Finance (No. 2) Bill
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The Second Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means (Dawn Primarolo)
Does Mr MacNeil wish to move new clause 6 formally?
The Second Deputy Chairman
No? Okay. [Interruption.] It is very generous of Members to assist Mr MacNeil, but he can manage it by himself and I believe that the new clause is not moved.
Clauses 72 to 74 ordered to stand part of the Bill.
The Deputy Speaker resumed the Chair.
Bill (Clauses 1, 5 to 7, 11, 72 to 74 and 112 and schedule 1) reported, without amendment (Standing Order No. 83D(6), and ordered to lie on the Table.
Finance (No.2) Bill
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Charlotte Leslie (Bristol North West) (Con)
On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I would like to apologise for failing to inform the Register of Members’ Financial Interests of financial donations to my local Conservative party in a timely fashion. I discovered this in August last year, and immediately acted to register these donations, which were already registered with the Electoral Commission. I have today been alerted to the fact that because of this I have asked three written questions, made my maiden speech and one intervention and asked a Select Committee witness a question, all without declaring a potentially relevant interest. I can confirm, however, that I have in no way personally financially benefited.
Although I am registered dyslexic and sought to put in place additional administrative support as a result, I take complete responsibility for this. I am unspeakably sorry that despite all the efforts that I made as a new MP to get things right, I have nevertheless made this very serious error, and I want to reiterate my heartfelt apologies to the House and have sought the earliest possible opportunity to do so.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)
I thank the hon. Lady for that point of order. It is not a matter for the Chair, but I am sure that the House has heard, and the record will show her comments.
Finance (No. 2) Bill
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Mark Field
I will ask the questions rather than answer them, if the shadow Minister does not mind. He implores us to look at the Bill in a balanced way. We have heard statements about tax cuts for millionaires time and again over the past year and again today in the House. Does he recognise that the top 1% of British citizens are now paying the highest share of income tax that they have ever paid in the history of that tax—some 30%? Purists such as me have at times been mildly critical of the inconsistency of elements of the welfare and tax changes that have been made even during this coalition Government, but we have gained a hell of a lot of social cohesion in this country—
Mark Field
—in marked contrast to many other European nations, and the Government should be congratulated on that.
Amendment of the Law
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Alison Seabeck (Plymouth, Moor View) (Lab)
The Chancellor talked about an economy that is now improving and I do not think anybody would be so churlish as not to acknowledge that there is some improvement, but he also suggested there is further pain to come and it is clear to everyone outside this place, if not to those on the Government Benches, which people and families are going to bear the brunt of the prolonged period of austerity. It will not be millionaires; it will be low-income families, who are not actually terribly impressed by the raising of the tax threshold when the overall cost of living increases are hitting them a great deal harder and when, for those who will be in receipt of the new universal credit, almost every penny will be clawed back.
Citizens Advice tellingly confirms that those earning around £100,000 will benefit more than those earning the minimum wage. What we need, and what was missing from the Budget, is positive news about infrastructure investment in our region, such as the building of homes that families and first-time buyers can afford to rent or purchase, and major projects such as the diversionary rail line to ensure that the region is resilient in severe weather events. I agree with the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr Heath) that expectation is elevated in the south-west about what the autumn statement might contain.
The Labour leader of Plymouth city council has made it clear that investment in new signalling to increase line speeds, new rolling stock and improved rail resilience would help to generate some 32,000 new homes and 42,000 new jobs in the south-west. That investment would bring work, taxes would roll into the Treasury, the south-west economy would benefit and large and small firms would feed into the procurement process, supporting all that growth.
Such investment would undoubtedly support the excellent work of our universities, which could without doubt do even more to support entrepreneurs. Plymouth university is working closely across local enterprise partnership boundaries in support of the work being done by Sir Andrew Witty to drive economic growth.
