Oral Answers to Questions

Helen Morgan Excerpts

Tuesday 9th September 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (James Murray)]

The Government are investing £100 million to improve hospice facilities and a further £26 million of revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices this year. That is the biggest investment in hospices in a generation. Details about the funding arrangements for 2026-27 will be set out by the Department of Health and Social Care in due course.

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

T2. Pubs are at the heart of the community in North Shropshire, whether community-owned pubs such as the White Lion in Ash and the Horse and Jockey at Northwood, the Bailey Head in Oswestry, which was the Campaign for Real Ale’s pub of the year, or attached to a microbrewery like the Stonehouse brewery in Morda. But all those hospitality businesses are buckling under the strain of higher business rates, the national insurance increase and higher energy costs. May I add my plea to those of my Liberal Democrat colleagues and ask the Chancellor that, in the upcoming Budget, measures are put in place to support our struggling hospitality industry?

[James Murray]

As set out at the last Budget, we will introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses with rateable values below £500,000. The relief that we inherited from the previous Government was due to end entirely in April of this year. We extended it for one year to give us time to legislate for permanently lower tax cuts for pubs across this country.