The Economy

Nickie Aiken Excerpts

Thursday 24th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Nickie Aiken (Cities of London and Westminster) (Con)]

I warmly welcome the Chancellor’s statement, particularly the extension of the 5% VAT rate to next March. I know that many of the hospitality businesses in my constituency will welcome that as they grapple with the loss of tourists and office workers. Many are reporting that trading is at 20% of normal levels. Will he agree to meet me and representatives of theatres and the hospitality and retail sectors to discuss what further measures we can take to support the west end’s recovery?

[Rishi Sunak]

My hon. Friend is right. I know that she has spent a lot of time focused on this issue, and businesses in her constituency are facing an especially hard time. I would be delighted to meet her and them to see what more we can do to support them.

Oral Answers to Questions

Nickie Aiken Excerpts

Tuesday 15th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Steve Barclay]

There seems to be some confusion because, just last week in the debate that we had in this House, the shadow Chancellor actually recognised that the Chancellor had indeed listened with regard to the design of the furlough. In fact, they claimed credit for the role, which I salute, of the trade unions and others. So we have listened, but the reality is that the furlough pays a higher rate of people’s wages than the scheme in Spain. It supports a wider range of businesses than the one in New Zealand and the scheme runs for twice as long as that in Denmark. That shows the flexibility and the willingness to listen on the part of my right hon. Friend.

[Nickie Aiken (Cities of London and Westminster) (Con)]

What fiscal steps his Department is taking to protect jobs during the covid-19 outbreak.

[Mr Mark Harper (Forest of Dean) (Con)]

What fiscal steps his Department is taking to protect jobs during the covid-19 outbreak.

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Steve Barclay)]

The Government have put in place a £190 billion plan to protect people’s jobs, incomes and businesses, one of the largest and most comprehensive economic responses in the world, and that includes the £30 billion made available under the plan for jobs.

[Nickie Aiken]

The Eat Out to Help Out scheme has been a phenomenal success in my constituency of the Cities of London and Westminster. More than 890,000 meals have been discounted—several eaten by myself, I hasten to add. Will my right hon. Friend comment on the amazing package of help that the Government have given to the retail and hospitality sectors? Moving forward, what policies can we hope to expect to support these vital sectors, which are responsible for hundreds of thousands of jobs in my constituency?

[Steve Barclay]

My hon. Friend is right to recognise the effectiveness of that scheme in supporting demand. It was dismissed as a gimmick when my right hon. Friend the Chancellor launched it, but it has been warmly received by the hospitality industry. As she knows from her constituency and that of others, it is part of that wider package of support, including the cutting of the rate of VAT, which again has been a huge boost to that industry.

Protection of Jobs and Businesses

Nickie Aiken Excerpts

Wednesday 9th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Nickie Aiken (Cities of London and Westminster) (Con)]

The Government’s vital support for businesses and jobs across the country throughout this crisis has been unprecedented. In my constituency, we have seen 11,800 jobs protected under the job retention scheme, £9.1 million of support for the self-employed, over £440 million of bounce back loans for small businesses, £89 million of business grants and 849,000 meals discounted—I am only responsible for a couple of them—thanks to the brilliant eat out to help out scheme.

Despite that much-needed support, central London is still struggling. Pre covid, over 600,000 commuters came into Westminster every day to work, with another 500,000 in the City of London. The local economy relies on those workers spending in small shops and independent cafés and restaurants, but they are not coming back in the same numbers. Central London is the economic powerhouse of UK plc, driving forward this Government’s levelling-up agenda, and it is usually the first out of the traps following a recession or downturn. Sadly, this time, it looks like we will be one of the last. That is why I have produced a plan, which the Government may wish to consider, that could help to protect jobs and businesses not only in my constituency but across the country.

The furlough scheme has secured hundreds of thousands of jobs in the west end. I appreciate the reasons why the Government are bringing the scheme to an end next month, which we must do to sustain our public services. As the MP for theatreland, I want to ensure that we protect theatres even more. I welcome the Government’s £1.5 billion cultural support package, but I hope that we can keep theatres open when they come back in the new year, and a bit more help for them would be welcome.