There were some positive measures in the Budget to help business. I welcome the support for exports, as I welcome the reduction in bingo tax, because it is something on which I have campaigned under both the previous Government and this Government. Devon air ambulance will be much better placed to continue to offer its life-saving service following the changes to VAT on fuel. There was no mention of the business rate change, which many small businesses in Plymouth would have liked to see. I have concerns about the pension proposal, given the history of mis-selling and given personal experience of someone who was persuaded, with expert advice, to take equity from their mortgage while they were seriously ill in such a way that after their death, their partner was left in a dire position. The quality of the advice offered is a serious matter. There is also the question of whether people can get advice on more than one occasion.
I was accused by the Pensions Minister, the hon. Member for Thornbury and Yate (Steve Webb), of being patronising because I dared to ask whether women of a certain age—roughly my age—would face disbenefits as a result of some of the pension changes. He failed to answer that question, and he also failed to offer to place the evidence, particularly that concerning women and the wider risk assessment, into the Library for hon. Members to see.
My colleague the Labour candidate for Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport, Luke Pollard, yesterday produced figures showing that in Plymouth the average family is about £1,800 a year worse off because prices are rising much faster than wages. When we consider that the average income in Plymouth is about £20,000, not the £100,000 mentioned by the Chancellor yesterday—he is clearly very out of touch if he thinks that that is an average wage—£1,800 is a huge loss. How is it fair that nurses in Derriford get only a £250 pay rise, while higher- rate taxpayers become significantly better off?
It is the same old Tories. I look back at my father’s election address from February 1974, in which he highlighted tax cuts for the rich paid for by price rises for the rest, rising house prices and rents, and the worst house building record since 1963. Of course, we are now facing the worst housing building situation since the 1920s. The attempts to rebrand the stalled Ebbsfleet development would be laughable if the problem were not so serious. Initially, the Minister without Portfolio, the right hon. Member for Welwyn Hatfield (Grant Shapps) talked about building 22,000 homes there, but we are now being promised only 15,000 homes on a site that has little inherent land value.
If the Chancellor is serious about ensuring that the economy continues to grow and does not falter, he must consider the measures proposed by my right hon. Friend the shadow Chancellor—
Sajid Javid
The pension changes will give people a choice that they have never had before: it is their pension, and it is their choice.
Our businesses are not, as the Opposition would have us believe, the enemy; they are the reason why our economy is growing faster than any other advanced economy. They are the reason why more than 1.6 million jobs have been created in the private sector during the past four years. Many Opposition Members have spoken today about the importance of bringing down unemployment, on which they are absolutely right to focus. They might have some good ideas about how to do it, so I thought that I would look at the facts. I can report that unemployment went up during Labour’s last term and has fallen under this Government in the constituency of every Opposition Member who has spoken today. For example, in the constituency of the hon. Member for Coventry North West (Mr Robinson), who is not in his place, unemployment went up 98% under Labour, and is down 29% under this Government. In the constituency of the hon. Member for Rutherglen and Hamilton West (Tom Greatrex), it went up 96% under Labour, and is 17% down under this Government. Which Opposition Member saw the largest increase in unemployment? The right hon. Member for Morley and Outwood (Ed Balls) saw a record increase of 184% in unemployment in his constituency during Labour’s last term, when he was in office, but it is down 21% under this Government. As expected, Opposition Members know how to create problems, but they have no idea how to solve them.
This Government trust businesses and want to help them, and we want to help the savers, the doers and the makers. This Budget does all those things, and I commend it to the House.
Ordered, That the debate be now adjourned.— (Mr Gyimah.)
Debate to be resumed Monday 24 March.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)
If the shouting across the Chamber can stop—perhaps Ministers would like to go outside to do that—we can move on to the Adjournment.
Fairness and Inequality
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Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)
Order. Before the hon. Gentleman continues, I should point out that this debate has been going for more than two and a half hours, and he is only the fourth speaker. If every Member insists on taking this long, there will be a lot of disappointed people in the Chamber. I am sure he has lots to say, but so have other Members, and some consideration on both sides of the Chamber could help in making speeches just a little shorter than over half an hour.
