Oral Answers to Questions

Margaret Greenwood Excerpts

Tuesday 19th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Harriett Baldwin)]

I am delighted to tell my constituency neighbour that at the end of last year we announced that all the major banks are now able to offer a basic bank account to customers who require one.

[Margaret Greenwood (Wirral West) (Lab)]

T6. Many of my constituents who watch “Coronation Street” will be following the story of Tyrone Dobbs’ struggle with debt with keen interest. Unsecured lending reached a record high last year, with more than 3 million people in problem debt. The Government promised a review of what breathing space creditors should give to people who are engaged with a debt charity or agency, so that their debts do not continue to spiral out of control while they are working to resolve them. The review was due by the end of 2015. When do the Government now plan to announce it?

[Harriett Baldwin]

In answer to earlier questions I referred to the importance that we place on the team that will tackle illegal money lending. We have continued to support funding for debt advice, including through excellent organisations such as Christians Against Poverty, StepChange and Citizens Advice, to help individuals such as those mentioned by the hon. Lady.

Oral Answers to Questions

Margaret Greenwood Excerpts

Tuesday 1st December 2015 Commons Chamber

[Harriett Baldwin]

I am delighted that, on behalf of his constituents in Havant, my hon. Friend has noticed that the Help to Buy ISA scheme launches today. Fourteen financial institutions are already offering this exciting new opportunity to save for a home, and I hope that many of his constituents will take advantage of it.

[Margaret Greenwood (Wirral West) (Lab)]

22. Citizens Advice has noted that household bills are now the chief source of the problem debt that people are seeking its help with. What will the Government do to ensure that guarantor and logbook loans are properly regulated, so that they do not simply replace payday loans as a source of poorly regulated credit that exploits the low-paid and the vulnerable?

[Harriett Baldwin]

I am sure the hon. Lady will welcome the fact that, in the last Parliament, we took steps to bring credit under the regulation of the Financial Conduct Authority. As a result of that, payday lending has dropped sharply. We are also backing credit unions in many different ways in this country, and we want to ensure that people have an opportunity to save through their workplace credit union. If she will work with me, I can assure her that we will continue to ensure that households that have the lowest proportion of debt at the moment in their repayments will continue to see their financial positions—

The Economy

Margaret Greenwood Excerpts

Wednesday 18th November 2015 Commons Chamber

[John McDonnell]

The Chancellor’s agenda is to shrink the state and privatise most of what is left.

Instead, Labour would seek to use Government powers to invest to deliver world-class infrastructure across the whole country. The northern powerhouse will only become a reality when it is matched by real spending commitments. We would build on our country’s history of science, technology and innovation to deliver real increases in funding for research and development, seeking to match the commitments made by our neighbours; and we would work alongside the private sector to ensure that our businesses, rather than hoarding cash to the tune of at least £400 billion, would be seeking out opportunities to invest in the future. That is the role of a strategic state.

[Margaret Greenwood (Wirral West) (Lab)]

The Green Investment Bank has been a real success, generating investment in renewable energy projects. In just three years it has invested in 58 projects, committing £2.3 billion of its own money and leveraging more than £10 billion in additional private capital. It has done this despite Government policies working against investor confidence in the renewables energy sector. What are my hon. Friend’s thoughts on the Government’s plan to privatise the bank?

--- Later in debate ---

[Harriett Baldwin]

In that spirit, I shall try to make some progress, Mr Speaker.

The richest do not suffer most when the economy suffers. It is not the trade union barons who lose their jobs when that happens: it is the poorest in the country. We are making sure that it never happens again.

The motion also mentions the impact of our policies on women. There are now more women working than ever before, the gender pay gap is at the lowest level since records began, and 56% of the people we have taken out of income tax, by raising the personal allowance, are women. Of course, 27.5 million working men and women have had a tax cut since 2010, and 58% of those receiving a much stronger, triple-lock state pension are women. Almost two thirds of the people benefiting from the introduction of the national living wage are women. In fact, since 2010, women have moved faster into jobs in the UK than in any other G7 country, and women’s employment rate has increased more since 2010 than during the previous three Parliaments combined.

[Margaret Greenwood]

rose—

[Harriett Baldwin]

The hon. Lady may be about to comment on this, and we live in hope that the wish of the right hon. and learned Member for Camberwell and Peckham (Ms Harman) that senior jobs in her party go to women will be granted soon. Does the hon. Lady welcome some of this good economic news for women?

[Margaret Greenwood]

Does the Economic Secretary share my real concern that 29% of women earn less than the living wage? That is not a success story for women—far from it.

[Harriett Baldwin]

That is exactly my point: they will be disproportionately helped by the increase in the national minimum wage through the national living wage from next year.

The motion mentions productivity, and it was also raised by the hon. Member for Caerphilly (Wayne David), who is no longer in his place. Productivity has been a long-standing issue since well before 2010, and we accept that. But rather than grandstanding, we have set out a wide-ranging productivity plan. We are delivering the infrastructure projects we need, through our infrastructure pipeline, and we have set up the national infrastructure commission to take a long-term, depoliticised approach to major projects. We have seen a recent strengthening in productivity growth. Output per hour rose by 0.9% in the last quarter, and the Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts that productivity will pick up by 1.7% next year, and 2.4% in the year after that.

