Middle East: Economic Update

Ben Lake Excerpts

Tuesday 24th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

I thank my hon. Friend for that question. It is great to see that investment in the gas networks coming into Peterborough, supported by him. That is in stark contrast to the Conservatives, who got rid of our gas storage facilities, stalled on nuclear and stalled on renewables. As a result, they left us more vulnerable to an energy price shock.

[Ben Lake (Ceredigion Preseli) (PC)]

What contingency planning is taking place to support non-domestic energy bills, especially in rural areas such as mine where a great number of small businesses and community organisations rely on heating oil and LPG?

[Rachel Reeves]

I am sure that the hon. Member will agree that the best thing we can do to support households and businesses is to de-escalate the crisis and bring it to an end as quickly as possible. But, as I set out in my statement, I will not tolerate businesses price gouging and earning excessive profits because of the conflict in the middle east. The CMA therefore has new powers to ensure that does not happen, and we are targeting support at those who most need it.

Middle East: Economic Update

Ben Lake Excerpts

Monday 9th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

I am pleased that since I became Chancellor, the Bank of England has cut interest rates six times, and we have been able to take £150 off energy bills and freeze prescription charges and rail fares. My hon. Friend’s constituency contains Rolls-Royce, which will benefit from small modular reactors and also from the increased defence spending that is already going in.

[Ben Lake (Ceredigion Preseli) (PC)]

Some 72% of households in my constituency have no connection to the mains gas grid. For those who filled their tanks over the weekend, the consequences of the Iran crisis have become very real, and those who are still to do so are anxious to learn when any potential support that may be agreed on Wednesday will be provided.

[Rachel Reeves]

I recognise that there are significant challenges in some areas of Wales, as indeed there are in Northern Ireland, and I urge the hon. Gentleman to attend the meeting with the Financial Secretary to the Treasury. We have already had representations over the weekend about what is needed, and I want Members in all parties to be able to contribute to that, but the best way to reduce prices is to get that oil and gas flowing again, which is why it is so important to secure not only a military solution to get the strait of Hormuz open but an insurance solution, and I am working closely on that at the moment.

Spring Forecast

Ben Lake Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

I can confirm that because of the choices in today’s spring forecast, the settlement for the Welsh Government over the next three fiscal years will mean an additional £514 million RDEL and £15 million CDEL to spend on the priorities of the Welsh people. It is important to me and to this Government that we ensure that the wealthiest pay their fair share. We have introduced VAT and business rates on private schools, we have got rid of the non-dom tax status, and we are introducing a high-value council tax to ensure that those with the broadest shoulders pay their fair share, and that, as a result, we need to ask for less from ordinary working people.

[Ben Lake (Ceredigion Preseli) (PC)]

Small businesses play a critical role in the economy of places such as Ceredigion Preseli. As the Chancellor will know, increased energy costs have put real pressure on their ability to operate in recent years. In the light of events over the weekend and the crisis in the middle east, what consideration are the Government giving to additional support to help small businesses to meet rising energy costs?

[Rachel Reeves]

We are only a couple of days into this conflict, and it is important to see where things go in the next few days. As I said in my statement, I am in regular contact with international counterparts right across the world, including in the middle east, with the Governor of the Bank of England, and with sectors—both maritime and oil and gas—that are most affected by what is happening. However, people can see from the actions of this Government—whether that is taking £150 off domestic energy bills or the extension of the supercharger to help energy-intensive industries with their energy costs, which will come in next month—that we are determined to help people. In addition, as I just said to my hon. Friend the Member for Llanelli (Dame Nia Griffith), today’s spring forecast includes an additional £540 million of RDEL spending and £15 million of CDEL spending, which the Welsh Government can spend on the priorities of the Welsh people.

Banking Hubs: Rural and Post-Industrial Communities

Ben Lake Excerpts

Tuesday 24th February 2026 Westminster Hall

[Lucy Rigby]

My hon. Friend sums up very well the links between some of the issues that we are discussing today and wider economic growth, which, as Members will know, is the Government’s principal mission.