Guto Bebb
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I took my cue from the initial speeches, which I think lasted an hour.
The issue of tax is crucial. I do not want to reduce tax for the sake of it; I want to reduce it because it will stimulate the economy and bring more money into the Exchequer. The hon. Member for Na h-Eileanan an Iar said he wanted to reduce corporation tax to stimulate the economy. I do not understand why reducing corporation tax stimulates the economy, but the same does not work for individuals.
I turn to inequality and the attack in the motion on the Government’s welfare reforms. Those reforms are crucial to the coalition Government’s legacy. In 2010, it was said the coalition came together to deal with the deficit, but just as important, I would argue, was the welfare reform agenda. It might not work, but if it does not, it will be the greatest shame. This brave effort to reform our welfare system is not about penalising people or depriving them of money; its whole purpose is to show faith in people—a faith never shown by the opposition parties.
The Labour Government had a make-believe target for taking people out of poverty. Poverty was defined as below 60% of the average wage, so if the average wage rose by 10% and the wage of somebody on 60% went up by 10%, they moved from not being in poverty to being in poverty. They were better off, but because the line had moved, they were defined as being in poverty. Even worse, if somebody was on 60% plus £1, they were defined as not being in poverty and therefore a success for the Government. That person did not necessarily feel suddenly out of poverty—they still struggled and found life difficult—but policy makers could forget them because they were above that line. That is why we ended up with 5 million unemployed people during 13 years of the previous Labour Government—5 million people, yes, who had money thrown at them so as not to embarrass Labour in relation to its poverty target, but 5 million people forgotten by Labour and denied the initiative to work because they were being paid to be on welfare. It was deeply shameful that they ignored people in that way, and I am proud to be part of a coalition Government who are at least making an effort to deal with it.
Between 2005 and 2010, 400,000 people born in the UK moved into unemployment, yet 700,000 jobs were taken by people not born in this country. There was something wrong with a system that said to people in my constituency, “You can be on welfare, while someone from eastern Europe works in the local hotel or the abattoir.” That is shameful, and we need to deal with it, because the opportunity to develop must start somewhere.
I feel passionately about this issue when I talk to the deputy manager of a hotel in my constituency. He came to this country from the Czech Republic, and within 18 months he was a deputy manager. I was very pleased for him, but I thought that the job could have been given to someone from the locality if that person had not been held back by the welfare trap that we had created. Our gradual move towards universal benefit is a brave move, but although it has been supported by Opposition Members in terms of their rhetoric, in terms of their actions they have rejected every effort that we have made to reform a system that is immoral, and is the basic reason for the fact that we have so much inequality in Wales.
The Labour party in Wales should feel particularly ashamed. The areas in Wales that are really struggling have given their loyalty to the Labour party not for one generation, not for two generations, but for three or four generations, and they have been failed time and again. It is clear from today’s debate that the Government are making really brave decisions to try to ensure that people are not seen merely as numbers so that they can be taken £1 over a moveable poverty line. Our coalition tries to see the value of each and every individual, and the contribution that the individual can make. Nothing will make a bigger impact on inequality than getting people back to work when they are capable of making a huge contribution that is currently being wasted.
When I see motions of this kind, what I see is the same old rhetoric of the middle-class, left-wing readers of The Guardian who have dominated this country for far too long. What we need are the reforms that are being implemented by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. What we need are the tax reductions that are being implemented by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. What we need is to show faith in the people of the country, whether that country is Wales, Scotland or the United Kingdom. Government Members see those people’s potential, but I fear that Opposition Members—especially those in the Labour ranks—saw them simply as numbers to be dealt with in the context of their poverty targets while doing nothing to help them, and they should be truly ashamed of that.
Consumer Rights Bill
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Stella Creasy
My hon. Friend is spot on and shows why the Bill falls short. That issue in the furniture industry reveals the problems that we have with the ombudsman system. I will come on to that matter and talk about her work on it.
