Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate he has made of the average number of jobs created by every £100 of public capital spending.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Infrastructure investment in the UK supports hundreds of thousands of jobs a year in the construction sector. Spending Review 2020 set out ambitious plans for capital investment across the UK to support jobs– from investment in the next generation of hospitals and upgrades to our roads and railways, to energy efficiency retrofits and tree planting.
HM Treasury worked closely with the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) at SR20 to scrutinise the deliverability of schemes to ensure that investment can support jobs as quickly as possible. As set out in the National Infrastructure Strategy, HM Treasury strongly encourages all government departments and their agencies to progress approved and funded projects into procurement and contract without delay (subject to good project discipline). This is supported by the IPA publishing a comprehensive National Infrastructure and Construction Pipeline, providing certainty to the market about planned procurement. The next update to the pipeline will be in Spring 2021. The government is also urging local authorities to take steps to support construction jobs in their areas by progressing funded projects as soon as practicable.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to section 4.2 of the Spending Review 2020, if he will publish he 167 projects approved by his Department for financing through the Towns Fund.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Towns Fund delivers on our promise to level up the country and create more places across the UK where people want to live and can thrive. Eligible towns for the Towns Fund can all be found on the government's website (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/100-places-to-benefit-from-new-towns-fund; https://www.gov.uk/government/news/multi-million-fund-to-revitalise-country-s-high-streets; https://www.gov.uk/government/news/1-billion-future-high-streets-fund-expanded-to-50-more-areas), and allocations are ongoing. Barrow-in-Furness, Blackpool, Darlington, Peterborough, Norwich, Torquay and Warrington are the first places to be offered a Town Deal and work will now begin with these areas to confirm final funding.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to section 4.2 of the Spending Review 2020, what proportion of the £4 billion Levelling Up Fund will be spent in the West Midlands Combined Authority area.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Levelling Up Fund will be open to all local areas and allocated competitively. To support levelling up opportunity across the country, we will prioritise bids to drive growth and regeneration in places in need, those facing particular local challenges, and areas that have received less Government investment in recent years.
We are making up to £600m available in 2021-22, and will publish a prospectus for the fund and launch the first round of competitions in the New Year.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to Box 3.1 in the Spending Review 2020, if he will set out the proportion of the UK shared prosperity fund which will be allocated to the west midlands combined authority area.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Spending Review sets out the main strategic elements of the UKSPF in the Heads of Terms (Box 3.1). The government will then publish a UK-wide investment framework in 2020, provide further detail in a prospectus in the New Year, and confirm multi-year funding profiles for the UKSPF at the next Spending Review.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to section 2.7 of the Spending Review 2020, how many public sector employees will be affected by the pause in pay awards in 2021-22.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The government expects there will be around 1.3m public sector employees in direct scope of the temporary pause in pay uplifts. This is the sum of the workforces for which central government is responsible for setting pay.
Within this number, those earning less than £24,000 on a full-time equivalent basis will still receive a pay rise, of at least £250.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Office for Budget Responsibility's Public finances databank, 27 May 2020, what proportion of the five capital budget of £358 billion included in Treasury statements in May 2020 remains unallocated to programmes and projects.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Departmental capital budgets have been fully allocated for financial year 2020-21 and were confirmed at Main Estimates. Any revisions to these budgets will be set out at the Supplementary Estimates. Departmental budgets for the next financial year (2021-22) will be set in the upcoming Spending Review. Alongside these one-year settlements, the SR will set some longer-term settlements for certain capital budgets to provide certainty and deliver on the government’s ambitious plans to unite and level up the country and drive our economic recovery. With the exception of these multi-year capital settlements, spending for future years beyond 2021-22 will be determined at the next Spending Review.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many applications to the Self Employment Income Support Scheme from self-employed workers have been refused.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The SEISS continues to be one of the most generous self-employed COVID-19 support schemes in the world.
HMRC do not refuse applications for the scheme. People are either eligible to apply for SEISS and, based on the information held by HMRC given access to the service, or they are ineligible and not given access. Eligibility is based strictly on the criteria set by the Chancellor.
In addition, HMRC actively monitor claims for evidence of risk/fraudulent behaviour. Where HMRC sees this type of compliance risk, HMRC rejects the claim.
The Winter Economy Plan set out a package of targeted measures in response to the current economic context, which will enable businesses to protect jobs, and manage their finances in the face of reduced or uncertain demand. This includes the extension of the temporary VAT reduced rate for hospitality and tourism, extending the application window of the access to finance schemes, and further support for employees and the self-employed, through a Job Support Scheme and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) Grant Extension.
The SEISS is one element of a comprehensive package of support for individuals and businesses. This package includes Bounce Back loans, tax deferrals, rental support, mortgage holidays, and other business support grants. On 8 July, the Government also introduced the new Plan for Jobs which will make available up to £30 billion to assist in creating, supporting and protecting jobs.
More information about the full range of business support measures is available at www.gov.uk/government/collections/financial-support-for-businesses-during-coronavirus-covid-19.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many times the Mayor of the West Midlands has written to him since 23 March 2020.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
Andy Street has written to the Chancellor four times since 23 March 2020.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many workers are receiving support from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, by region.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Applications for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme opened on Monday 20 April. By close 3 May, HMRC had received 800,000 claims representing 6.3m furloughed employments and £8bn.
This is a new scheme and HMRC are currently working through the analysis they will be able to provide based on the data available. HMRC will make the timescales for publication and the types of data available in due course.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the procedure is for small firms to apply for access to (a) Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme and (b) cash grants of £25,000 to the smallest businesses in the (i) retail, (ii) hospitality and (iii) leisure sectors and (c) £10,000 for all business in receipt of Small Business Rates Relief and Rural Rates Relief.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Officials are working at pace to deliver the measures for small businesses as announced by the Chancellor. The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, which will provide financing facilities for SMEs of up to £5 million, was launched Monday 23 March. The Business Secretary will write to all Local Authorities by the end of the week with information on the small business grant scheme, and to encourage them to prepare to deliver this quickly. Detailed guidance for Local Authorities will follow by 1st April, and Local Authorities will then write to all eligible businesses with information on how to claim this grant.
We will give small businesses in the retail, hospitality or leisure sectors a higher grant of £25,000 per business if they have a property that has a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000. Properties in those sectors with a rateable value of £15,000 or less will receive a £10,000 grant even if they are not eligible for small business rates relief. It will be administered in the same way as the small business grant scheme.