Any hope that I might have had of reciting the names of the constituencies of Members who have contributed to the debate is fast evaporating. What I will say, on our 350 banking hubs in the course of this Parliament, is that it is important to note that that is a floor rather than a ceiling, so it is entirely possible that the 350 target will be surpassed. More than 270 hubs have already been announced, and more than 210 are now open. In Wales specifically, 17 banking hubs have been announced and 12 of them are already open.

Banking hubs do not just provide assisted cash services through post office staff and allow customers to withdraw and deposit cash. They also of course, as Members will know, provide community bankers from customers’ banks, offering customers the opportunity to speak to someone face to face about their banking needs, as they would in a traditional bank branch. I was in the banking hub in Warwick just last week and was able to meet community bankers and customers who were coming in. I saw at first hand the important benefit that having someone there whom people were able to engage with brought to those who were coming in.

[Ben Lake (Ceredigion Preseli) (PC)]

I am grateful to the Minister for her generosity. I agree wholeheartedly that it is important that these hubs offer that wider range of banking services, and I draw her attention to the plight of community bank account holders, who often need to have access to a service that currently is available only in a bank branch, but could be provided in a banking hub in the future.

[Lucy Rigby]

The hon. Member makes a strong point. I am rapidly cutting bits out of my speech, but I will cover as much as I can. Members will know that some hubs offer services that others do not. We have been exploring with the banks how services might be expanded and improved where there is a community need for that to happen. Just last month, I held a roundtable with a large number of banks, Cash Access UK and UK Finance to discuss the services currently provided in banking hubs, including access to printing facilities, which we know are really valued in some communities. Saturday opening hours are another example of the things that were discussed. Overall, that discussion with the banks was about how we improve the functionality of hubs. We also discussed what the industry might be able to do to raise awareness of the location of hubs—which we know in some areas is not as high as it might be—alongside awareness of the services that they offer their customers.

I want to spend a second addressing the important points raised about digital exclusion and particular vulnerabilities. Although many people benefit from digital services, the Government of course recognise—this is inherent in the financial inclusion strategy that we published at the end of last year—that many people face real barriers. That is exactly why digital inclusion sat alongside access to banking as a core pillar of the strategy.

The financial inclusion strategy includes an industry-led working group on inclusive design to improve accessibility right across financial products—

Motion lapsed (Standing Order No. 10(6)).

Business Rates

Ben Lake Excerpts

Tuesday 27th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dan Tomlinson]

Yes, we will continue to work with pubs, because we do value them. I want to be clear, however, that we value all of the businesses on the high street. We value our hospitality businesses, our retail businesses and those that work in leisure and soft play, which I believe was mentioned earlier. All the different businesses that provide life and vibrancy on our high streets are important. I have set out the particular challenges of the rateable value methodology for pubs and the big challenges they have faced over the last 14 years, with 7,000 closing, but we want to make sure we continue to do all we can to support high streets in my hon. Friend’s constituency and across the country.

[Ben Lake (Ceredigion Preseli) (PC)]

Dozens of small businesses across Ceredigion and north Pembrokeshire will have listened to the Minister’s statement with interest. Could he please reassure me that the consequential funding that he has confirmed will go to Welsh Government will be determined and communicated in time—by 1 April—to allow the Welsh Government to allocate additional support to those small businesses?

[Dan Tomlinson]

I am sure that the consequentials and their implications will be set out as soon as is practically possible.

Clause 1

Ben Lake Excerpts

Monday 12th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Ruth Jones (Newport West and Islwyn) (Lab)]

I rise to speak on schedule 12. I greatly welcome the Government’s changes to the proposed agricultural property relief and business property relief thresholds. As Chair of the Welsh Affairs Committee, I am proud of the work that my Committee has undertaken on reviewing the Welsh farming industry and the report with clear recommendations that we produced before the Budget. I also thank the Treasury for its swift response to our report as well as the changes that it has made to the thresholds. These changes show that the Government are listening not just to farmers but to the Welsh Affairs Committee and Welsh Labour MPs.