The first question that we want to ask relates to the role of competition and challenge within markets to produce choice and value for money, which the Secretary of State spoke about. We agree that competition is a key driver of quality, innovation and personalisation in products, goods and services. However, in many markets in Britain, people are paying over the odds for essential goods and services because the barriers to entry into those markets have created dominance for a small number of providers or because there is outdated regulation. The existence of many companies does not always mean that there will be competition either. The ability of small firms to compete with larger providers is a key element of a free and functioning market.
If the Secretary of State wants examples of where those problems lie, there are many. My right hon. Friends the Members for Doncaster North (Edward Miliband) and for Don Valley (Caroline Flint) and my hon. Friend the Member for Rutherglen and Hamilton West (Tom Greatrex) have been clear about the broken nature of our energy markets. Six companies dominate the retail market in the UK, supplying to 98% of the domestic market and 82% of the smaller business market. The fact that no new entrant has managed to challenge that dominance suggests that there are significant barriers to newcomers that inhibit competition. That is reflected in the prices that consumers pay. A lack of competition in the retail market for energy has resulted in consumers paying £3.6 million more than they need to every year. Switching levels in that market are the lowest that they have been for years. The low levels of switching mean that the big energy companies have a captured market, which again reduces the incentives to keep prices competitive.
It is not only in the energy market—[Interruption.]
Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)
Order. We require only one speaker at a time, so I would be grateful if the hon. Member for Suffolk Coastal (Dr Coffey) would stop shouting across the Chamber.
Stella Creasy
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I would be delighted to take an intervention from the hon. Lady at any point if she would care to make one. I am sure that whatever she is chuntering from a sedentary position is absolutely fascinating.
It is not only in the energy market that we see such problems. My hon. Friend the Member for Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East (Gregg McClymont) and the hon. Member for South Derbyshire (Heather Wheeler) have highlighted similar problems for consumers in the pensions market. The current restrictions on the operations of the National Employment Savings Trust mean that it is impossible for it to compete with other providers, to the detriment of consumers. It is a market where hidden charges and fees create problems for people. There are penalty charges for people who want to change jobs and exit charges for savers who switch schemes. Which? found cases of consumers having up to 50% of their savings being absorbed by such charges and costs.
If the Secretary of State does not believe me on the energy and pensions markets, let us look at my passion, the payday lending market, in which a lack of competition is clearly causing problems for consumers. Not every consumer in that market gets into financial difficulty, but enough of them do because the way in which it operates causes huge detriment to the consumer and huge problems for our economy. The National Audit Office estimates that unscrupulous behaviour by firms in that market costs consumers at least £450 million a year. The lack of competition to provide services to the customers of those companies, as well as a barrier to accessing alternative services being created by borrowing from them in the first place, enables the exploitation of their customers.
If the Secretary of State is not interested in the impact of high-cost credit, perhaps he will look at the banking market. My hon. Friend the Member for Kilmarnock and Loudoun (Cathy Jamieson) and the hon. Member for South Northamptonshire (Andrea Leadsom) have again highlighted the raw deal that consumers get. The pricing power of big banks means that they dominate the market in key products such as mortgages. Banks are able to retain their dominance by making it hard for customers to move their custom. Some 1.3 million people have switched their current account in the past year, which is a churn rate of just 2% to 3%. Studies show that a truly competitive industry would have a switching rate nearer to 10%. It is not only in the dominance in the current account market that we see problems. When banks are able to set their own terms, they can set requirements such as those for buy-to-let mortgages that force borrowers to offer only short-term tenancies, which are causing problems in the housing market.
Given the Secretary of State’s speech last night and his commitment to competition, I would have thought that a healthy dose of competition across the sectors I have mentioned for the benefit of consumers is what the doctor would have ordered. However, we do not see that in the Bill.
The second question that I want to pose for the Bill is about the importance of information flows, which is linked to free markets. What are the Government doing in the Bill to address the information gaps and asymmetries that enable consumer detriment? We know that data are vital to ensuring that consumers may compare goods and services in order to make their own choices. We know that a lack of information helps providers to hide behind confusion and a lack of transparency. The Government’s own research shows that if consumers knew more about products, they would be able to gain £150 million to £240 million a year. However, only 13% of those who use price comparison sites get the lowest priced deal. The Government admit that one reason for that is that people do not have accurate information about their past usage and therefore find it difficult to predict future usage.
