Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans he has to make provision for employees who began their employment between 30 October 2020 and 4 January 2021 to receive assistance from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme furlough scheme.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme was extended on 31 October, ahead of the national lockdown on 1 November. The 30 October cut-off date allows as many people as possible to be included by going right up to the day before the announcement, balancing the risk of fraud that existed as soon as the scheme became public.
The Government understands that the new restrictions are challenging for some businesses, and the Chancellor has announced further support measures. These are carefully designed to complement the existing ones so as to ensure jobs and livelihoods are protected. This support includes a new one-off grant of up to £9,000 to support businesses in England which are legally required to close. This comes in addition to the existing monthly grants for closed businesses of up to £3,000 per month. Local authorities will also receive an additional £500m, to a total of £1.6bn, of discretionary funding to allow them to support their local businesses.
The CJRS is not the only support available for employees. The Government has boosted the generosity of the welfare system by £7.4bn in 2020-21 including through a temporary £20 a week increase in Universal Credit standard allowance and Working Tax Credit basic element. This means that for a single Universal Credit claimant (25 or over), the standard allowance has increased from £317.82 to £409.89 per month. The £20 per week uplift is one part of a package of temporary welfare measures, which also includes the suspension of the Universal Credit Minimum Income Floor to support self-employed people on low incomes.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many branches of (a) banks and (b) building societies there were in the Yorkshire and the Humber region in (i) 2010 and (ii) 2020.
Answered by John Glen
The Treasury does not make assessments of the bank and building society branch network. In 2018, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) undertook an analysis of branch closures as part of their Strategic Review of Retail Banking Business Models. This analysis can be found in Annex 1 of the final report.
The decision to close a branch is a commercial issue for the management team of the bank or building society. However, Government believes it is important the impact on communities must be understood, considered and mitigated where possible. That is why the Government continues to be very supportive of the Access to Banking Standard and the commitment it places on banks to minimise the impact of branch closures, including by ensuring that customers are aware of the alternative ways they can continue to access banking services. These include the Post Office, which allows 95% of business and 99% of personal banking customers to carry out their everyday banking at 11,500 Post Office branches across the UK.
In September 2020, the FCA published guidance setting out their expectation of firms when they are deciding to reduce their physical branches or the number of free-to-use ATMs. Firms are expected to carefully consider the impact of a planned closure on their customers’ everyday banking and cash access needs, and other relevant branch services and consider possible alternative access arrangements. This will ensure the implementation of closure decisions is done in a way that treats customers fairly.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will extend the business rates holiday for retail and hospitality businesses beyond March 2021.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The unprecedented full business rates holiday for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure properties for the financial year is worth £10 billion to business in 2020-21. The Government will continue to look at how to adjust its support in a way that ensures people can get back to work, protecting both the UK economy and the livelihoods of people across the country. In order to ensure that any decisions best meet the evolving challenges presented by COVID-19, the Government will outline plans for future reliefs in the New Year.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the cost to the public purse is of introducing one-off payments of £1,000 to all wet pubs that are unable to open due to covid-19 restrictions.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
The Government is providing additional funding to all local authorities in Tiers 2 and 3 to enable them to make one-off grants of £1,000 to all wet-led pubs in their areas. We will calculate the funding which local authorities receive for this scheme using a combination of Valuation Office Agency data and industry information. The cost to the public purse will be dependent on the take-up of the grants.
This additional support comes on top of existing support that is already available to wet-led pubs through the Local Restrictions Support Grant schemes under which these pubs will receive up to £3,000 per month for each month they are closed. The Government is continuing to collect evidence on the impact of the pandemic on the hospitality industry and work with businesses and representative groups to ensure that support provided is right for this industry and the economy as a whole.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reason the sum of £1,000 was decided on as a measure of one-off financial support for wet pubs that are unable to open due to covid-19 restrictions.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
Given wet-led pubs in tiers 2 and 3 will be subject to significant measures under the new regional tiered system, and will miss out on business during the busy Christmas period, it is right for the Government to increase its support to these businesses.
The Government has announced an additional £1,000 Christmas grant for ‘wet-led pubs’ in tiers 2 and 3. The payment will be a one-off for December, and eligible wet-led pubs across these tiers are invited to apply through their local authority who will be responsible for distributing the grants.
