National Insurance Contributions (Rate Ceilings) Bill (First sitting)

Debate between Huw Merriman and Rob Marris

Tuesday 27th October 2015 Public Bill Committees

[Huw Merriman]

Q 32 To turn the question from the hon. Member for Middlesbrough on its head, does the Treasury keep estimates of how the stability that this gives business will benefit the economy?

Mr Gauke: It is difficult necessarily to measure that. It is difficult to take the things in isolation. Overall, if you look at what we have done, as both a coalition Government and a Conservative majority Government, in terms of, for example, reducing our rate of corporation tax, addressing the worst effects of the jobs tax, which we inherited in 2010, some of the measures we have taken regarding capping business rates, and so on—over a period of five and a half years or so—we have taken a large number of measures to help businesses and to ensure that we have a thriving private sector, creating the jobs and tax receipts that we need to fund the NHS and so on.

[Rob Marris]

Q 33 Reversing that, I would suggest that the Bill arguably creates greater uncertainty, because although the Government have chosen, following your party’s manifesto commitment, to lock in a cap on national insurance contributions, you are taking action in some areas and not others. For example, there are about 1,300 tax reliefs and you are not locking all of those in.

In answer to an earlier question, you referred to a review of business taxation, which I think you said would be launched in the spring. That in itself creates uncertainty, and I suggest that the argument that the Bill creates greater certainty is wrong. It creates greater uncertainty because people say, “You’re locking in this but we notice you’re not locking in other stuff, so other stuff might change and adversely affect businesses or individuals.”

Mr Gauke: First, to be clear, we will publish our business tax plan—road map, if you like—in the spring, setting out what we will do. It is not the announcement of a review as such. It is, to some extent, conclusions.