We are at the bottom of the European league for consumers being able to switch and shop around to get the deals that they want. The contrast with countries such as Australia is clear. Mass movement switching campaigns have led to one in four Australian citizens being part of schemes that get them better deals not just on energy, but on health insurance and financial services.
Consumers have legal rights to request access to personal data, but half the respondents to Which? were not even aware of that right and very few people have exercised it. I am sure that the Secretary of State will point to the midata project, which is a voluntary scheme to give consumers access to their energy, mobile and financial services data. However, that scheme has struggled to have any impact for a simple and obvious reason: companies have little incentive to release commercial data that could convince a customer to go elsewhere. We welcome the fact that the Government took an order-making power through the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 to compel certain businesses to release such data, but that affects only four core sectors and has not yet been applied. It could be applied more widely if secondary legislation were used. That is another missed opportunity in the Bill. Let us revise the Bill to unlock the capacity of information to improve outcomes for all consumers and citizens.
That capacity would help in many sectors. My right hon. Friend the Member for Southampton, Itchen (Mr Denham) has run a tireless campaign, for example, on the lack of clarity in supermarket pricing. We have seen how some deals and special offers mislead shoppers when clear information is not provided. There are products that are more expensive than the original price when they are in a multi-buy offer; products that have been at a sale price for longer than the original price; and products whose prices are increased immediately before they go on offer, to make the discount appear more significant.
Supermarkets, like many other industries, hold a wealth of data about us as consumers that they use to design their pricing strategies. Making those data easily available—in principle, they are already public data—could transform consumers’ power to shop around and to know a good “buy one, get one free” deal from a dud one, unlike some coalition voters, I suspect.
Or the Secretary of State could learn from my hon. Friend the Member for Sefton Central (Bill Esterson) and the hon. Member for Edinburgh West (Mike Crockart) and use the Bill to help consumers protect their data and to deal with nuisance calls, which I know many Members are frustrated by. I know that the Under-Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, the hon. Member for Cardiff Central (Jenny Willott), who is in her place, has campaigned on that issue. We know that 71% of landline customers say that they have received a live marketing call and 63% a recorded marketing message. The Information Commissioner receives 2,500 complaints a month from people sent unsolicited text messages, usually for debt or payment protection insurance claims. With 75% of landlines being registered with the Telephone Preference Service, the number of complaints shows that something is going seriously wrong. Again, the Bill will do nothing to help consumers protect their own data, which will be to their detriment.
We know that it is not enough just to have data, because they are not a disinfectant if the curtains are closed to the sunlight. Helping people make the right decisions the first time is key to outcomes, yet many people, especially those with complex needs or a lack of confidence, struggle to get the information and advice that they require to make effective decisions. In turn, that generates cost to the public purse, including the costs of putting it right. I know that the hon. Member for Mid Norfolk (George Freeman), who is in his place, feels strongly about that subject.
We know that when good advice is provided, services are improved. Indeed, one study in Nottingham showed that 40% of the cases dealt with by a local advice service referred to poor decision making in the public sector—what was called “preventable failure in the system”. A project that piloted advice services working with the council showed that 60% of those issues were preventable. When we see such studies and the impact of good advice and good access to data, the question is why the Government are not truly empowering consumers and citizens to bring them the benefits of the right changes. Why does the Bill not offer any action on that?
Where the Bill does offer input is on contract terms. It sets minimum standards that supplied goods must meet, sets out that they should be fit for purpose and satisfactory, and provides a legal right to reject faulty goods within 30 days of receiving them. Again, however, consumers will ask whether that will deal with the real problems with terms and conditions that they face time and time again. That must be our third challenge for the Bill.
