Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support consumers facing financial difficulty due to high credit card interest rates and increasing levels of debt.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to helping people in problem debt. This is why the Government continues to maintain record levels of debt advice funding for the provision of debt advice in England through the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS), with a budget of £92.7 million for 2023-24. Government also launched the Breathing Space scheme in May 2021, providing individuals in problem debt who seek debt advice, with a period of protection from creditor enforcement action.
At Spring Budget 2024, the Chancellor announced changes to make it easier to access a Debt Relief Order (DRO) in England and Wales. This included removing the administration fee and widening the eligibility criteria.
The Government also aims to ensure that people, regardless of their background or income, have access to useful and affordable financial products and services. Since 2019, the Government has allocated £145 million of dormant assets funding to Fair4All Finance to support the financially excluded.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support prospective homebuyers amidst recent increases in house prices.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to making the aspiration of homeownership a reality for as many households as possible and consequently operates a range of schemes that aim to increase the supply of low-deposit mortgages for credit-worthy households, including first-time buyers, increase the availability of new housing, and stimulate economic growth. These include the Mortgage Guarantee Scheme, which is open until the end of June 2025. We also help first-time buyers to save for a deposit through the Lifetime ISA and Help to Buy: ISA.
Over 876,000 households have been helped to purchase a home since spring 2010 through government-backed schemes.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support property owners facing challenges in refinancing against lower property values.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The most comprehensive measure of average house prices in the UK is published by the Office for National Statistics.
The vast majority of mortgage lenders have signed a voluntary industry agreement that allows their borrowers to secure a new fixed-rate deal without the need to undertake another affordability assessment.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the recent reduction in grocery price inflation on overall inflationary pressures in the economy.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
In January 2024, food and non-alcoholic beverage inflation fell from 8.0% to 6.9%. This contributed -0.11percentage points to the change in headline inflation in January. Food and non-alcoholic beverage inflation has fallen from a peak of 19.1% in March 2023. The fall in the inflation rate over this period has contributed -1.25 to the change in the headline inflation rate.
The OBR are the government’s official forecaster and published an updated forecast on March 6th. The OBR forecasts that headline inflation will return to the 2% target next quarter, a year earlier than forecast in November.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following reports of the shrinkage of the non-prime lending market, what steps they are taking to ensure that vulnerable customers have access to fair and regulated credit products.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government is committed to taking steps to widen access to affordable credit, and is overseeing a number of initiatives to support this goal.
Since 2019, the government has made £100 million of dormant assets funding available to Fair4All Finance to support their work on financial inclusion, and an additional £45 million for initiatives to tackle the elevated cost of living. The government has also provided Fair4AllFinance with £3.8m of funding to pilot a No-interest Loans Scheme, designed for consumers in vulnerable circumstances who would benefit from affordable rather than high-cost credit.
As part of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, the government has amended the Credit Unions Act 1979 so that credit unions in Great Britain can offer a wider range of products and services.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of proposed 'Not for EU' labels on meat and dairy products on (1) food costs, and (2) exports.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The “not for EU” labelling requirement came into force for meat and some dairy products moving under the Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme in October 2023. Defra provided a transitional labelling fund of £50 million to support compliance with the scheme. There has been no evidence of impact on food costs or exports.
In line with the commitments set out in the February 2023 and February 2024 Government Command Papers, the Government will bring forward legislation for this labelling requirement to be expanded GB wide for relevant products from October 2024. A six-week consultation on the implementation of this policy was launched on 2 February. We welcome responses from businesses that supply the UK market and export, which will inform our ongoing considerations of the final details of the policy, including any possible exemptions.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following reports that many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have had their bank accounts closed, what steps they are taking to ensure SMEs have continued access to banking services.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
While the decisions about what products are offered to individual businesses remain commercial decisions for banks and building societies, the Government recognises the vital role SMEs play in fuelling economic growth, and it is important they can access the banking services they need. Last year the Chancellor asked the FCA to collect evidence to help the Government understand where account closures and refusals are happening and why. The FCA are now doing further work to better understand the reasons behind account refusals.
The Government is also acting to increase customer protections, increasing the minimum notice period in cases of contract termination to 90 days – giving customers more time to challenge a decision through the Financial Ombudsman Service, or find a replacement service – and requiring providers to spell out to affected customers why they are terminating their contract. Both requirements will be subject to certain exceptions, including if to do so would be unlawful.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to assess any correlation between recent increases in swap rates and rising mortgage rates.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
While the pricing of mortgages is a commercial decision for lenders in which the Government does not intervene, we regularly monitor swap rates and mortgage rates. We are also regularly in contact with mortgage lenders on all aspects of their mortgage business to understand their position and current lending conditions.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the developers of artificial intelligence technologies concerning how they verify the accuracy of their outputs, particularly with regard to racial and gender bias.
Answered by Viscount Camrose - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Preventing bias and ensuring the accuracy of AI outputs are essential for building public trust in AI and encouraging its adoption and growth.
The Government engaged with AI developers through our AI Regulation White Paper consultation and the response published this month, which details how we are protecting UK citizens from AI-related bias.
The Government launched the Fairness Innovation Challenge, granting over £465,000 to support the development of socio-technical solutions to address bias in AI.
We published the 'Introduction to AI Assurance', guide for AI developers and deployers, which outlines how techniques like bias audits can help verify AI systems.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking (1) to promote housing affordability and stability for renters, and (2) to support first-time buyers.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
This Government is committed to delivering a better deal for renters, improving the private rented sector for responsible tenants and good landlords.
The Renters (Reform) Bill was introduced in Parliament on 17 May 2023 and will deliver the government’s commitments. The Bill increases security of tenure for tenants by abolishing section 21 evictions. The new tenancy system will also reassure tenants that, apart from in specific circumstances set out in legislation, their rented home is theirs for as long as they want.
We continue to work towards our ambition of delivering 300,000 homes per year to help create a more sustainable and affordable housing market. Individuals who need help to make rent payments may be eligible for financial support through the welfare system. From April 2024, we will invest £1.2 billion restoring Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates to the 30th percentile of local market rents. For others who face a shortfall, Discretionary Housing Payments are available from local authorities; the Government has provided almost £1.7 billion of this funding to local authorities since 2011.