The new higher thresholds are a win for Welsh farmers. Raising the allowance for 100% relief from £1 million to £2.5 million will ensure that the changes to inheritance tax are properly targeted at the wealthiest estates while ensuring that smaller-scale family farms remain protected. Couples will now be able to pass on £5 million-worth of agriculture or business assets between them, tax free. This additional relief will have a particularly significant impact in Wales, given its specific context, which is very different from England. This was a key finding of the Welsh Affairs Committee’s recent inquiry.

[Ben Lake (Ceredigion Preseli) (PC)]

I commend the hon. Member on her leadership of the Welsh Affairs Committee. She rightly said that the Committee did stellar work on reviewing the potential impact of the proposals on agriculture in Wales. Further to her point about the unique nature and structure of the agriculture industry in Wales, does she agree that, regardless of the changes that the Treasury has introduced, it would do well to undertake a specific Wales-wide impact assessment of these changes?

[Ruth Jones]

Absolutely; the hon. Member makes a point that I am going to come on to later.

Welsh farms are typically smaller than those in England, with 55% being less than 20 hectares, and 66% of Welsh farms are cattle and sheep farms situated on hilly or mountainous terrain, compared with just 12% in England, which also has a much higher concentration of arable farming. This leaves Welsh farms with the lowest average income of the four nations—£18,000 lower than in England. Welsh family farms are also a cultural bastion of the Welsh language, with almost half the people working on Welsh farms speaking Welsh as their first language—more than double the Welsh average.

While the Government’s changes to APR and BPR are likely to disproportionately benefit Welsh farmers, the diverse nature of farming across the four UK nations needs to be considered when making such significant changes. That is why the Welsh Affairs Committee continues to call for the Wales-specific impact assessment of the Government’s changes to inheritance tax that the hon. Member for Ceredigion Preseli (Ben Lake) just referenced. It is critical that those with the broadest shoulders pay their fair share of tax. That is why it is important that we close the inheritance tax loophole that allowed wealthy investors to purchase agricultural land as a way of avoiding tax.

Ensuring that the tax burden falls fairly relies on effective data, however. The Welsh Affairs Committee and I remain concerned about the availability and accuracy of the data used to justify the thresholds set for APR and BPR, particularly in regard to Wales. The Government have thus far been unable to provide any estimate of the number of Welsh farms that will be affected by these reforms to inheritance tax. Such data is critical when considering any potential impacts on the Welsh farming sector, given its greater financial precarity and reliance on low-income, family-run livestock farms. We cannot afford to be complacent. I hope that the Government will ensure that they take specific account of the unique cultural, environmental and economic circumstances of farming in Wales when making such significant policy decisions. I wholeheartedly support the changes to the APR and BPR as laid out in the Government’s amendment to schedule 12.

Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief

Ben Lake Excerpts

Monday 5th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dan Tomlinson]

My hon. Friend is right to mention the disastrous trade deals that happened under the previous Government, and I thank him for giving me the chance to mention the trade deals that we have implemented, which seek to support businesses across the country to access more markets. I hope that, with our continued engagement with the European Union, we can continue to do that closer to home, too.

[Ben Lake (Ceredigion Preseli) (PC)]

Does the Treasury subscribe to the general commitment that the Government have made to ensure that all policymaking considers the impact of decisions on rural areas? If it does subscribe to that rural-proofing commitment, will the Minister elaborate on how he will ensure that it is abided by in future so that rural communities, such as those in Ceredigion Preseli, are not subjected to yet another ordeal such as we have just endured?

[Dan Tomlinson]

I can reassure the hon. Member that I and Ministers will continue to think through the impacts on rural communities—and all communities—when we come forward with changes to tax or other policies. It is because we have done that that we came forward with the change we announced just before Christmas, and we will be making that change in the Finance Bill in the coming weeks.

Finance (No. 2) Bill

Ben Lake Excerpts

2nd reading
Tuesday 16th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Ben Lake (Ceredigion Preseli) (PC)]

I am pleased to speak in this debate on the Finance (No. 2) Bill. I have now spoken in most of the Finance Bill debates since I was first elected to represent the people of Ceredigion in 2017, and subsequently, since last year, I now also represent the good people of Preseli, in north Pembrokeshire. In advance of all Finance Bill debates I make the effort to consult widely with my communities, in particular with the small businesses that form such an important part of the economy in my constituency. In all the years that I have served as a Member of Parliament, never has the sense of fear, the lack of confidence and the uncertainty been so palpable when I have met businesses in my constituency.

