Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the potential socio-economic merits of a VAT relief scheme for Further Education colleges.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises that Further Education (FE) funding is vital to ensure people are being trained in the skills they need to thrive in the modern labour market. The 2025 Spending Review provided an additional £1.2 billion per year by 2028-29 for skills and £1.7 billion of capital funding to help colleges maintain the condition of their estate. In addition, the Government is providing £375 million of capital investment to support the FE system to accommodate increasing student numbers.
For their non-business activity, FE colleges are unable to reclaim VAT incurred. We operate several VAT refund schemes for schools and academies. FE colleges do not meet the criteria for either scheme.
In relation to business activity, FE colleges enjoy an exemption from VAT which means that they do not have to charge VAT to students, but cannot recover it either. The Government is not currently planning to introduce a VAT refund scheme for FE institutions.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has considered joining The Global Solidarity Levies Taskforce set up at COP28.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
We are committed to helping deliver global climate finance, including the New Collective Quantified Goal agreed at COP29 of at least $300bn per year to developing countries by 2035, and responding to the wider call on all actors to increase climate finance to developing countries to £1.3trn per year.
As part of that effort, we are pressing for faster and more ambitious reforms to the global financial system to deliver much more and higher quality climate and development finance. Alongside this, we are supportive of exploring revenue raising mechanisms for climate action.
We recognise the work being undertaken by the Global Solidarity Levies Taskforce and will consider their proposals and those of other organisations on a case-by-case basis.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department has made an estimate of the amount of potential revenue that could be raised from taxing sport utility vehicles in line with France.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government annually reviews the rates and thresholds of taxes and reliefs to ensure that they are appropriate and reflect the current state of the economy. The Chancellor makes decisions on tax policy at fiscal events in the context of the public finances.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing rolling revaluations (a) every three years and (b) on a regular basis to prevent significant increases in bills.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The amount of business rates paid on each property is based on the Rateable Value of the property, assessed by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), and the multiplier values, which are set by the Government. Rateable values are re-assessed every three years. The most recent revaluation took effect from 1 April 2023 and was based on values as of 1 April 2021. The next revaluation will take effect from 1 April 2026 based on values of 1 April 2024.
The Government provides transitional relief to support ratepayers seeing large bill increases as a result of revaluations. The Government will announce details on the transitional relief scheme for the 2026 revaluation at Budget 2025, in light of the revaluation outcomes.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the average time taken was for an IHT30 certificate to be issued in the latest period for which data is available; and how many cases were waiting for an IHT30 certificate to be issued on 1 August 2025.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC do not measure the average time taken for an IHT30 certificate to be issued. HMRC have a service standard to process 80% of IHT30 certificates within 15 working days.
HMRC have prioritised the processing of IHT400 forms to minimise any delays for customers applying for probate through HM Courts & Tribunals Service. Customers do not need an IHT30 certificate to distribute assets to beneficiaries.
HMRC have trained and deployed additional staff to work on inheritance tax, and are investing £52m to digitalise the Inheritance Tax service from 2027-28 to provide a modern, easy-to-use system, making returns and paying tax simpler and quicker.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has considered the potential merits of extending salary sacrifice to increase the take-up of heat pumps.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
From April 2017 the tax and employer National Insurance advantages of optional remuneration arrangements (OpRAs) have been removed, with a handful of exemptions.
Extending the list of exemptions would have a fiscal cost and would be of greatest benefit to those paying higher rates of tax while low-earning individuals with income below the Personal Allowance or the higher rate threshold would benefit less or not at all.
The government considers all tax changes in the round at fiscal events.
At the Spending Review, the government committed £13.2 billion for the Warm Homes Plan, to cut bills for families across the country by upgrading homes with heat pumps, as well as energy efficiency measures and other low-carbon technologies, such as solar panels and batteries.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will issue updated HMRC guidance on the definition of main residence for SDLT purposes for serving personnel living in Service Family Accommodation while retaining or purchasing a home elsewhere.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC has published guidance on the definition of 'main residence' for Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) purposes which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/stamp-duty-land-tax-manual/sdltm09812. This guidance applies to all purchasers, including serving armed forces personnel living in Service Family Accommodation.
The guidance explains that a property can only be considered a replacement of a main residence if the previous home was both owned and occupied by the purchaser (or their spouse/civil partner) as their main residence. Where a purchaser previously lived in accommodation which they (or their spouse or civil partner) did not own – such as Service Family Accommodation – then moving out of this accommodation does not count as replacing their main residence for SDLT purposes. Determining a 'main residence' involves assessing all relevant facts and circumstances, including the purchaser’s intention at the time of acquisition.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many SDLT transactions by serving armed forces personnel have incurred the 5% higher rates for additional dwellings in each of the last five years.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) returns do not collect details of the employment status of purchasers. For this reason, HM Revenue and Customs is unable to provide details of the number of serving armed forces personnel who have incurred the higher rate of SDLT on the purchase of additional dwellings.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of Stamp Duty on serving armed forces personnel who are required to maintain a second property owing to service postings.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The higher rates of Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) apply to the purchases of additional residential property, including second homes and buy-to-let investments. A refund of the additional 5% rate may be claimed if the previous main residence is sold within three years of acquiring the new one. In some circumstances, for example, armed forces personnel may not meet the higher rates refund criteria if renting out their home whilst living in service family accommodation or where they are posted away or deployed overseas for long periods.
As SDLT returns do not collect details of the employment status of purchasers we are unable to make a quantative assessment of the number of serving armed forces personnel who have incurred the higher rate of SDLT on the purchase of additional dwellings or of those able to successfully meet the refund criteria.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of increasing draft duty relief for (a) consumers, (b) pubs and (c) breweries in (i) Rushcliffe and (ii) rest of the UK.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Chancellor’s draught rate cut at Autumn Budget 2024 applied to approximately 60% of the alcoholic drinks sold in pubs. This took a penny of duty off a typical strength pint.
Draught beer and cider now pay 13.9% less in duty than their packaged equivalents – an increase of over 50% on the previous draught discount of 9.2%.
The Chancellor makes decisions on tax policy at fiscal events. The Government welcomes representations from the beer and pub sectors in advance of the Budget.