A lack of clarity about prices causes many of us to purchase products that are not suitable. It is about the most basic of consumer needs—to know the cost of the product that we are purchasing and what our money will buy us. Prominent pricing is not the same as transparent pricing. Hidden charges are a problem for too many in our society. One study found that buying insurance through a broker could push up premiums by £500 a year, and that the gulf was caused largely by the added expense of the broker’s fees.
Many consumers experience the frustration of signing up for services or goods and then finding that the terms and conditions are varied because the prices are not clear. A constituent wrote to me this week about a website called Tax Return Gateway, a copycat of a Government website that looks suspiciously like the real deal. My constituent was charged £500 for filling in her tax return, and only after she had paid it was she told that that was the fee for the service, not the tax return itself. Such sites exist for a whole range of public services, including passport applications, visa programmes and driving licences. It seems a simple principle that people should be told the price before they purchase something, but again, the Bill will do nothing to provide for that.
Stella Creasy
If the hon. Gentleman will forgive me, I am conscious of time and want to press on.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)
Order. I heard the hon. Lady say that she wanted to press on. May I point out to her that she has been speaking for more than 40 minutes now? She has been generous in giving way, but I would be grateful if she could conclude her remarks so that other hon. Members can participate in the debate.
Stella Creasy
I promise you, Madam Deputy Speaker, that I, too, want to conclude my remarks.
The Bill does not deal with the European directive on alternative dispute resolution, which the Opposition will want to look at in Committee. The Business, Innovation and Skills Committee has said that that needs to be dealt with. There is also a need for a stronger take on the role of trading standards. The Secretary of State seems to believe that trading standards, which are desperately short of resources, can deal with many of the problems. We know that most consumer detriment happens at local level, and therefore that we need to do more to help people to take action at that level. The Secretary of State has not told the whole truth on cowboy builders. Many builders repeatedly rip people off, and yet there is little provision locally to take them on. The Opposition believe that the Bill has a role in doing something about that.
The Opposition also believe that there is a role for the Bill in dealing with the broader social impact of changes. I would flag up prepayment meters and premium phone lines, in relation to which there is a need for a broader social concern in the role a regulator can play.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)
Order. When I say that the hon. Lady needs to conclude her speech, I do not mean that she should speak faster through what she has left to say; I mean that she should finish her speech with a few sentences. I would like her to do that now. That is not an opinion, but a request, and I expect her to do it.
Stella Creasy
It is a request to which I willingly oblige.
Suffice it to say, the Opposition look forward to the debate in Committee. I hope we have set out that there are many more things we can do in the Bill. We believe that we should make the pound in our pocket truly powerful. We hope the Government join us in that ambition.
George Freeman
I will not take interventions because of the instruction from Madam Deputy Speaker to keep moving.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)
Order. I was addressing my remarks only to the hon. Lady at the Dispatch Box speaking on behalf of the Opposition. If the hon. Gentleman or any other hon. Member wants to take interventions, it is entirely up to them. I have not put a prohibition on interventions.
George Freeman
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for that very helpful clarification. If I can finish my point, I will happily take an intervention.
I welcome the fact that there will be one simple Act to govern what has hitherto been covered by 12. I also welcome that, underpinning the Bill, are core consumer principles. People will have the right to get what they pay for; for goods and digital content to be fit for purpose; and for services to be provided with reasonable care and skill. We will also have the right to have faults in purchases put right free of charge, or to be provided with a refund or replacement. The reforms will enhance measures to protect consumers when appropriate.
I welcome the deregulation to reduce business burdens and costs. I also welcome the modernisation of the legal framework to ensure that consumer law keeps pace with technology. It clarifies the law when it is written in legal jargon and streamlines consumer rights, remedies and enforcement powers.
