National Debt: It’s Time for Tough Decisions (Economic Affairs Committee Report)

Baroness Cash Excerpts

Friday 25th April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Cash (Con)]

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Bridges, on this excellent report and welcome the discussion today. It is more urgent than when it was published, of course, and it is an issue that is pressing on us as rapidly as it is possible to imagine, as we see birth rates dropping and the elderly demographic increasing. I thank the many noble Lords who have preceded me, with expertise on the numbers that I do not pretend to have. I am a business leader, not an economist, but I want to address this conversation and centre it around people, particularly young people.

At some point over the last 30 to 40 years, we broke the contract with the younger generations in ensuring that we leave behind a safe legacy for their futures. Fortunately, we still have their confidence: 60% of young people under the age of 35 express a desire to run a business, and 12% of 18 to 25 year-olds in this country are already active in entrepreneurial interests. That is an amazing positive future investment that, as the generation ageing ahead of them, we have to look after and invest in for our future.

I welcome particularly today the consensus that has emerged across these Benches and the importance of that conversation and consensus going forward. My appeal is that, as we think about and discuss this in the remaining minutes of the debate, we appeal to the Government and urge them to think again about the policies they have pledged in this term of Parliament that will destroy opportunities for young people, and that are already destroying the prospects of our small and medium-sized enterprises across this country.

We are seeing businesses close at a rapid rate, with higher percentages of petitions for winding up and more orders for winding up. This is a catastrophic situation for us to be in when we are standing on the precipice of fiscal ruin, with our debt at this level. We need growth. Governments do not make growth happen; people, businesses and our young people do. We need to think about them and about reversing, if necessary, the national insurance rises, which are crippling them. We need to halt our debate on the Employment Rights Bill next week and take seriously the punitive levels of costs that we are going to layer on top of businesses in this country.

Day after day, we see young people come into the Public Gallery to sit and listen to what we discuss here. Let us remember them and put them at the centre of this. Let us reach across these Benches and remember that we are all here because of public service and we all wish the best for this country. We now need to focus on how we address this crisis and build for the future.