If I reflect briefly on the structure of the economy of the constituency, it is perhaps no surprise that they should be so worried about the measures in this Budget. As of March this year, there were some 5,500 businesses registered in Ceredigion Preseli—that number may well be slightly lower by next March—and 81% of them are classified as small businesses, with fewer than 50 employees, which makes Ceredigion Preseli the small business capital of Wales. It is a rural and coastal constituency, so the industries of agriculture and hospitality are key pillars of our economy. Indeed, 35% of all businesses are classified as being in the agricultural, forestry or fishing sector.

Much has already been said in the debate about the changes to the agricultural property relief and the business property relief, and the concerns that these changes have caused for small businesses and small family farms across the United Kingdom. We have heard other Members, particularly the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael), eloquently speak on this matter. As he mentioned, we have already seen how these proposals have changed the way in which our small businesses, particularly farm businesses, operate. Some 55% of small businesses and 49% of farm businesses have already cancelled proposed investment projects in anticipation of the changes. Family Business UK estimates that in my constituency these changes alone will lead to the loss of some 250 jobs and deliver a £13 million hit to my constituency’s gross value added.

There is a real danger with these changes that the Government will deliver incredibly long-lasting harm to small businesses across the country, especially in rural areas. It is particularly disappointing that the Government have refused to pause, at least, these changes so that they can properly understand the impact that they will have on rural areas. Many figures and statistics have been bandied about in the many debates that we have had in the past months about the prevailing facts of these changes, but the Government have not undertaken a full impact assessment, as follows most policy decisions that they take.

[Sir Edward Leigh (Gainsborough) (Con)]

I am intervening on the hon. Gentleman because we both represent rural constituencies—he in Wales and me in Lincolnshire. Our constituencies are very different in their rural aspect, but both are affected equally badly by the family farm tax. Many of my farms may be larger than his, but their income is still quite marginal. So many of us representing rural areas cannot understand why the Government have not been prepared to compromise, listen to the NFU and, if necessary, take more resources from the big estates but preserve our family farms.

[Ben Lake]

I very much agree with the right hon. Member. That is a point of real bemusement and confusion for many of my constituents.

The Government have not looked for or sought compromise or engaged with the alternative proposals presented by the NFU and the Farmers Union of Wales. Some consensus is to be found, if only the Government would budge and were willing to compromise ever so slightly, so that they can achieve the objectives they so eloquently pointed out are the intention of the policy without sacrificing hundreds if not thousands of family farms and businesses across rural Britain, particularly in my constituency.

That probably underlines a growing sense that I have had. Although my constituency is only 170-odd miles from Westminster and Whitehall, where many of these decisions are dreamt up and subsequently implemented on us, we may as well live on the moon, such is the disconnect between the policies that are sometimes made here and the impact that they have on the ground. There is a lack of effort to try to understand why so many businesses and people in my communities are so fearful about the impact that these proposals will have on their lives.

Let me add that some 15% of all jobs in my constituency are in hospitality. There was a missed opportunity in this Budget for the Government to look again at the VAT for hospitality. That would have done a world of good and given much-needed confidence to an industry and sector that are suffering dreadfully at the moment with the cumulative impact of different price increases as well as new taxes. A VAT cut on hospitality would have been very much welcome.

[Pippa Heylings (South Cambridgeshire) (LD)]

It is not only the VAT; the proposed hike in alcohol duty is yet another blow to pubs and breweries in my constituency. They include the Three Hills in Bartlow, which is reeling from a business rate increase of 123% as a result of the business rate valuation changes. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the Chancellor is failing to protect our pubs and breweries with these measures?

--- Later in debate ---

[Ben Lake]

I very much agree; that takes me neatly to my next point.

