Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Watts Excerpts

Tuesday 10th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Nicky Morgan]

I congratulate my hon. Friend. I am sure that the fall is a result of much work in his constituency, doubtless led by him. He is a doughty champion of his constituents.

The Government are also investing in apprenticeships. Over half a million more are being created, including 20,000 more high-level apprenticeships, as was announced last week. The Youth Contract is helping up to half a million young people to take up employment and education opportunities, and in the three months since September the number of 18 to 24-year-olds in employment rose by 46,000. We know that there is more to be done, but things are moving in the right direction.

[Mr Dave Watts (St Helens North) (Lab)]

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 and prosperity of the economy.

[Mr Watts]

The Chief Secretary seems to be spending most of his time feathering his own nest in his constituency, but can he take some time out from that important work to confirm that energy bills will go up by more than £50 and that energy companies, who are making fat profits, will not pay one penny to reduce bills?

[Danny Alexander]

I can confirm to the House that the action the Government are taking will ensure there is £50 off people’s bills this year. That is as a result of serious-minded work to ensure we reduce the pressure the Government are putting on people’s bills. That includes taking the warm homes discount, which helps 2 million low-income people in this country, on to the Government’s balance sheet. That is the right option, compared with the complete con that unfortunately is still being peddled by the Opposition.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Watts Excerpts

Tuesday 5th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gauke]

I do not know whether Labour is opposing the scheme. That was not the impression I got. This is a very simple scheme. It does not require applications or involve any of the complexities that we saw with two of the Labour national insurance contribution schemes. We are confident that the current scheme will work. It has been widely supported by business groups and I think it will make a big difference to small businesses.

[Mr Dave Watts (St Helens North) (Lab)]

10. What assessment he has made of the effect of his spending plans on the cost of in-work benefits.

[The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Nicky Morgan)]

The latest forecasts of benefits and tax credits are available online via the website of the Department for Work and Pensions. They are consistent with the Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts and reflect the Government’s wider policy.

[Mr Watts]

Will the Minister explain why she is allowing companies that are making massive profits to pay poverty wages that need a subsidy from the taxpayer through in-work benefits? Why does she not stop those companies sponging off the taxpayer and adopt a Labour policy of requiring companies that can well afford it to pay a living wage?

[Nicky Morgan]

It seems that even the shadow Chancellor has questions about a living wage policy, saying in 2010 that he was not sure about it. I am surprised that the hon. Gentleman did not talk about the fact that in the north-west and Merseyside 306,000 people have been taken out of paying income tax altogether as a result of this Government’s policies.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Watts Excerpts

Tuesday 10th September 2013 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

It is not clear what the hon. Lady is proposing. Is she saying that she is against some of the changes we have made on welfare? Is she pledging more spending, more borrowing, and more debt? The Labour party need a policy on those issues. Our policies are clear: to deal with poverty we are focused on trying to generate even more growth. The economy has turned a corner; there is more to do but jobs are being generated in Britain at a record rate.

[Mr Dave Watts (St Helens North) (Lab)]

4. Whether he plans to introduce a land tax.

[The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (Mr David Gauke)]

The Government have no plans to introduce a land value tax at this time. In our view, the complexity and cost of administering such a tax, and, more importantly, the likelihood of a significant increase in tax bills for many council tax payers, particularly those such as pensioners with liquid assets, means that such a proposal is not tenable.

[Mr Watts]

I thank the Minister for his response, but given that we have massive increases in house prices, massive increases in the value of farmland and builders and supermarkets land-banking and pushing up the price of land, and given that 1% of the population own 69% of our total land mass, is it not time for action? Do we not need a land tax?

[Mr Gauke]

The hon. Gentleman will be aware that some of the construction numbers of late are much more encouraging, and the Government are taking action to improve house building, including our Help to Buy proposal. Believe it or not, not every problem this country faces can be solved by another tax.

Royal Bank of Scotland

Lord Watts Excerpts

Thursday 13th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

I agree. We have talked about Stephen Hester and the role he has played in bringing the bank back from the brink, but that would not have been possible without the dedicated staff that RBS has had, and we must never forget the contribution they have made in repairing the bank.

[Mr Dave Watts (St Helens North) (Lab)]

It is clear from the Minister’s statement that the Chancellor has sacked the chief executive. Can the Minister assure the House that there is no gagging clause in the chief executive’s contract when he leaves with his package of £5 million that will stop him setting out his own views on when RBS should be sold?

