Air Passenger Duty
Debate between Mark Garnier and Priti Patel(11 years, 6 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mark Garnier (Wyre Forest) (Con)
I congratulate my hon. Friend on introducing the debate. Does she agree that APD can act as a barrier to expansion for some regional airports? Were it not for the high level of APD, they could attract other carriers, thereby rebalancing our economy.
Priti Patel
I completely agree with my hon. Friend. That is part of the challenge of our wider aviation policy and strategy.
Already in this Parliament, the Government have rightly recognised a number of counter-productive and damaging taxes, and scrapped a number of them, including the cider tax, the jobs tax and the broadband phone tax, and the planned increase to the small profits rate was replaced with a cut. On that basis, I urge the Minister to consider the economic impact of APD.