Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of targeted employer National Insurance contributions relief in supporting youth employment.
Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General
The Government recognises the important role that employers play in providing young people with their first step into work. Businesses can therefore claim employer National Insurance contributions reliefs for employees under 21 and apprentices under 25, meaning no employer NICs are paid on their earnings up to £50,270.
HMRC published an evaluation of these measures in October 2023. It found that they reduce employment costs for employers and identified some evidence of a positive impact on youth employment, while noting that recruitment decisions are influenced by wider factors.
The Government has also announced £2.5 billion of investment in the Youth Guarantee and the Growth and Skills Levy over the next three years, supporting almost one million young people and helping to deliver up to 500,000 opportunities to earn or learn.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the VAT registration threshold on the net revenue growth of SMEs.
Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General
At £90,000, the UK has a higher VAT registration threshold than any EU country and the joint highest in the OECD. This means the majority of UK businesses are not in the VAT system at all.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment his Department has made of the total fiscal yield generated by the Energy Profits Levy.
Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General
The Office for National Statistics publishes monthly updates on public sector current receipts. Since its introduction in 2022 until July 2026, the Energy Profits Levy has raised £13.5bn on an accruals basis.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment his Department has made of the average administrative compliance costs incurred by a business when transitioning across the VAT registration threshold.
Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General
The Government set out the impacts, including administrative impacts, of specific policies in the Tax Impact and Info notes which are published alongside tax policy changes at each Budget.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the fiscal effectiveness of land value taxation mechanisms in disincentivising the holding of undeveloped commercial sites.
Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General
The Chancellor takes decisions on tax at fiscal events and does not routinely comment on proposals.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment her Department has made of the average time taken for newly recognised refugees to secure accommodation following the issuance of a biometric residence permit.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister of State (Home Office)
We continue to work closely with local authorities to improve housing outcomes for newly recognised refugees leaving asylum accommodation.
In March this year, the Home Office decided to set the notice period for all individuals granted leave exiting the asylum accommodation estate to 42 days, following an extensive 56-day pilot and evaluation. In reaching the decision, we considered a wide range of evidence, including key findings from the evaluation of the 56-day pilot. The full evaluation can be found on gov.uk: www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-the-initiatives-to-enhance-the-move-on-process/evaluation-of-the-initiatives-to-enhance-the-move-on-process.
It is important that individuals initiate plans to move on from asylum support as soon as they are served their asylum decision in order to maximise the time they have to make move on arrangements, regardless of when their eVisa (which replaced biometric residence permits in for newly recognised refugees leaving asylum accommodation in 2024) is issued. Support is available to all individuals through Migrant Help in order to do this, which includes advice on how to access Universal Credit, the labour market and where to get assistance with housing.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of allowing the National Wealth Fund to issue independent debt instruments.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with HM Treasury)
The National Wealth Fund (NWF) currently has £27.8bn of financial capacity and is focused on deploying this existing capitalisation.
There are no current plans to allow the National Wealth Fund to issue independent debt instruments. Once the NWF exhausts its existing financial capacity, HM Treasury will assess the most value-for-money approach for further capitalising the NWF.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of extending official fiscal forecast horizons beyond five years on long-term capital investment planning.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The government updated the Charter for Budget Responsibility in 2024 to require that where capital investment, or other new policies, may have material impacts beyond the forecast horizon, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) should, where appropriate and subject to receiving sufficient information from the Treasury to do so, analyse and report on these at the relevant forecast. The OBR estimates that the combined supply-side effects of policy announced across the Parliament will raise the level of GDP by over 0.6% after 10 years.
The government has taken a long-term approach to capital investment in the 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy, published in 2025. The Strategy set out the UK government’s long-term plan to provide greater certainty for infrastructure investment to support growth, resilience and high-quality public services.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to increase HMRC compliance and enforcement capacity regarding ultra-high-net-worth individual tax liabilities.
Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General
HMRC’s compliance approach focuses on preventing non-compliance, promoting good compliance and responding to those who choose not to pay what they legally owe, including wealthy individuals. HMRC is increasing activity to tackle offshore tax evasion, including that carried out by the wealthy. This includes recruiting and redeploying 400 additional staff by 2030 to tackle wealthy offshore non-compliance.
As part of that commitment, in 2025-2026 HMRC recruited and redeployed over 200 staff across compliance teams to manage the risk. That includes 20 external experts with specific commercial or sectoral knowledge. The majority of these have been placed in the Complex Cross Tax and Offshore team (CCTO). The team takes a holistic view of wealthy individuals and their structures, targeting cross-tax risks among customers with the highest wealth, risk and complexity.
HMRC has also allocated a Customer Compliance Manager (CCM) to every billionaire with a UK tax footprint over the summer. CCMs are allocated to customers according to wealth, complexity and risk.
For more information, visit HMRC Transformation Roadmap: update 2026 - GOV.UK. HMRC will also publish its plan for tackling wealthy non-compliance by the end of 2026.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of expanding local business rates retention flexibilities for non-devolved local authorities.
Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General
The Government’s vision for devolution in England was set out in the joint cabinet statement, ‘Rewiring the state’ published in July. This committed to greater retention of business rates revenue for both strategic authorities and local councils. The long-term certainty of funding via taxation will provide more flexibility and enable greater investment to fund interventions that will deliver a return. The Government will consider how these growth incentives can be balanced with the need for fairness between places, recognising that there will be different starting points across the country.