[Sajid Javid]

I do not know whether the hon. Gentleman was listening to the statement I made. If he was, he would realise that the RBS board made this decision.

Tax Fairness

Lord Watts Excerpts

Tuesday 12th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Foster]

No.

The previous Government introduced the fuel duty escalator, hitting the pockets of families and businesses, whereas we have taken steps that will make pump prices 13p per litre lower than they would have been under Labour. They abolished the 10p tax rate, hitting 800,000 single earners, whereas we are taking 2.2 million people out of paying tax altogether. Whereas in 2000 they gave pensioners a miserable 75p a week pension increase, last year we gave the biggest ever increase of £5.30 a week.

[Mr Dave Watts (St Helens North) (Lab)]

Will the Minister explain why he thinks it is fair that at the same time as they introduce the bedroom tax, the Government find money to give the richest people in the country a tax break?

[Mr Foster]

We are not here to discuss the under-occupancy arrangements. Let me remind the hon. Gentleman, who has breezed into the Chamber, that we have had discussions on many occasions about this. I am aware of 300,000-odd families with two or more spare bedrooms and 250,000 families who are overcrowded, so it is right and proper that we take action to try to help them out, and that is what we are doing. I am more than happy to talk about this Government’s record on fairness.

Economic Policy

Lord Watts Excerpts

Monday 25th February 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. If we lose that credibility in the markets and are unable to convince the world that we can pay our way—that would be the case if we had a reduced commitment to fiscal consolidation—interest rates would go up, which would affect families with mortgages and small businesses with those crucial loans that are helping them to expand and take people on.

[Mr Dave Watts (St Helens North) (Lab)]

Will the Chancellor change the economic medicine before he kills the patient?

[Mr Osborne]

We have revived the patient from the near-death experience it had under the Labour Government.

Banking Reform

Lord Watts Excerpts

Monday 4th February 2013 Commons Chamber

[Greg Clark]

I agree with both parts of my hon. Friend’s question.

[Mr Dave Watts (St Helens North) (Lab)]

The Minister says that he wants to establish new bodies to set bonuses and pay in banks. Can he guarantee that on those boards will be ordinary customers and businesses, and that they will not be stacked with bankers’ friends?

[Greg Clark]

I think it important for the responsibility exercised by remuneration committees in particular to have regard to the experience of ordinary working people up and down the country. I see no reason why the way in which bonuses are thought about in boardrooms in the City should be any different from the way in which they are thought about in any other industry.

Professional Standards in the Banking Industry

Lord Watts Excerpts

Thursday 5th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[Ed Balls]

All my experience—and there are many Members on both sides of the House who have more detailed experience than I have—is that Select Committees find it much harder than a judge-led inquiry to secure the release of necessary and essential documents and, more importantly, to find out which documents they should ask for in the first place.

Finally, and above all in our view—and I note that the Attorney-General did not correct me on the calling of witnesses, but perhaps he will advise the Chancellor for his speech—only a judge-led inquiry can truly persuade the public that the inquiry is properly independent and objective and, given the Chancellor’s behaviour, non-partisan.

[Mr Dave Watts (St Helens North) (Lab)]

Is it not clear that the Government, stacked with bankers and payrolled by the bankers, are frightened of a judge-led inquiry because they want to cover up the scandal?

[Ed Balls]

My hon. Friend makes his point in his own particular way. I was saying that the inquiry needed to be independent, objective and non-partisan, so I understand his concerns. I would probably also understand his bafflement about why the Chancellor and Prime Minister seem to be unwilling to appear before a public inquiry looking at wider issues of culture.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Andrew Tyrie (Chichester) (Con)]

The rigging of the LIBOR market is shocking. It is the worst case of City malpractice I can recall. The Chancellor proposed the idea of a Joint Committee to me in several phone calls over the weekend. It was an honour to be considered. None the less, I made clear right from the start what ingredients I viewed as required to make a success of it.

First, the Joint Committee’s terms of reference should be tightly drawn and forward looking. This cannot be a witch hunt. Having an exhaustive and inquisitorial committee of inquiry, whether it be within or outside Parliament, into the respective roles and responsibilities for mistakes of Ministers, civil servants, the Bank of England, regulators and commercial banks would do more for the history books than for the quality of legislation. The job of the Joint Committee must be to concentrate on how to get one part of the banking Bill into better shape, and in quick time. For that purpose it will need tightly drawn terms of reference, focused on improving standards and corporate governance in banking, and it can and should do the work quickly.