The motion also questions our long-term commitment to science, technology and green growth.

Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Margaret Greenwood Excerpts

Monday 13th July 2015 Commons Chamber

[Margaret Greenwood (Wirral West) (Lab)]

It is an honour and a privilege to represent the people of Wirral West and I thank my predecessor for the work she did for people in the constituency.

I want to take the opportunity to pay tribute to the communities of Wirral West, describe its landscapes and draw attention to some of the challenges that face it. Wirral West has areas of great prosperity, but it also has areas of deprivation where people have been forced out of their homes by the bedroom tax. It is nevertheless distinguished throughout by the strength and character of its varied communities. People come together to celebrate life and to support others, and there is a great deal of interest in the environment too.

Whether they tackle social inequality, provide support for those who are disadvantaged, take action on climate change, champion economic sustainability or celebrate creativity, groups across the constituency are working hard to improve quality of life for themselves and the people around them. The Festival of Firsts in Hoylake is a wonderful celebration of music, art and poetry, reflecting the laid-back atmosphere of an area characterised by charming architecture and sweeping sandy beaches. Hoylake Village Life works year-round to stimulate local economic activity, and Incredible Edible shares the fruits of the earth through the communal planting of food, free for the picking in public places. Hoylake is, of course, home to the Royal Liverpool golf club, host of the Open golf championship.

Nearby, West Kirby has a vibrant transition towns group that works to promote sustainable low-carbon lifestyles, celebrating the local environment through talks, public meetings, a monthly farmers market and the annual Earth Fest. In Pensby, people are campaigning hard to save their much-loved pub, the Pensby Hotel, and in Greasby, yarnbombers hit the streets to save the village centre, clothing trees and lamp posts in brightly coloured knitting. Upton retailers are working together to develop a local plan to enhance the local street scene.

Wirral West is blessed with beautiful natural landscapes too. The rural character of Frankby, Irby and Barnston and the National Trust areas of Caldy Hill, Thurstaston Common and Harrock Wood are all greatly prized. The beaches of the north and west of the constituency are internationally renowned for their birdlife, with merlins, hen harriers and flocks of dunlin, short-eared owls and little egrets, and the shore line flecked with curlew and oyster-catchers. At low tide, one can walk out across the beach to Hilbre Island and watch seals swimming around its northerly shore. This is a precious landscape, highly valued by visitors and locals alike, but in 2013 the previous Government granted a licence for underground coal gasification in the Dee estuary, putting at risk this rich natural environment. UCG brings with it risks of subsidence, the contamination of groundwater and damage to the marine environment.

There are impressive voluntary projects across the constituency working to tackle social deprivation, both in Wirral and internationally. In Woodchurch, the Hoole Road Hub is a community venture run by a family team providing welfare advice, training, support and internet access for local people. People drop in for help with problems with housing and benefits, and children come along with their parents after school to do homework together because they cannot afford internet access at home.

The Woodchurch Partnership provides support for the community with programmes such as the Ford Way horticultural project, where volunteers produce fruit and veg and the most exquisite Woodchurch honey. Local mums fight for all local children. Last year they put on a “mischief night” of music, fancy dress and Zorb balls to give the kids on the estate some fun and to keep them out of mischief, valuing each and every one of them, no matter what their background. The community shop on the Overchurch estate gives out food parcels to those in need, with the majority going to people who are in work but who still cannot afford to feed their children. The Chancellor’s announcement of cuts to working tax credits in his Budget will hit working people hard, especially those who are already struggling to feed their families. Churches across the constituency provide food banks, meals and company to those who have fallen on hard times, as well as celebrating the spiritual life of the community.

That constructive community activity is taking place against a backdrop of dwindling public services. Wirral council has had its budget savagely cut by central Government. While Wirral lost £65 per head of population, Richmond upon Thames enjoyed an increase of £54 per head. That cannot be fair and the impact is being felt severely in Wirral. By the end of 2017, Wirral council’s grant funding will have been reduced by about 57% in just five years.

The local authority is committed to doing the very best for the people of Wirral, but it is being put in an impossible position. In 2014 it carried out a public consultation on where the funding cuts should fall. It is a sign of the crisis facing local authority funding that the options considered included cuts to children’s disability services, youth leisure services, school crossing patrols, libraries, pest control, public toilets, allotments, bowling greens and football pitches, and increased fees for cremations and burials. Is there no part of civic life untouched by the Government’s agenda? Do our people not deserve properly funded public services? Can we not afford to build a strong, stable and good society? I ask the Government to consider those questions with full regard to the impact of their cuts on the life of communities in Wirral West.

I believe that the people of Wirral West deserve a society that provides strong and reliable public services for all of its people—a society in which people can afford to feed their children, in which young people can find employment that will enable them to reach their full potential, and in which those who are disadvantaged through ill health, frailty or misfortune can live decent lives with the support they need from Government.