Pub Companies
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Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)
Order. A large number of Members wish to take part in the debate, which is due to finish at 4 o’clock, including the Front-Bench winding-up speeches. I ask each Member to speak for no more than 10 minutes, including interventions, so that we can fit everybody in. If that does not happen, there will have to be a time limit.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)
Order. I gently remind the hon. Gentleman that I asked Members to speak for 10 minutes so that we would not need a time limit and everybody could get in. He has now been speaking for 17 minutes, and other Members might not get in as a consequence. I would be grateful if he could reflect on that and perhaps draw his remarks to a conclusion.
Greg Mulholland
I apologise, Madam Deputy Speaker. I allowed my enthusiasm to get the better of me.
To conclude, these are the death throes of this model, but the Government must act to save hundreds of pubs. Punch Taverns is teetering on the brink. It is in discussion with bondholders that might anyway lead to its demise. Luckily its tenants and lessees have their rights, but they also need the right to a fair share of their pub profits. It is time we had a decision. I welcome the chance to give the Government the necessary nudge—that is what this is about—but let us come back and discuss this again when we get their response. They must now listen and their response must be the right one.
Payday Loan Companies
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Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)
Order. I inform Members that there will now be an eight-minute time limit on all Back-Bench contributions to this debate, as a large number of Members wish to speak.
Mike Crockart (Edinburgh West) (LD)
Does my hon. Friend agree that, although real-time information is essential, it would be good if the companies checked any information at all? When I conducted some research, I made an application for a loan under the name Boris Peep, using my constituency address as the address for the individual. The loan was approved by WageDayAdvance. I then received—
Mike Crockart
I then received numerous texts saying, “Hi Boris, your loan application has been approved.” That surely shows that no real-time information was used at all.
Post Office Services
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Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)
Order. I am sorry to interrupt the hon. Gentleman, but we have reached the moment for a procedural motion, after which I shall ask him to resume his speech.
Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—(Karen Bradley.)
John Robertson
That is quite all right, Madam Deputy Speaker; you are in charge, after all.
The decision not to award the green giro contract to the Post Office was another key example of how the importance and value to people of the institution’s future were not even considered. The move was widely condemned by charities, which highlighted the fact that it would affect the elderly and vulnerable the hardest. Andy Burrows of Consumer Focus said:
“research suggests that people, particularly those on a low income, value the security and privacy that post offices provide.”
There is a real necessity for post offices that cannot be measured by numbers. When we think about the use of post offices, such matters should be considered, but it seems that in this case they were not.
Such a thing is also relevant when we talk about the Post Office’s announcement last year that it is to franchise several Crown post offices. There is a lot of concern, particularly among the vulnerable people I have mentioned, that certain services will no longer be easily available to local people, leading to an inferior service for our constituents and the loss of one-to-one help from specially trained and committed post office staff. We must also bear in mind the livelihoods of hard-working staff in Crown post offices. Post Office Ltd appears to have handled this very badly through a lack of consultation with staff, unions and key stakeholders, which resulted in a strike. About 800 jobs are at risk owing to franchising, but that does not seem to have been considered during the decision-making process. Have the Government learned from this and how will the Minister proceed with franchising? Can she explain why the Crown branch section of the network should receive no public funding at all and yet hit break-even by April 2015 when other sections of the network will continue to receive public funding after this date? Many Crown branches are in the poorest and most disadvantaged parts of the country. A more realistic timetable would balance the need to protect services and jobs with financial sustainability.
We should be thinking about how we could increase the number of government services available in post offices. Many people prefer to carry out transactions with the UK Government, devolved Administrations and local authorities online. Crucially, however, those who do not have the internet are the most vulnerable. Some 53% of people who have never used the internet have a disability. Around 37,000 people on low incomes in Scotland have never used the internet, while only 33% of adults over 65 have the internet in their home. These people need another option, and post offices are a clear choice: 43% of over-65s use a post office at least once a week, as well as 37% of people with disabilities and 31% of those in the D and E socio-economic groups.
It is also much more difficult for such people to move on to other ways of accessing services. The post office could act as a one-stop shop for people to sort out all these services in one go. Post offices are the natural home for local government services, and that approach could save money, improve public services and increase post offices’ footfall, although it would require co-ordinated work between local authorities and devolved Administrations. If the Government are so committed to making the Post Office the front line of Government, what is the Minister going to do to encourage councils and devolved Administrations to transfer their contracts over?