This grant is just one part of the unprecedented package of support that is available for businesses. The Government has acted to deliver support to the hospitality sectors by extending the CJRS until March and provided cash grants of up to £3,000 per month to help businesses that are closed with their costs.
In addition, the Government has provided £1.1 billion of Discretionary Grant funding for local authorities to target support to the businesses that are most important to their local economy. Businesses are also still able to access wider support, including:
o Affordable, Government backed finance through loan schemes – extended until the end of January 2021 and ‘Pay as You Grow’ options for businesses which have taken out loans, to make repayments over the long-term;
o A VAT deferral for up to 12 months;
o A 12-month business rates holiday;
o A moratorium on evictions to protect commercial tenants;
o Targeted support through the temporarily reduced rate of VAT (5%)
The Government is continuing to collect evidence on the impact of the pandemic on the hospitality industry and work with businesses and representative groups to ensure that support provided is right for this industry and the economy as a whole.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the revenue that will accrue to the public purse from reducing overseas aid expenditure from 0.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent of gross national income in each year up to 2025.
Answered by Steve Barclay
The Spending Review 2020 allocated £10bn for Official Development Assistance to spend in the financial year 21/22.
On 25 November the Office for Budget Responsibility published its Economic and Fiscal Outlook. This forecasts Gross National Income (GNI) for the 2021 calendar year to be £2138.6bn. 0.7% of this GNI estimate is £14.97bn and 0.5% of this GNI estimate is £10.69bn.
Financial year allocations for subsequent years will be decided at future Spending Reviews. The Government intends to return to the 0.7% target when the fiscal situation allows.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many HMRC tax offices there are in England.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
At 31 October 2020 HMRC had 59 staffed offices in England. On 19 October 2020 an updated list of HMRC office closures and regional centre opening dates was committed to the House of Commons Library. This list is now deposited as paper reference DEP 2020-0609: https://depositedpapers.parliament.uk/depositedpaper/2282554/details.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the monthly cost of providing self-employed people seeking financial support with 70 per cent of their annual profits.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The second SEISS grant was given at 70 per cent of three months of profits. Claims for this up to 30 September 2020 amounted to £5.7 billion in total, which is £1.9 billion per month.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will increase the level of financial support available to self-employed people to 70 per cent of their annual profits.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Government recognises the impact that the changing path of the virus has had on self-employed individuals and has taken action to increase the level of assistance available through the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) Grant Extension.
The overall level of the third SEISS grant has been increased to 80 per cent of average trading profits, meaning that the maximum grant available has now increased to £7,500. This provides equivalent support to the self-employed as is provided to employees through the Government contribution in the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
The Government will also be paying out this grant more quickly by bringing forward the SEISS 3 claims window from 14 December to 30 November.
This will provide an estimated £7.3bn of support to the self-employed through November to January alone, with a further grant to follow covering February to April. This places the SEISS among the most generous schemes for the self-employed in the world.
The SEISS continues to be just one element of a comprehensive package of financial support for the self-employed. The Government has temporarily increased the Universal Credit standard allowance for 2020-21 and relaxed the Minimum Income Floor for the duration of the pandemic meaning that where self-employed claimants' earnings have significantly fallen, their Universal Credit award will have increased to reflect their lower earnings. In addition to this, the self-employed may also have access to other elements of the package, including tax deferrals, rental support, mortgage holidays, and other business support grants.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reason self-employed individuals eligible for the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme will receive 20 per cent of their average monthly trading profits as financial support.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme Grant Extension helps self-employed individuals who are actively trading but are experiencing reduced demand due to COVID-19, and is not a direct income replacement. It is a top-up, not intended to replace all lost profits. The SEISS Grant Extension covers three months' worth of average trading profits at 20%, meaning self-employed individuals affected for shorter periods will still be entitled to the full three months' worth of the grant. This strikes the right balance between ensuring support is granted to those who need it, while protecting value for the taxpayer.
Those who require further support may still be eligible for other elements of the unprecedented financial support available. The Government has temporarily increased the Universal Credit standard allowance for 2020-21 and relaxed the Minimum Income Floor for the duration of the crisis so that where self-employed claimants' earnings have significantly reduced, their Universal Credit award will have increased. In addition to this, the self-employed have access to other elements of the financial support package, including Bounce Back loans, tax deferrals, rental support, mortgage holidays, and other business support grants.