Fiscal Responsibility and Fairness

Debate between Alex Cunningham and Danny Alexander

Thursday 19th March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

I thank my hon. Friend for her consistent support for the rural fuel discount scheme. She was one of the Conservative Members who spoke up for this in the last Parliament, as well as in this one, and she makes the right argument. I am delighted that we are the first country in the EU to put in place a rural fuel discount scheme for remote mainland communities, and I hope in due course it will be possible to extend it—so I do not wish her constituents to think that the hope of its being extended to them is extinguished.

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

The right hon. Gentleman has tried to give a very different impression today, but if he is still “all in it together” with the Chancellor, will he do what his boss has refused to do and tell us where the £12 billion of cuts to the welfare budget will fall?

[Danny Alexander]

It might have escaped the hon. Gentleman’s knowledge, but his Front-Bench team signed up to the revised charter for fiscal responsibility, which requires £30 billion of further deficit reduction. I can reassure him that I do not support the Conservative policy of £12 billion of welfare cuts in the next Parliament, but no doubt that matter will be debated in the election campaign. I believe Labour claims it has some plans for reducing welfare expenditure, though, as on everything else, it has not set out any detail.

The Economy

Debate between Alex Cunningham and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 11th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

If the hon. Gentleman will forgive me, I will make progress. Many hon. Members wish to speak in the debate.

There has been good engagement between the Treasury and the FairFuelUK campaign, which has pressed its case very strongly. I welcome its engagement.

The Government are on the road to cutting the deficit we inherited, but we are also building a fairer society. The distributional analysis that we publish shows that that continues to be the case, despite the tough choices we have made. It is worth pointing out that, under the previous Government, the Treasury never published detailed distributional analyses of its decisions, but under this Government the Treasury publishes them at every fiscal event. The analyses show that the top 20% of households continue to make the greatest contribution. In fact, the cumulative impact since the June 2010 Budget of tax, tax credit and benefit reforms shows that households in the top 10% see the greatest reduction in their income, both in cash terms and as a percentage of net income or expenditure.

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

People in my constituency who cannot afford a car and who earn much less than most others tell me that the inflation rate on the things they have to buy is several times greater than the headline figure, which includes goods that they would just love to be able to buy. When will the Government recognise that inflation for the poorest people in our society is much higher than it is for the rest of us, and do something real? The Government have done some things, but when will they do something that makes a difference to those people instead of cutting their food intake, which is exactly what is happening?

[Danny Alexander]

A range of goods is included in the consumer prices index of inflation, which the Office for National Statistics constructs—it is an independent body and is responsible for constructing those baskets of goods. Some items go up in price faster than others. We are doing what we can and what the country can afford, but our priority must be to get this country back to a position in which we can pay our way in the world. Nothing would hurt the poorest in society more than losing control of our public finances, which I suspect would happen if the Labour party ever again gained the reins of power.

The quad discussed introducing a mansion tax, but a fair tax on homes worth more than £2 million was not agreed. However, the good news is that we have established a sensible, workable plan for raising additional revenues from the highest-value properties. If that does not happen in this Government’s term of office, it will be in the Liberal Democrat manifesto for the next election.

Public Spending

Debate between Alex Cunningham and Danny Alexander

Thursday 17th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

It was the fact that there is no substantive evidence that it has had any effect on doing the job that it was supposed to do or set out to do—to encourage local authorities to work with business.

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

We have already heard from the new Prime Minister that the north-east of England can expect to suffer hardest from the cuts, so I want to know precisely why the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust hospital, which is in my constituency, is not going ahead, particularly as we have seen tremendous progress in reducing health inequalities in my area, and that hospital was going to complete the job.

[Danny Alexander]

In the context of tighter budgets, it is essential that all major hospital buildings must be affordable and provide value for money. On that basis, the Government decided not to proceed with that scheme. It was assessed against a number of other major build projects that were at the same stage of development; those schemes are more urgent. The hon. Gentleman will be aware that the previous Government set out plans to halve capital spending over the next few years. We have to make judgments about capital spending in the context of budgets that are a great deal tighter. I appreciate that that is disappointing, and I do not wish in any way to belittle the point that the hon. Gentleman is making quite fairly on behalf of his constituents, but in judging these things we have to apply the value-for-money criteria as we have.