Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make it his policy to abolish VAT on the hire of swimming pools and associated facilities.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The hiring of swimming pools and swimming lessons qualify for an exemption from VAT when certain conditions are met, as outlined in VAT Notice 742 Paragraph 5. The Government has no plans to change this.
Extending the current exemption would impose additional pressure on the public finances, to which VAT makes a significant contribution. VAT raised around £130 billion in 2019-20, and helps to fund key spending priorities, including on health, education, and defense.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what representations he has received on reducing the level of VAT payable on swimming lessons for children; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The hiring of swimming pools and swimming lessons qualify for an exemption from VAT when certain conditions are met, as outlined in VAT Notice 742 Paragraph 5. The Government has no plans to change this.
Extending the current exemption would impose additional pressure on the public finances, to which VAT makes a significant contribution. VAT raised around £130 billion in 2019-20, and helps to fund key spending priorities, including on health, education, and defense.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make it his policy to increase the £450,000 property cost limit for Lifetime ISAs in line with house price inflation.
Answered by John Glen
The Lifetime ISA is intended to support younger people saving for their first home or for later life by offering a generous government bonus of 25% on up to £4,000 of savings each year. These funds, including the government bonus, can be used to purchase a first home up to the value of £450,000.
The Government considers that the £450,000 price cap is suitable to support the majority of first-time buyers across the UK (who typically purchase less expensive properties than other buyers), while ensuring sustainable public finances.
The most recent Office for Budget Responsibility forecast stated that bonus payments will have an exchequer cost of £3.7 billion between 2021 and 2027. The price cap ensures that this significant investment of public money is more precisely targeted towards households that may find it more difficult to get onto the property ladder.
First-time buyers who can purchase a home valued over £450,000 are likely to have an income significantly above that of the average household in the UK and are therefore more likely to be able to purchase a first home without the support of this scheme.
The Government continues to keep all aspects of savings policy under review.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans for the Business Rates: Covid-19 additional relief fund to assist suppliers as the economy reopens following the outbreak covid-19; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Covid-19 Additional Relief Fund will be allocated to Local Authorities (LAs) which will use their knowledge of local businesses and the economy to make the awards.
Formal guidance to LAs will follow in due course, which will set out the specific considerations that they should consider when providing relief.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to help ensure that the monies allocated to the Business Rates: Covid-19 additional relief fund are being distributed in a timely way.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Covid-19 Additional Relief Fund will be allocated to Local Authorities (LAs) which will use their knowledge of local businesses and the economy to make the awards.
Formal guidance to LAs will follow in due course, which will set out the specific considerations that they should consider when providing relief.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department made, prior to the decision being made, of the potential effect of the rise in Employer National Insurance Contributions from April 2022 on (a) employment rates and (b) wages.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Government has made a number of assessments of the impact of the introduction of the Health and Social Care Levy, which were published alongside the announcement. These include the distributional analysis of the impact of the combined tax and spending announcements, a technical annex in our plan for health and social care, and a Tax Information and Impact Note.
Further, the Office for Budget Responsibility set out their assessment of the economic effects of the Levy, including the impact on labour supply and wages, in their latest Economic and Fiscal Outlook: https://obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-october-2021/
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the public sector pay freeze on the Government's ability to achieve a high-wage economy.
Answered by Simon Clarke
The temporary pay pause announced at SR20 was a difficult but necessary step in the face of huge uncertainty and the unprecedented impact COVID-19 had on the economy. This helped protect jobs at a time of crisis and ensure fairness between the private and public sectors. The private sector saw suppressed earnings growth and increased redundancies: employment fell by 2.9% between Q1 2020 and Q1 2021, while over the same period employment in the public sector rose by 3%. 11.6m jobs, from 1.3m different employers, were furloughed. Public sector average weekly earnings rose by 4.5% in 2020/21 whilst private sector wage increases were a third lower than they were pre-crisis, at only 1.8%.
The solid recovery in the economy and labour market has meant that the government have been able to confirm at the Spending Review that public sector workers will see pay rises across the whole SR period (2022/23-2024/25).
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has plans to introduce a salary increase in line with inflation for (a) teachers and (b) other public sector workers.
Answered by Simon Clarke
Pay for most frontline workforces – including nurses, police officers, prison officers and teachers is set through an independent Pay Review Body process. The independent review bodies provide evidence-based advice to the government on levels of pay for their remit groups. In making recommendations, review bodies need to consider both the need to recruit, retain and motivate suitably able and qualified people and the financial circumstances of the government. We will be seeking full recommendations and the award for 2022/23 will be announced next year.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make it his policy to review all tax policy to ensure it does not incentivise oil and gas extraction.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Our domestic oil and gas industry produces the equivalent of around half of the UK’s primary energy needs and will continue to play an important role as we transition to a net zero economy. The industry has paid around £375bn in production taxes to date and supports thousands of jobs across the UK, directly and in the industry’s supply chains.
The Government places additional taxes on the extraction of oil and gas to ensure a fair return for the nation while also supporting the industry to address genuine costs through targeted tax reliefs, such as those to encourage the safe removal of infrastructure at the end of a field’s life.
The Government keeps all taxes under review, and any changes are made in the round at fiscal events.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of Chapter 10 Part 2 of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 on the obligations of employment agencies and umbrella companies.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Tax Information and Impact Note published in March 2021 sets out the expected impacts of the April 2021 reform of the off-payroll working rules: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/off-payroll-working-rules-from-april-2021/off-payroll-working-rules-from-april-2021
During the debate on the Finance Bill 2020, the Government committed to commission independent research into the short-term impacts of the reform by October 2021. That research has been commissioned. We will publish its findings once complete.