[Rob Butler (Aylesbury) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that the arts and arts venues are important all over the country and that small venues such as the Queens Park Arts Centre in my constituency are also incredibly valuable and have benefited greatly from the Government’s scheme?

[Nickie Aiken]

My hon. Friend is right, and that is why I welcome this brilliant £1.5 billion package.

I welcomed the Chancellor’s announcements in March about a review of the business rates scheme, the £25,000 grant and the freezing of business rates, but I would welcome that freeze being extended for another 12 months. Another measure that the Government could introduce, which would bring in much-needed tax receipts, is an extension of the retail export scheme for EU visitors, allowing them to shop tax-free from 1 January. Such a tax reform could be worth up to £1.4 billion in additional annual sales. While 80% of tax-free shopping in the UK is done in my constituency, that would still have an impact on the UK as a whole.

Finally, adding two hours at the end of Sunday trading, extending it from 6 pm to 8 pm, would provide a major boost to the economy. While I appreciate that this is quite controversial for some of my colleagues, I would like to make it clear that I am only calling for this at the moment for international designated areas such as Knightsbridge and the west end. I am sure that there would be a knock-on effect for bars and restaurants as people decide to travel to central London later and enjoy a meal and drinks once the shops close.

We must ensure that London is seen to be open to the world so that it can continue to compete with other global cities such as New York, Paris and Tokyo. I ask the Government to consider the measures that I have suggested, to protect both London’s position as a global cultural hub and the UK’s standing as a major business and visitor destination, safeguarding millions of jobs and livelihoods across the nation. I look forward to supporting the Government as they continue to support jobs and businesses as the situation develops.

The Economy

Nickie Aiken Excerpts

Wednesday 8th July 2020 Commons Chamber

[Nickie Aiken (Cities of London and Westminster) (Con)]

I begin by reiterating my support for the measures that the Government and the Treasury, in particular, have taken in response to this crisis, and none more so than today, with the financial statement. I know that the Chancellor and his ministerial team and officials have worked tirelessly and undertaken heroic efforts to protect millions of jobs.

Thousands of my constituents have benefited from the support available, whether that is residents supported by the job retention scheme or the self-employed income support scheme. A number of my constituents who are self-employed have written to me asking for more help—particularly those who became self-employed in the last financial year—but businesses have also benefited from the grants, loans and relief that have been made available. I particularly welcomed in my constituency this week the amazing announcement of £1.5 billion for the arts. The west end theatres located in the Cities of London and Westminster and the national iconic venues, such as the Royal Albert Hall, the Royal Opera House and the Barbican Centre, will all now benefit, I believe for the whole nation.

The support offered to the theatres is absolutely necessary, but I am sure that Ministers are aware that the local economy also suffers with the theatres being closed. For every £1 spent in theatres, another £5 is spent in the local economy. The fact that theatres remain closed is a continuing issue for the hospitality sector, and the combination of a lack of office workers and a lack of tourism and international visitors in central London means that many businesses are sadly remaining closed. I am acutely aware of the issues in central London. While UKHospitality suggests that nationally, 45% of restaurants and 53% of bars have opened, in central London only 23% of restaurants, 35% of bars and 10% of cafés have done so. Hotels are also particularly bearing the brunt at the moment, with only about 10% to 15% occupancy rates in hotels, and that is a real issue.

I hope that we remain clear that retail, bars, restaurants and hotels are facing issues in both supply and demand, and I therefore warmly welcome the Chancellor’s announcement today on cutting VAT for the hospitality and tourism sectors from 20% to 5%, which is something that I know that UKHospitality and the W1 hotels—the major hotels in my constituency—will particularly welcome. I look forward to taking part in the “eat out to help out” scheme in August—an excellent, unique idea to help restaurants, and I say thank you to the Chancellor and his team for doing that.

Finally, I offer my constituency support for driving the economy back to its full strength. I will be working very closely with the City of London Corporation to demonstrate that London is seen as a resilient and environmentally and socially responsible financial centre for the future, no matter the developing economic situation and, indeed, our relationship with the EU. The City will host a green finance summit in November 2020, which I know the Minister is aware of. I welcome that initiative and hope that it will meet with the support of the House.

