Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans he has to grant full Capital Gains Tax relief for land sales to a Community Land Trust for affordable homes.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
The Government is committed to improving the supply of affordable homes. Since 2010, we have increased housing supply by over 1.3 million homes, including 407,000 affordable homes.
We do not currently have plans to grant full Capital Gains Tax relief for land sales to a Community Land Trust. The Government considers that the extent to which a Capital Gains Tax relief for land sales to a Community Land Trust would incentivise such behaviour is uncertain. Tax reliefs have an Exchequer cost, and in contemplating such a relief the Government must consider the potential deadweight cost of any benefit going to people who would have sold the land to a Community Land Trust anyway.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps he is taking to increase economic productivity in the West Midlands.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
People across the West Midlands are benefitting from investment that the Government is making to support productivity, with 315,000 more people in employment in the West Midlands than in 2010 and close to 91,000 more businesses.
For example, the Government has agreed devolution deals with the West Midlands that include investment of £1.095bn over 30 years for local priorities. At Budget 2018, the Government also announced an additional £71.5 million for the West Midlands Combined Authority from the Transforming Cities Fund, bringing the total figure for the region to £321.5 million. In addition, the West Midlands was announced in the last year as the UK’s first large-scale 5G testbed, with up to £50 million from the National Productivity Investment Fund, and three areas in the region successfully bid for a total of £19.8 million from the £190 million Local Full Fibre Networks Challenge Fund. North Herefordshire is also benefiting from £75.3m funding for the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) from the Local Growth Fund to support economic activity in the area.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans he has to allocate additional funding for infrastructure in North Herefordshire.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
This government is committed to ensuring that every part of the country has modern and efficient infrastructure, and public investment is set to reach levels not consistently sustained in 40 years.
Access to Superfast Broadband in North Herefordshire has risen from 12% to 81% of premises since 2010, supported by the government’s Superfast Broadband programme.
The routes around Herefordshire’s Enterprise Zone have received £5 million of investment from the Local Maintenance Highways Challenge Fund. This work has provided improvements to almost 40 miles of road. The new West Midlands Trains rail franchise is due to provide 400 new carriages by 2021.
Decisions on future infrastructure funding will be made at the Spending Review.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions his Department has had with the National Association of Cider Makers on duty thresholds for craft cider makers.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Ministers and officials regularly meet with stakeholders to discuss alcohol duty and related issues.
The Exchequer Secretary met with NACM and the member for North Herefordshire in advance of the budget to discuss the cider industry.
Details of ministerial meetings can be found at this link on the gov.uk website:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-gifts-and-overseas-travel
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal support his Department is providing to promote the growth of craft cider makers.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Chancellor announced a freeze in duty on most ciders at Autumn Budget 2018 for the second successive budget.
The government keeps all taxes under review at fiscal events, and we will consider this issue carefully as part of future Budget processes.