balls
Bluster. The right hon. Gentleman is worse than the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and there was no mention of the IMF growth downgrade. The answer is that less than half of those low-paid public sector workers got the rise. Almost a million did not get the £250 increase that they were promised by the Treasury. Last week, we urged the Chancellor to ask the pay review bodies to make the 1% cap fair this time, with restraint at the top, so that we can have pay rises at the bottom. Have the Chief Secretary or the Chancellor written to the pay review bodies? Will they guarantee a fair way forward on pay restraint, or will we just get more broken promises from this Chief Secretary to the Treasury?
Danny Alexander
Of course, the people to whom the right hon. Gentleman refers are local authority employees. Many local authorities did pay the £250, including some Liberal Democrat-controlled local authorities. I am not aware of any Labour local authorities paying the £250, so perhaps he should look within his party before deciding which side of the House was most effective at ensuring that the benefit was paid directly to the lowest-paid. Of course, we have had to take the difficult decision to continue pay restraint, with a 1% cap for the following two years. The pay review bodies will be very involved in making recommendations for those two years, starting, of course, in the parts of the civil service that come out of the pay freeze earliest. The IMF has repeatedly made the point that the Government are right to stick to their fiscal consolidation strategy, and we will.
Michael Ellis (Northampton North) (Con)
T2. Does my right hon. Friend by any chance agree with the right hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle (Alan Johnson), who said:“promising no cuts, no jobs losses and continued levels of public expenditure...is the policy of the delusional left who will never gain the public’s trust”?
Danny Alexander
That is a very wise quote. Of course, the policy of the Labour party is in increased confusion since the shadow Chancellor made his speech. It is a little-known fact that when he made it, he also signalled his opposition to more than £20 billion of this Government’s deficit reduction measures, and since he made that announcement, his party in the House of Lords has opposed a further £2 billion of welfare reforms, which rather suggests that the conversion to fiscal credibility is skin-deep at best.
Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Bow) (Lab)
T6. My constituency now has one of the highest youth unemployment rates in the country, and the highest level of child poverty at 51%; that is compared with 7% in the Prime Minister’s constituency. Will the Minister admit that his Government are not serious about child poverty, and have completely failed to tackle youth unemployment?
Danny Alexander
No, I will certainly not say that, not least because youth unemployment rose by 40% when the Labour party was in government. I hope that the hon. Lady will welcome the youth contract that we announced, which is a great deal more ambitious than the package put forward by her Front Benchers; the Work programme, which is delivering real results for people up and down the country; and the investment in child care that will help women to go out to work, as well as men. Those are all things that help people to find work in these very difficult times.
Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)
T3. I warmly welcome the work being done by the Office of Tax Simplification, but does the Exchequer Secretary agree that we can do more to boost tax transparency, for example by providing all taxpayers with an annual statement on how their hard-earned tax pounds are spent?
The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (Mr David Gauke)
My hon. Friend raises an interesting point. In November, the Government and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs published a consultation paper on exactly those lines, and I very much look forward to the ten-minute rule Bill that my hon. Friend the Member for Ipswich (Ben Gummer) will introduce tomorrow, which makes that proposal. We should all agree that we should do everything that we can to make tax and spending as transparent to the public as possible.
Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)
T8. The Public Accounts Committee has“serious concerns that large companies are treated more favourably than other taxpayers”by HMRC.That once again gives the lie to the Government’s claims that we are all in this together. What action will the Chancellor or the Minister take to ensure greater transparency and accountability in HMRC, and to assure ordinary taxpayers who are struggling to pay their bills this month that companies will also pay their full share?
Mr Gauke
The Government will respond in detail to the PAC report shortly, but it is only fair to point out that, in recent years, HMRC’s yield from large companies has increased substantially. Indeed, we have provided, as part of the spending review settlement for HMRC, additional resources to get more out of large businesses, so that we ensure that they pay their fair share.
John Glen (Salisbury) (Con)
T4. How much revenue does the Treasury expect HMRC to receive as a result of recent measures to reduce tax avoidance, and how much does the Minister estimate could be accrued from tax exiles who make £100 million in this country, clear off to Switzerland for five years, and then come back and advise the Leader of the Opposition?
Mr Gauke
As a consequence of the measures that we announced last year to tackle avoidance, we believe that something like £1 billion will be raised, £750 million of that relating to disguised remuneration, a policy that was opposed by Labour. I cannot talk about individual advisers to the leader of the Labour party and their tax affairs, but if such a person is advising the Labour leader, as far as we are concerned he is doing a great job and should carry on.
Jonathan Ashworth (Leicester South) (Lab)
Can the Chief Secretary confirm, so that we are clear, that the Chancellor is set to borrow more and debt is set to be larger than it would have been, had the Government followed the path of my right hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh South West (Mr Darling)?
Danny Alexander
I certainly cannot confirm that debt is higher than it would have been if we had followed the path advocated by the Opposition. That path was leading to lack of economic credibility. When this coalition Government came into office, our credit rating was on negative watch from one credit rating agency, and it is only because we have taken tough action to deal with the deficit that we have got our spending under control, we are reducing our deficit and we have established this country’s credibility on the international markets, which was in considerable doubt under Labour.
Sir Robert Smith (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD)
T5. Can the Minister update the House on lessons learned from the Fiscal Forum on how to maximise investment in jobs in UK oil and gas production?
