Asked by: David Chadwick (Liberal Democrat - Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make it her policy to introduce fiscal measures to support the long-term competitiveness of the UK steel industry in the Autumn Budget 2025.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
This Government remains committed to supporting the UK steel industry.
The Government will also set out a long-term vision for a revitalised and sustainable sector in a Steel Strategy to be published by the end of the year.
Asked by: David Chadwick (Liberal Democrat - Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when the Government plans to release the £2.5 billion of funding to support investment in UK steel decarbonisation and productivity improvements.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
This Government remains committed to supporting the UK steel industry.
The Government will also set out a long-term vision for a revitalised and sustainable sector in a Steel Strategy to be published by the end of the year.
Asked by: David Chadwick (Liberal Democrat - Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Government plans to reinvest a share of Crown Estate income from the Celtic Sea Floating Offshore Wind Leasing Round 5 into local economic development in Neath Port Talbot.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Crown Estate pays its entire net profits into the Consolidated Fund each year, contributing to the funding of public services across the UK, including in Wales.
The Crown Estate is taking steps to ensure that Wales benefits from offshore wind development. It has launched a £50 million Supply Chain Accelerator, with four Welsh-based projects successful in the first funding round, to support early-stage supply-chain proposals. Alongside the Supply Chain Investment Programme, this aims to unlock capacity constraints, accelerate project delivery and create local economic opportunities, including jobs and skills development in Wales.
The Crown Estate’s Round 5 Agreements for Lease also include contractually enforceable social value and economic commitments. These obligations are designed to translate leasing agreements into tangible outcomes for communities .
Asked by: David Chadwick (Liberal Democrat - Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of revenues from the Crown Estate’s Celtic Sea Floating Offshore Wind Leasing Round 5 will be allocated to investment in port and supply-chain infrastructure in Wales.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Crown Estate pays its entire net profits into the Consolidated Fund each year, contributing to the funding of public services across the UK, including in Wales.
The Crown Estate is taking steps to ensure that Wales benefits from offshore wind development. It has launched a £50 million Supply Chain Accelerator, with four Welsh-based projects successful in the first funding round, to support early-stage supply-chain proposals. Alongside the Supply Chain Investment Programme, this aims to unlock capacity constraints, accelerate project delivery and create local economic opportunities, including jobs and skills development in Wales.
The Crown Estate’s Round 5 Agreements for Lease also include contractually enforceable social value and economic commitments. These obligations are designed to translate leasing agreements into tangible outcomes for communities .
Asked by: David Chadwick (Liberal Democrat - Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans she has to (a) abolish the Carbon Price Support mechanism and (b) introduce further measures to reduce electricity costs for energy-intensive industries.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government’s Industrial Strategy published in June 2025 announced that from 2027, a new British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme will reduce electricity costs by c.£35-40/MWh and support thousands of businesses. The scheme will benefit manufacturing electricity intensive frontier industries in the Industrial Strategy and foundational manufacturing industries in their supply chains. Eligible businesses will be exempt from paying the costs of the Renewables Obligation, Feed-in Tariffs and the Capacity Market. The scheme will bring GB electricity costs more in line with other major economies in Europe, and level the playing field for GB businesses.
The government will also continue support for the Energy-Intensive Industries Compensation Scheme to support energy efficiency, decarbonisation, and technical innovation.
The government keeps all taxes under review and will continue to review Carbon Price Support beyond the announced rates as part of the policy making process.
Asked by: David Chadwick (Liberal Democrat - Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she plans to retain the lower rate of landfill tax for (a) industrial by-products and (b) other steel-making residues.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recently consulted on proposals to reform Landfill Tax to ensure the regime remains effective in encouraging waste to be diverted away from landfill. The proposals aimed to support the Government’s circular economy objectives to facilitate economic growth by stimulating investment in technologies, sectors and infrastructure that keep resources in circulation for longer. As part of the consultation, the Government has received a wide range of views from stakeholders, including representatives from manufacturing sectors, such as steelmaking. The consultation closed on 28 July, and the Government is considering responses and will set out next steps in due course.
Asked by: David Chadwick (Liberal Democrat - Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department has conducted an impact assessment of the potential impact of changes to inheritance tax relief for farmers on the Welsh language.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is not under an obligation to carry out or publish a specific Welsh language impact assessment of tax policies. However, it is not expected there will be any material impact on the opportunities of individuals to use the Welsh language following these reforms.
Asked by: David Chadwick (Liberal Democrat - Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle covid-19 small business loan fraud.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Government is committed to recouping public money lost in pandemic related fraud whilst also taking steps to provide value for money for UK taxpayers, working closely with law enforcement, counter-fraud agencies and commercial lenders. We are clear that fraud is not acceptable within these schemes, and businesses continue to be responsible for the loans they took out under any of the Covid loan guarantee schemes.
We are providing significant funding to the British Business Bank and the Insolvency Service to combat loan fraud, including £10.9 million for the British Business Bank over three years to boost their counter fraud and assurance programme. The Insolvency Service has a proven track record in handling complex fraud and financial misconduct investigations. By the end of March 2025, its work had resulted in more than 2,000 director disqualifications, bankruptcy restrictions, 62 criminal convictions, and more than £6 million recoveries related to Covid loan guarantee scheme abuse.
We have also appointed a fixed-term Covid Counter-Fraud Commissioner, Tom Hayhoe, to look at the issue of Covid fraud and recoveries at large, as we use every means possible to recoup public money lost in pandemic-related fraud. The Commissioner will be completing his work by the end of this year and will provide a report to be presented to Parliament.
In the interests of transparency, the Government also publishes Covid loan guarantee performance data, which includes total values lent and repayment data. The latest version of this data was published in August 2025 and can be accessed via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-loan-guarantee-schemes-repayment-data-march-2025
Asked by: David Chadwick (Liberal Democrat - Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate her Department has made of the potential economic impact of changes to the thresholds for the Soft Drinks Industry Levy on the level of food inflation.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
An assessment of economic and other impacts are included as part of the ‘Strengthening the Soft Drinks Industry Levy’ consultation document. This is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/strengthening-the-soft-drinks-industry-levy. The direct impact of the proposed changes on CPI inflation is expected to be negligible, less than 0.01 percentage points.
The proposed changes were subject to a consultation, which was open until 21 July 2025 and will inform decisions at a future Budget. If the Government decides to make changes to the levy, it will publish a tax information and impact note (TIIN) to give account of the confirmed policy’s impacts.
Asked by: David Chadwick (Liberal Democrat - Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for (a) Energy Security and Net Zero and (b) Business and Trade on fiscal measures to help support the scale-up of the green hydrogen sector.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has been engaging closely with both the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero and the Secretary of State for Business and Trade through the spending review, including on support for the low carbon hydrogen sector.