Budget Resolutions

Connor Naismith Excerpts

Monday 2nd November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Angela Rayner]

Our plans are about making sure that mayors work with local authorities. In fact, in my area in Greater Manchester, we have seen the combined authority have really good pulling power, with our economy doing better than other areas, so we want to see that across the whole nation.

That is why the Cabinet statement on rewiring the state committed to the financial sustainability of local authorities, and this Budget is the next step towards that. The upcoming local government finance policy statement will set out our next steps alongside the rewiring the state delivery plan. Good growth is growth that we can see and feel. We need to draw a line under a decade of drift during which the public realm was seen as sideshow to politics—[Interruption.] The hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth (Dr Evans) should know about sideshows.

Our high streets are where we catch up with friends for a coffee, and those businesses provide solid jobs at the heart of our communities. Those small moments of joy give us real hope, and that is why our strategy is giving hope back to the high streets. New powers, new funding and changes to the business rates system will provide much-needed relief for thousands of cafés, pubs and high street shops. We are freezing all retail, hospitality and leisure bills in real terms to protect them from above inflation increases for the next two years, and we are lifting the small business rate relief threshold for qualifying properties.

[Connor Naismith (Crewe and Nantwich) (Lab)]

My constituents will strongly welcome the decision to extend small business rate relief to many more businesses in the Crewe and Nantwich constituency, but they will also welcome the decision to remove small business rate relief from adult gaming centres and vape shops. Will my right hon. Friend join me in saying that this is an important step to incentivise the kind of businesses we want to see and disincentivise those we do not?

[Angela Rayner]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We are removing business rate relief for vape shops and adult gaming centres, and giving local authorities stronger tools to tackle business rates avoidance. At the Budget, we announced an extra 20% business rate cut for pubs and all but the largest live music venues. We will also introducing a general anti-avoidance rule for business rates at the earliest opportunity, and expanding what legal costs local authorities can claim when they are unsuccessful.

--- Later in debate ---

[Andrew Bowie]

The hon. Member is absolutely right, but, as usual, the Labour party gives no regard to those with aspiration or who want to succeed and get on. All it cares about is handouts and subsidies for “Benefits Street”. The Conservatives are the party that will support those who are working hard to do the right thing and move forward.

[Connor Naismith]

The hon. Member talked about the Opposition’s clean power plan, and how marvellous it is, but if those ideas are so good, why did the Conservatives not implement them when they had 14 years in government to do so?

[Andrew Bowie]

It is the cheap power plan, not the clean power plan, but I do not want to be too much of a stickler for detail. It may have escaped the hon. Gentleman’s notice that we are under new management now in the Conservative party, and I look forward to implementing our plan when we win the election.

There was also the surprise announcement of the removal of standing charges on gas bills—well, only surprising for the SNP group leader, the hon. Member for Angus and Perthshire Glens (Dave Doogan), who did not know whether he still supported the move that he called for in 2024. On the face of it the measure may appear to lower bills, but as ever, the devil is in the detail. If someone is a higher consumer—someone who uses gas for heating, cooking or hot water—then their energy bill is going to go up. Across Britain, temperatures are beginning to drop as we head into winter, and in large parts of this country—in the north of England and Scotland—it has just got more expensive to turn the heating on, thanks to Labour.

Some 80% of households in Britain rely on gas to keep them warm, which is why the delay before making a decision on Jackdaw was so maddening. When the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero approved the decision, through gritted teeth, it was rightly justified on the basis of energy security. Getting gas out of the Jackdaw field is what is best for Britain, because every bit of gas from that field will go directly into the British gas network.

However, the devil is in the detail. As I have said, we were all very surprised to see that revenue from Rosebank is still being accounted for in the OBR’s projections for revenue. Considering that the Secretary of State has suggested to the press that she is not minded to approve Rosebank, despite it being a quasi-judicial decision, does that mean that the forecasts are possibly misleading or wrong—or is the Chancellor about to get his way again, and Rosebank is about to get the go-ahead? We need to have that cleared up. We need to understand.

The theme of today’s debate is growth in every postcode and breathing space. This Budget, however, did nothing for growth and gave no breathing space, save for a couple of gasps of cold air from those who will be too scared to turn on their heating this Christmas. It could have done, though. We could have seen a bold Budget: a Budget that said, without equivocation, that we support our North sea oil and gas industry; a Budget that got Britain drilling by removing the energy profits levy today, not in three years; a Budget that reduced the cost of energy by slashing the levies, charges and taxes that still make up too much of an individual’s or business’s energy bill; and a Budget that reindustrialised our country by incentivising investment and growth, not one that doubles down on net zero and linking the emissions trading scheme with Europe. That is the Budget we needed to see. It is the Budget the Conservatives would have presented, and it is the Budget we will present when we win the next general election.