We should also look at widening the range of services provided by post offices. We were hugely disappointed that our plans for a people’s bank were abandoned in 2010. Post offices provide local access to cash and banking services, and that is particularly important in rural areas and areas such as those in my constituency with high numbers of elderly people. The potential of such services is not being realised. Post offices should have full access to all high street bank accounts, but some banks have not been forthcoming.
In the long term, the possibility of a state-backed bank at the post office should be explored. There is evidence that that could be of great benefit to the Post Office, as New Zealand Post has seen its profits surge by nearly 70% thanks to its financial services arm, Kiwibank. Such a bank could also be massively beneficial in combating payday loan companies and high-cost doorstep lending by being linked to credit unions and providing affordable credit directly to the communities that our post offices serve.
The post offices of our communities need to be saved. They provide vital services, the reduction of which is of great concern to workers and the vulnerable people who rely on their post office. Action on the idea of a front office for Government is lacking when we need it most, and there has been no initiative from this Government to widen the impact of post offices. We need action, and we need it fast if we want to save this national institution, rather than let it be sold off for a quick buck like Royal Mail.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)
In calling Minister Jenny Willott to reply, may I put on record my congratulations to her, because I believe that this is the first time that she has spoken from the Dispatch Box? I welcome her.
National Minimum Wage
Baroness Primarolo Excerpts(10 years, 4 months ago)
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Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)
Order. There will be a five-minute time limit on all Back-Bench contributions in this debate. That might need to be reviewed, but I hope not.
Dame Tessa Jowell (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)
Having listened closely, as I always do, to the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, I am hard pressed to see how he can recommend voting against our motion, which focuses on the enforcement of the national minimum wage.
The existence of a national minimum wage is a major statement about the kind of country that we are. Beyond the clichés about hard-working families, what does hard work actually involve? Are we prepared to be citizens and representatives in a country where too many mothers ship their children from one childminder to another, often late at night and very early in the morning, because they work for employers who do not honour their statutory obligation to pay the national minimum wage? This is about decency, and if the Government are serious about the enforcement and enforceability of the national minimum wage, they must surely acknowledge that the proposals in the motion are unexceptional.
I am proud to have been part of the Government who introduced the national minimum wage, and I hope that that progressive change has now become irreversible. Over its lifetime, one of its most powerful effects has been to start to close the gender pay gap. It stood at more than 16% when the national minimum wage was introduced in 1999; its present level of 9.2% is still unacceptable. The greatest burden resulting from the lack of growth in the economy and from the Government’s tax and benefit changes has been borne by women. Women’s employment is also concentrated in poorly paid occupational groups that include care, cleaning and catering. Whatever low pay threshold is used, the proportion of working women who are low-paid is about twice that of working men on low pay.
The need for enforcement of the national minimum wage goes without saying, and the failure to enforce it is a stain on the stated ambition of the Government. I commend the next stage of the ambition, which is to move towards a living wage. I pay tribute to Citizens UK and, in particular, to London Citizens, which have been at the forefront of introducing the living wage since 2005—so much so that 214 London employers and 12 London councils have now signed up to pay it.
Many opportunities are open to the Government to urge more employers to pay the living wage: the leverage of procurement; the increased tax receipts for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs resulting from more people being in better-paid jobs; and the practical benefits that businesses that pay the living wage report, such as more corporate resilience and social purpose, reduced absentee rates, greater loyalty and enhancement of the quality of work. Good businesses know that the living wage is good for their business; this is about the interconnection between corporate success, commercial success and social purpose.
When we talk about changes to the benefits system, we must remember that the living wage is one way in which we move families off and out of tax credits, and shift the responsibility for decent levels of pay from the state—the social security system—to employers. Having rather curtailed my remarks, I wish to finish by saying that we can follow the example of the best of business, but we should also remember what the difference means to families. The mother whose child—