The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Miss Chloe Smith)
I certainly can, and I welcome my hon. Friend’s interest in this policy area, based on his constituency experience. The Government have been clear that they want to see the oil and gas industry thrive, given its importance for jobs and growth around the country. Ministerial colleagues, officials and I continue to engage the industry in ongoing constructive dialogue to understand the challenges facing it.
Huw Irranca-Davies (Ogmore) (Lab)
The Minister confirmed today that 100,000 more children will be put into poverty as a result of the changes to tax credit. Can the Minister explain to the House, the country and my constituency why it is fair that three times as much will be taken from tax credits as will be raised in additional taxes on the banks?
Miss Smith
What the hon. Gentleman needs to acknowledge is that we have a sustainable way of including the banks in our public spending and public taxation plans; under his party’s plan, that revenue would have been spent five times over, if not more, and that is if it were done over multiple years, as ours is.
Mel Stride (Central Devon) (Con)
T7. Youth unemployment under the previous Government grew by more than 40%. That is 277,000 more young people out of work from the time they first came to office. Does my right hon. Friend agree that the best way to tackle youth unemployment is not to invest in wasteful schemes such as the future jobs fund, but to invest in skills for young people, which means apprenticeships, which this Government are delivering?
Danny Alexander
My hon. Friend is right to point out that youth unemployment has been rising since 2004, which suggests that it is a deep-rooted structural issue in our economy, not just the subject of political knockabout at the Dispatch Box. That is why we are, as a Government, investing far more in apprenticeships. That is a very good way to give young people the skills that they need to survive and thrive in today’s labour market. That is why, in relation to youth unemployment, we will not be deflected from the path that we are on.
Mr Adrian Bailey (West Bromwich West) (Lab/Co-op)
The Government’s national insurance holiday for new companies to employ new workers has been acknowledged by the Prime Minister to be a flop. So far just £6 million has been spent on supporting jobs and £12 million in administering them, out of a budget of £1 billion. Will the Minister consider taking the advice of the Federation of Small Businesses and extending that support to all small businesses prepared to take on new staff?
Mr Gauke
The take-up has indeed been disappointing, but there have been 12,000 successful applications and we estimate that about 40,000 jobs have been supported in total. There are 17 participating businesses in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency. If I may correct him on one thing, the administration costs are not £12 million, but £325,000. As for extending the scheme further, we have to bear in mind the cost. We are concerned about that, even if the Opposition are not.
Sir Alan Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed) (LD)
T9. I thank the Chief Secretary to the Treasury for his help in securing the extension of the north-east enterprise zone into Northumberland, which could bring jobs to my constituents in south-east Northumberland. Will enhanced capital allowances be available within the extended area?
Danny Alexander
My right hon. Friend has worked assiduously on behalf of his constituents to ensure that the enterprise zone includes the port of Blyth and the land at East Sleekburn, which will enable private sector firms to come into the area blighted by the problems at Alcan. Capital allowances will of course be available within the enterprise zone, and that will certainly include this territory.
Caroline Lucas (Brighton, Pavilion) (Green)
The huge reserves of coal, oil and gas held by companies listed in the City of London have been called a sub-prime asset, because the global drive to reduce emissions is likely to cause fossil fuel reserves to lose value. Has the Minister any plans to ask the Financial Policy Committee to examine the impact of over-exposure to high-carbon assets by London listed companies, and what other plans has he to remove the carbon bubble from our financial system?
Danny Alexander
The hon. Lady asks a good question. The Government’s priority in this regard is precisely to support the expansion of renewable energy, which is a vital part of our future energy strategy. That is why it is a key priority in the national infrastructure plan and why we are investing £3 billion through the green investment bank to stimulate investment. The high price of oil and fuel at the forecourt suggests that that asset is not declining as quickly as she suggests.
Jessica Lee (Erewash) (Con)
Does my hon. Friend agree that local enterprise partnerships, such as Erewash Partnership in my constituency, play a vital role in advising SMEs on the difficulties with the availability of credit and can provide an overview for banks and the Government on the current concerns?
The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr Mark Hoban)
My hon. Friend makes an important point. It is absolutely vital that businesses and banks engage together to understand the challenges businesses face. We have taken a number of measures through the seed enterprise investment scheme, relaxing the rules on venture capital trusts and enterprise investment schemes, to encourage more equity funding for business. We are working closely with the banks to ensure that we do all we can to reduce the cost of funding to SMEs.
Jim McGovern (Dundee West) (Lab)
Yesterday I found myself again agreeing with a Government Minister, at least in part, when the Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the hon. Member for Basingstoke (Maria Miller) said in answer to a question from my hon. Friend the Member for Midlothian (Mr Hamilton) that the most sustainable way to reduce child poverty is through parents going to work. GMB, my old trade union, today published a study showing figures suggesting that, on average, eight jobseekers are chasing every vacancy in Scotland, and unfortunately in Dundee the figure rises to 12 jobseekers for every vacancy. What are the Government doing to address this scandal, and are they working with the Scottish Executive on the matter?
Danny Alexander
I am sorry if agreeing with a Government Minister makes the hon. Gentleman uncomfortable, but he is of course right that work is the best route out of poverty. That is the driving force behind our welfare reforms, the Work programme, which is the most extensive initiative ever undertaken to help people off benefits and into work, and our youth contract. Of course the country is in very difficult economic circumstances, but the Government are doing everything we can to support people off benefits and into work for precisely the reason he gives.
Mr Speaker
Order. I am sorry to disappoint colleagues, but questions to the Treasury team, rather analogous to questions to the Foreign Secretary and his colleagues, tend to beat the box office records. We must now move on.