Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government is taking to rebalance the economy in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Danny Alexander
The UK Government shares the Northern Ireland Executive’s goal of rebalancing the Northern Ireland economy. The Northern Ireland economic pact ‘Building a Prosperous and United Community’ set out a range of measures to help rebalance the Northern Ireland economy and drive investment, jobs and growth. The first annual update on progress was published in July 2014.
Autumn Statement 2014 confirmed the Government’s view that the proposal to devolve corporation tax rate-setting powers to the Executive could be implemented, provided the Executive is able to manage the financial implications. The ongoing talks process is examining financial and budgetary issues, amongst a range of other issues.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to increase access to bank lending for businesses in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
The Government has taken significant action to increase bank lending to businesses throughout the UK, including through the Funding for Lending Scheme, and through supporting non-bank lending channels via the British Business Bank.
The Government is also implementing further major reforms to boost competition in the small and medium sized enterprise (SME) lending market through the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill; most notably the measures to improve access to SME credit information and to match SMEs rejected for finance with challenger banks and alternative finance providers that are looking to offer finance.
Furthermore, in Autumn 2013 a joint United Kingdom and Northern Ireland Ministerial Task Force was set up to look at ways to promote lending and increase support specifically for businesses in Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the amount of funding invested in small and medium-sized enterprises through venture capital trusts in (a) Northern Ireland and (b) the UK in each of the last three years.
Answered by David Gauke
The precise information requested is not available at reasonable cost. Venture Capital Trusts raised £440 million in 2013-14, £400 million in 2012-13 and £325 million in 2011-12 to fund their investments. HM Revenue & Customs Statistics on VCTs are published annually and can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/venture-capital-trusts-statistics
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of air passenger duty on tourism in (a) Northern Ireland and (b) the rest of the UK.
Answered by Priti Patel - Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs
I refer the Hon. Member to the answers that the previous Financial Secretary to the Treasury gave to the Hon. Member for Belfast South on 7 April 2014 – Column 16W, the Hon. Member for East Londonderry on 7 July 2014 – Column 120W, and the answer given to the Hon. Member for Bury South on 22 July 2014 – Column 1094W
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmhansrd/cm140707/text/140707w0005.htm
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmhansrd/cm140722/text/140722w0003.htm
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with Lloyds Bank since its announcement of 9,000 job losses.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
Details of the Chancellors meetings are published in HMT transparency returns.
The Government’s shareholding in Lloyds is managed at arm’s length from HM Treasury by UK Financial Investments Ltd. In accordance with UKFI’s investment mandate, the Government does not seek to intervene in the operational management of Lloyds Banking Group.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will give further financial assistance to the Northern Ireland Executive to fund public sector pensions, health and education.
Answered by Danny Alexander
The Northern Ireland Executive, like the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales, is expected to meet the costs of public sector pensions and spending on health and education from within its existing budgets.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he has taken to monitor practices in the banking sector.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
This Government has taken a number of major steps to strengthen monitoring and regulation of the banking sector.
The Financial Services Act 2012 put in place two new, properly focussed financial regulators, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) - a subsidiary of the Bank of England - the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), as part of a new approach to financial regulation. The new regulators started work on 1 April 2013.
The Government’s new approach to financial regulation enables the PRA to concentrate on monitoring the health of UK banks to ensure that they are prudently and competently managed and to reduce the risk that the practices of UK banks will lead to serious financial failure. At the same time, the FCA can concentrate on monitoring the practices of UK banks and other financial services businesses in their dealing with ordinary retail customers and in wholesale financial markets, to reduce the risk that the practices in the banking sector are detrimental to consumers or competition, or threaten the integrity of financial markets.
On 12 June 2014, the Government announced the Fair and Effective Markets Review, which is a joint review by HM Treasury, the Bank of England, and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) into the way wholesale financial markets operate. The Government is determined to take action to help restore trust and integrity and to ensure that the highest standards are expected of those who operate in these markets. It is important that this is done in a way that preserves the UK’s position as the global financial centre for many of these markets. The Review published its consultation document “How fair and effective are the fixed income, foreign exchange and commodities markets?” on 27 October, and the Government looks forward to the review’s final recommendations in June 2015.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he plans to take to reduce the cost of living for people on the lowest incomes.
Answered by Priti Patel - Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs
The Coalition Government has taken, and will continue to take, decisive action to support families on the lowest incomes: increasing the personal allowance taking over 3.2m individuals out of income tax altogether by 2015/16, helping to freeze Council Tax, freezing Fuel Duty until the end of the parliament, reducing energy bills, providing universal free school meals for all infant school pupils, and introducing tax free childcare support of up to £2,000.
Getting more people into work alongside improving productivity is the best way to support living standards, as the Bank of England and IFS have said. Sticking to the Government’s long term economic plan to build a stronger and more resilient economy is the best way to do this. Under this government there are more people in work than ever before and unemployment fell 538,000 in the past year – the fastest fall since records began.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he plans to take to help businesses in the construction sector outside London.
Answered by Nick Boles
I am replying on the behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. The Government is actively working to help all construction firms including those outside London. We are working with the industry to remove barriers to growth by improving the planning system and access to finance, and easing the burden of regulation.
On the demand side, we are stimulating the house building industry - in Autumn Statement 2013 my Rt Hon Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a £1bn extension of the Local Infrastructure Fund for large scale housing sites, to unlock around 250,000 homes over 6 years. We are also stimulating infrastructure development. The National Infrastructure Plan (NIP) sets a strategic vision for forthcoming infrastructure needs. It has identified a pipeline of over 500 projects costing around £250bn to 2015 and beyond.
On the supply side, we are working closely with the Construction Leadership Council to ensure that the industry is well placed to respond to growing markets, tackling issues such as skills, innovation, sustainability, productivity, efficiency and export performance.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions he has had with the Northern Ireland Executive regarding his long-term economic plan.
Answered by Danny Alexander
Treasury Ministers and officials have regular discussions with Northern Ireland Executive Ministers and officials on a wide variety of topics.