Secondly, as I said in that conversation, any committee of inquiry, particularly a parliamentary Committee, must have the support of the major parties across the House of Commons. It appears from what I am hearing here that it does not have that support at present.

[Mr Watts]

Is it not the case that any inquiry will have public support only if it is carried out on a cross-party basis? It is amazing that a Chancellor who seeks such co-operation from the Opposition should go out and the first thing that he does is tell lies about—

[Hon. Members]

Withdraw!

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)]

Order. Sit down, Mr Watts. I am on my feet.

Mr Watts, you will have to rephrase that last bit. You will do it briefly, and then Mr Tyrie will continue his speech—and that includes withdrawing the accusation of lying.

[Mr Watts]

I will withdraw that comment, Madam Deputy Speaker. I will say that the Chancellor gives the impression that he did something that he did not do, and then refuses to apologise. How does he think that he can secure co-operation across the Benches when he does that?

[Mr Tyrie]

I shall not address the second part of the hon. Gentleman’s question, but the first part was absolutely right. I think it essential for us to have cross-party support for any inquiry of whatever type.

Let me now refer to a tiny bit of history. A hundred years ago, partisanship made a mockery of an attempt by a Select Committee to investigate the Marconi scandal. The Conservative Opposition killed any value that that inquiry might have supplied, and as a result Select Committees were written out of the piece for inquiries for nearly 100 years. I think it vital for Parliament that another clash of the Titans—which seems to be going on now—does not leave us in a position in which we, as Parliament, cannot subject this issue to an inquiry of any type.

Finance (No. 4) Bill

Lord Watts Excerpts

Wednesday 18th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Dave Watts (St Helens North) (Lab)]

Is it not right that the people who caused financial problems and hardship for many families and created mass unemployment pay a fair amount of tax to compensate for the damage they did to the economy? Is that not exactly what the amendment would provide for?

[Mr Redwood]

Many people would think that the outgoing Government had a lot of responsibility for the crash, along with their professional advisers, the quangos and the Bank of England, who apparently did not see it coming. They had very light regulation in the lead-up to the credit crunch and then very tough regulation. [Interruption.] Labour Members feel there is some justice in my response, as they are getting very heated, but we are straying rather far from amendment 5.

The point of the amendment is that the Labour party wants to raise an unspecified amount by taxing unspecified people who apparently earn more than Labour thinks is good for them. The Opposition would spend that on youth measures, and they want the Government to come back with a report on how that money could be spent.

My hon. Friend the Member for Staffordshire Moorlands (Karen Bradley), who rightly said that she could support a bank levy to try and get the deficit down, was speaking sense, but this, as she will have realised, is not the proposition of the Labour Opposition. They do not want to get the deficit down. They want to find another pot of money to increase spending. I am with them in their aim of reducing youth unemployment. We will make much more progress in reducing youth unemployment if we have stronger banks able to finance a more vigorous recovery. I urge the Government to work more strongly on that. The more money they take off the banks in taxes, however tempting that is, the less the banks will be able to lend to people to get the recovery going, so the proposal could be self-defeating.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Bailey]

Perhaps we should. Perhaps we should introduce a tax on certain members or major funders of the Conservative party, too.

[Mr Watts]

Does my hon. Friend not think that it a bit ironic that people who are suggesting that the previous Labour Government’s problems created the financial crisis are the same people—the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives—who were calling for less regulation? It is interesting how the Government are trying to rewrite history.

[Mr Bailey]

I have often made the same point myself. I was on the Government Benches at the time of the so-called financial crisis and the run-up to it, and I do not remember any demands whatsoever from the then Opposition for us to introduce heightened regulation of the banking system. It is very easy to be wise in retrospect.

Tax Avoidance (Public Servants)

Lord Watts Excerpts

Thursday 2nd February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

I think the hon. Gentleman should be careful about how he characterises these arrangements, given that they are currently subject to a review.

[Mr Dave Watts (St Helens North) (Lab)]

On a day when another 100 of my constituents have lost their jobs because of the failed economic policy of this Government, how does the Chief Secretary to the Treasury think those people will feel about the Government allowing tax dodges, and allowing Ministers to take no responsibility for their actions? When are the Government going to come clean?

[Danny Alexander]

I suspect that they will feel, as I do, that urgent action needs to be taken. We have changed the arrangements in this case, and the review will root out whether any other such arrangements were put in place either under this Government or when the hon. Gentleman’s party was in office. He should wait carefully for the results of the review.