The Government have failed in their Budget to acknowledge the many increasing and cumulative pressures on hospitality and pub businesses in particular. The hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire (Pippa Heylings) referred to significant increases in the rateable value of a pub in her constituency, and I have also been contacted in recent days by hospitality businesses, such as a pub that has just been informed of a 131% increase in its rateable value.

The pub is now waiting to understand what exactly that means for its business rates bill, but the fear that it will find itself having to pay a great deal more in the coming years than it previously did is very much well-founded. That is on top of the higher employment costs generated by this Government’s decisions on employer’s national insurance and all the other inflationary costs in terms of energy and goods.

The Valuation Office Agency will come under HMRC from next April, if I have understood things correctly. I very much hope that the Government and HMRC will avail themselves of the opportunity to ensure greater consistency and clarity—and, dare I say, transparency—in the way that the VOA works and these valuations are calculated. It is a very technical, complicated and murky way of addressing and calculating business rates.

There is such a discrepancy in Wales that I must finish my remarks by bringing it to the attention of the House. The town council of Aberystwyth has done a lot of work in recent months on trying to find out why so many retail premises on the high street have been vacated and are empty. Time after time, businesses say that the business rates are just too high, so it did some research and found that on average, a business paying the zone A rates levied on retail properties in Aberystwyth town centre would expect to pay £525 per square metre.

The town council then looked at other towns and cities in Wales and found that a retail business on St Mary Street in Cardiff would be paying £460 per square metre for zone A rates, and a premises on the Kingsway in Swansea would be paying £180 per square metre. One does not need to be an expert on Wales to understand that as wonderful as Aberystwyth is, it is not quite the same sort of hotspot as St Mary Street in Cardiff, or Swansea for that matter. If the Government and HMRC will be taking ownership of, and responsibility for, the VOA from next April, I very much hope that one of the first things they will do is look at some of those inconsistencies. At the moment, as I say, some of these decisions are so disconnected from reality that we might as well be living on the moon.

Oral Answers to Questions

Ben Lake Excerpts

Tuesday 8th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[James Murray]

I thank my hon. Friend for his remarks. He is right to say that the £7.5 billion of additional revenue from closing the tax gap is a huge boost to the public finances, which enables us responsibly to fund public services and deliver key priorities. Those priorities include free breakfast clubs at all primary schools in England. The first 750 of them are beginning this month via our early adopters scheme, which is worth £450 to parents and carers. To go further the Government will bring forward their comprehensive child poverty strategy as soon as possible.

[Ben Lake (Ceredigion Preseli) (PC)]

What steps are the Government taking to address the concerns of overseas companies that are evading VAT and online sales by fraudulently registering UK addresses?

[James Murray]

At the spring statement the hon. Gentleman will have seen the Government set out progress on measures in the autumn Budget to tackle a range of sources of tax avoidance and the tax gap. That includes prosecuting more fraudsters, introducing a new HMRC reward scheme for informants, tackling phoenixism and tackling the offshore non-compliance tax gap.

Finance Bill

Ben Lake Excerpts

Report stage
Monday 3rd March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Jim Shannon]

The hon. Lady makes her point succinctly. I hope that the Minister has heard her comments about the impact. Her concerns are certainly my concerns—indeed, the concerns of all Members on the Opposition Benches. She referred to the review of the impact on small and medium-sized enterprises. I understand that new clause 4 will not be pressed to a vote, but if it were, it is another that my party would support.

[Ben Lake (Ceredigion Preseli) (PC)]

Does the hon. Gentleman share my concern that there seems to be a disconnect between some of the statements made by the Government about the impact, or lack of impact, of the measures on small and medium-sized enterprises, and the fact that, week after week, small businesses and family businesses tell us, as constituency MPs, that they will have to reconsider much of their investment and recruitment plans for the coming year as a result of the measures in the Bill?

[Jim Shannon]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. That is what my small and medium-sized enterprises tell me—and, I believe, everyone else on the Opposition Benches—about that.

Ultimately, whenever the national insurance contributions are passed on to businesses, they will pass it on again to the customers—the wee man and the wee woman. They are the people that the Labour party—the party of conscience—says that it represents, but it will penalise them.