Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps his Department is taking to support small and medium size enterprises.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Over the past two years, the Government has taken unprecedented action to protect millions of businesses, including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and Government-guaranteed loans.
We have brought forward a number of measures to support businesses this year, including extending the Recovery Loan Scheme until June 2024; freezing the business rates multiplier for 2022-23; cutting business rates by 50% for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in 2022-23 up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business; and permanently setting the Annual Investment Allowance at its highest ever level of £1 million from 1 April 2023, instead of reverting to £200,000 as previously planned.
The Government also increased the Employment Allowance from £4,000 to £5,000, which cuts the cost of employment for 495,000 small businesses.
Additionally, the Government is helping all eligible UK businesses, including small and medium sized businesses, with their energy bills through the Energy Bill Relief Scheme.
This builds on existing business support, including the Business Support Helpline which provides businesses with tools, resources and signposting to specialist organisations.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many couples claiming the Marriage Allowance are claiming retrospectively for (a) two years (b) three years and (c) four years.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The information requested is not readily available to HMRC and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.
HMRC estimated around 4.2 million non-taxpayer/basic-rate taxpayer married couples, and civil partnerships, are eligible to receive the Marriage Allowance.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate he has made of the number of married couples eligible to receive the Marriage Allowance.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The information requested is not readily available to HMRC and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.
HMRC estimated around 4.2 million non-taxpayer/basic-rate taxpayer married couples, and civil partnerships, are eligible to receive the Marriage Allowance.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what comparative assessment he has made of rates of wage growth and inflation.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The fundamentals of the British economy are strong – wages are growing at the fastest rate in over a decade, employment is at a joint record high and the unemployment rate is at its lowest in over 40 years. Inflation has been at or around target since the start of 2019, and as a result wages have now outpaced inflation on a CPI basis for over a year.
On 1 April 2019, we increased the National Living Wage by 4.9% to £8.21 - an above inflation increase which meant that a full-time worker on the National Living Wage would be earning £690 more over the coming year. Supported by the National Living Wage, the lowest earners have seen their wages grow by 8% above inflation between April 2015 and April 2018.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the total revenue the public purse has forgone due to the freeze in fuel duty since 2011.
Answered by Simon Clarke
Based on the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) published policy costings, we estimate the cumulative loss to the Exchequer from the successive fuel duty freezes from financial year 2011-12 to the current financial year 2018-19 to be around £46.2bn to the benefit of the UK taxpayer.
The annual impacts on the Exchequer are reported in the table below.
|
|
| 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 |
Exchequer impact (£m) | -2,275 | -3,465 | -4,645 | -5,800 | -6,375 | -6,815 | -7,875 | -8,070 | ||
The OBR’s policy costings are available at the following link:
https://obr.uk/download/policy-measures-database/
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of productivity growth can be attributed to financial technology in the last five years.
Answered by Simon Clarke
The government has not made an assessment of the proportion of productivity growth in the last five years that is attributable to financial technology.
However, the Government has taken significant steps to increase competition in financial services, including creating an environment in which Fintech firms can grow and compete with incumbents. The Competition and Market Authority has led the Open Banking initiative, bringing more competition and innovation to financial services. The FCA has also established the Innovation Hub and Regulatory Sandbox to support Fintech, both of which are held up as global examples of best practice. Further information on the Government’s efforts to promote Fintech can be found in the Fintech Sector Strategy, published in March 2018.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with the Financial Conduct Authority on the cost to consumers of private motor insurance auto-renewals.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The FCA has published this month its interim report into General Insurance Pricing Practices. Consumers should always be able to get a fair deal and it is vital that the FCA comes to a solution that will achieve this important outcome as quickly as possible.
It is for regulators to determine the powers they use to address problems in the markets they regulate. If needed, the Government has committed to legislate to give regulators new powers to stop loyal customers being taken advantage of.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many retail bank branches there are per head of population.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
HM Treasury does not hold this information. However, the House of Commons Library published a report on ‘Bank branch and ATM statistics’ on 17 May 2019 which includes helpful information on this topic, based on ONS data.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will allocate a fixed proportion of road tax receipts for the repair of roads.
Answered by Simon Clarke
The government is delivering its commitment to hypothecate English Vehicle Excise Duty to roads spending, and has announced that the National Roads Fund will be £28.8 billion between 2020-25. From this, we expect £25.3 billion to be spent on the Road Investment Strategy 2, which will repair, renew and enhance the Strategic Road Network. The remaining £3.5 billion will be spent on local roads, with major structural renewals eligible for funding.
On top of this, we have allocated £6.6 billion between 2015 and 2021 to local highway authorities in England, outside London, for highways maintenance.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will allocate a fixed proportion of fuel duty receipts for the repair of roads.
Answered by Simon Clarke
Fuel Duty receipts are collected for the consolidated fund. However, all English Vehicle Excise Duty revenues will be set aside for the £28.8bn National Roads Fund from 2020 to provide long term certainty for roads investment.