The support offered by this Government has been second to none. I hope that it will not end but continue to evolve as the situation becomes clearer, and I look forward to working with the Government to support residents and businesses in the Cities of London and Westminster.

Future Relationship with the EU

Nickie Aiken Excerpts

Tuesday 9th June 2020 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. One of the areas that I look after in the Cabinet Office is our communications. We have had a complete overhaul involving every Government Department, including those for local government and for transport, which will be key to the sector that he raises, to improve our communications. Clearly, a lot of policy announcements are yet to happen because they are contingent on decisions that have been taken, but that structure is now in place. I make the commitment that the communications between all sectors and Government will be considerably better than what happened last year.

[Nickie Aiken (Cities of London and Westminster) (Con)]

What assurances can my right hon. Friend give to businesses in the Cities of London and Westminster that both the UK and the EU are keen to have certainty and clarity in any future relationship, particularly to deliver an attractive business and investment environment, since financial and professional services will play a huge part in the post covid-19 economic recovery?

Coronavirus: Employment Support

Nickie Aiken Excerpts

Thursday 19th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[John Glen]

I understand the hon. Lady’s frustration. It is totally reasonable for Members of this House to be extremely concerned in the absence of the announcement, but it would be even worse, I would suggest, if we made ad hoc announcements when different Government Departments were not quite ready to implement those effectively. We are talking about an unprecedented crisis, and therefore we will need to take unprecedented measures. It is important that we do that as swiftly as possible, but it is also important that we do it as effectively as possible.

[Nickie Aiken (Cities of London and Westminster) (Con)]

I thank my hon. Friend for his recent announcements, and I absolutely understand that we are living in unprecedented times. In my constituency, hospitality and hotels are obviously huge employers. Is there any scope for the suspension of national insurance contributions, which would really help many of the chains, and particularly the smaller hotels? From speaking to those at the Goring hotel this week, I know that they are very concerned, and they are now offering their hotel to the Government for anything they need—for hospitals or for employees. Suspending NI contributions would be great.

[John Glen]

I thank my hon. Friend for her suggestions. Obviously, we have made a specific package of interventions available in the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors. We also have the grant facility at a high level for those sectors. She makes a reasonable point, and we will look at it—and we are looking at it—very carefully.

Public Sector Exit Payments (Limitation) Bill

Nickie Aiken Excerpts

Friday 13th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Sir Christopher Chope (Christchurch) (Con)]

I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time.

The Bill is simple: it imposes upon the Treasury a duty to make regulations under section 153A of the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015. You might think it extraordinary, Madam Deputy Speaker, that we have to legislate to require the Treasury to implement legislation that we in the House approved in 2015 and that I have been promised by numerous Ministers since is on the cusp of being brought into law. It has not yet been brought into law, and the consequence is that the taxpayer is probably about £1 billion worse off—the benefit to the Exchequer of the provisions in the Act was about £200 million each year.

It is against that background that I was very pleased to have a meeting with the new Chief Secretary to the Treasury. He has some background knowledge of this that dates back to before even I took an interest, because he was on the Public Accounts Committee when it looked at this issue in the early 2010s. The beginning, after the Committee had looked at it, came in January 2015, when the current Home Secretary, who was then a Treasury Minister, announced that it was intolerable that there were so many exit payments of such large sums. She called it a long-overdue reform and said:

“It’s not right that hard-working taxpayers, many on low salaries, have to fund huge payouts.”

As a result, after the Conservative election win in May 2015 the then Chancellor confirmed the commitment to legislate that was in our 2015 manifesto, saying:

“We will end taxpayer-funded six-figure payoffs for the best paid public sector workers.”

Then, in 2017, when nothing had happened, I had the temerity to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 27 June

“when the Government plans to bring forward secondary legislation to implement the policy”,

and the answer I got on 6 July from the then new Chief Secretary, now the Secretary of State for International Trade, was:

“The Government announced in 2015 that it intended to end six figure exit payments for public sector workers. We legislated for a £95,000 cap in the Enterprise Act 2016 and are currently in the process of drafting the necessary regulations.

In the interim, the government expects every part of the public sector to demonstrate that it is using public money efficiently and responsibly and to ensure that pay and terms are always proportionate, justifiable and deliver value for money for taxpayers.”

Having received that non-committal reply, I asked more questions and then introduced a private Member’s Bill in the 2017-19 Session that was exactly the same as this one, except with different dates.

[Nickie Aiken (Cities of London and Westminster) (Con)]

As a former local government leader, I was involved in many cases in which we had to ensure that the person leaving had received the correct money and final settlement, but does my hon. Friend agree that some of these people have often been working for a local authority —I can only speak for local authorities—for decades? Their salaries will have increased over time, and there should, whatever the legislation, be flexibility in such cases. If a case is sensitive, the local authority should be given powers to ensure that that person is given the amount of money that they are due, but not too much for the public purse.

[Sir Christopher Chope]

That was a very long intervention, Madam Deputy Speaker, and I am afraid that I do not really agree with the tenor of it, which excuses some of the appalling behaviour that is taking place in local government. A recent article in The Times revealed that Steven Mason, a former Northumberland County Council chief executive, was given a £370,000 pay-off, but took up a job four months later at South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust on £180,000 a year, despite Ministers having pledged to take back exit payments if the recipient returned to the public sector.

One reason why I got interested in this subject was that I was concerned that proposed local government reorganisation in Dorset would be an excuse for a whole lot of public officials employed by local councils to look after each other’s interests at the expense of the local taxpayer and give themselves big handouts. I am afraid that my worst fears proved to be well founded, and some unconscionably high payments were made as a result.

I take the view, unlike my hon. Friend, that this issue is urgent and overdue for action. Indeed, I think an alternative a title to my Bill might be the Overcoming Sir Humphrey’s Resistance Bill, because the resistance of the civil service to what is proposed in this Bill is a textbook example of how the civil service can conspire to frustrate the will of Parliament and, indeed, of the elected Government. How is it, all this time later, that we do not even have the regulations? We have not even had a response to the latest consultation, which was originally promised to be delivered in 2018. I went to see the then Chief Secretary back in 2017 and said to her, “Has it occurred to you that this measure is supported by almost everybody in politics and in public life? Has it occurred to you that the resistance to it is coming from the civil service, because they are going to be losing out as a result of the implementation of the Bill?”

Oral Answers to Questions

Nickie Aiken Excerpts

Tuesday 7th January 2020 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

The hon. Gentleman raises a very important issue. We are absolutely committed to providing the resources necessary for the NHS to provide even better cancer treatment for all our constituents. That is one of the reasons for this record financial settlement. Capital is also necessary, and further capital investment to have better cancer treatment will also be a priority.

[Nickie Aiken (Cities of London and Westminster) (Con)]

13. What fiscal steps he is taking to ensure that the Government meet their target of net zero emissions by 2050.

[The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (Mr Simon Clarke)]

It is a great pleasure to welcome my hon. Friend to her place. The clean growth strategy sets out our proposals to decarbonise our economy during the 2020s. This will build on existing Government spending, including £2.5 billion for low-carbon innovation between 2015 and 2021, £1 billion for ultra low emission vehicles and £4.5 billion for the renewable heat incentive.

[Nickie Aiken]

I thank my hon. Friend for his reply. I am sure he is aware of the immense appetite within London’s financial and professional services community to invest in green infrastructure and the rapid development of the green and sustainable bonds market. Is he therefore willing to meet me and representatives of the Corporation of London to discuss how Her Majesty’s Treasury can further advise and support further investment in green infrastructure and private finance, and its backing of that?

[Mr Clarke]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The UK is already a global centre for green finance, but we need to do more. That is why the Government published a green finance strategy last July and why we have launched the Green Finance Institute, in close collaboration with the City of London—precisely to drive these outcomes. My hon. Friend the Economic Secretary will be happy to meet her at the earliest opportunity to progress this.