Asked by: Noah Law (Labour - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress has been made towards global debt reform in discussions with the London Coalition.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government is committed to working with our international partners and the private sector to tackle unsustainable debt. The London Coalition for Sustainable Sovereign Debt, initiated last year, continues to make progress on bolstering the private sector international debt architecture. The Coalition aims to promote greater resilience and debt sustainability for debtor countries through contractual innovations and enhanced coordination of creditors.
The bonded debt working group continue to advance work on pause clauses, which suspend interest payments when events like climate shocks occur. This includes consulting with key stakeholders on their input paper published in November. The non-bonded debt working group is developing guidelines for how private sector creditors can better coordinate themselves during debt restructurings.
Asked by: Noah Law (Labour - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to consider the needs of the visitor economy when assessing place-based funding decisions.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Government recognises the important role of the visitor economy sector, and has set an ambitious goal to grow inbound tourism. These will be set out in more detail when the Department for Culture, Media and Sport publishes its Visitor Economy Growth Strategy.
In September the government launched an overarching Pride in Place programme, providing up to £5bn over 10 years to support almost 250 places. In addition, the Pride in Place Impact Fund will provide around £150 million of funding to 95 places to support the development of shared spaces, revitalise local high streets and improve the public realm, all of which have benefits for the visitor economy.
Following the Green Book Review, HM Treasury is working with relevant departments, as well as local and regional government, to develop place-based business cases. This will bring together the different Departments needed to achieve the objectives of a particular place.
Asked by: Noah Law (Labour - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she plans to increase the personal allowance in 2028-29.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Government is committed to keeping taxes for working people as low as possible while ensuring fiscal responsibility. The Chancellor makes decisions on tax policy at fiscal events.
Asked by: Noah Law (Labour - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has assessed the potential merits of increasing the VAT registration threshold in line with inflation.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
At £90,000, the UK has a higher VAT registration threshold than any EU country and the joint highest in the OECD. This means the majority of UK businesses are kept out of the VAT system.
Asked by: Noah Law (Labour - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking with the Valuation Office Agency to reduce the time taken to process business rates assessments for self-catering accommodation.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
I refer my honourable friend to the answer that I gave to PQ UIN 46809 on 30 April 2025. https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2025-04-22/46809
Asked by: Noah Law (Labour - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the Office for Budget Responsibility's methodology for understanding fiscal multipliers.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is responsible for preparing forecasts for the UK economy and public finances. This includes an assessment of the impact of government policies, where the OBR regularly reviews and publish papers on its approach.
The OBR assesses the demand side impacts of policy using multipliers – these estimate the impact on real GDP from government policy. The OBR’s multiplier framework is described in Dynamic scoring of policy measures in OBR forecasts.
The OBR also takes account of how specific policies affect the supply side of the economy. This approach is set out in Forecasting potential output - the supply side of the economy.
The OBR have also recently published a new framework for assessing public investment which can be found in the OBR’s Discussion Paper No. 5: Public investment and potential output. This framework was used in the Autumn Budget 2024, where the OBR judged the increase in departmental capital spending would directly raise potential output by 1.1 percent by 2073-74.
The Chancellor and OBR Budget Responsibility Committee speak regularly, and there is an ongoing dialogue at official level on a range of issues. This includes the OBR’s approach to preparing forecasts for the UK economy and public finances.
The OBR committed to reviewing their demand multipliers in their most recent forecast, published on Wednesday 26th March 2025.
Asked by: Noah Law (Labour - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department has considered introducing a small levy on imported sugar; and if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of such a levy on (a) tariff revenues following the suspension of Ukrainian sugar tariffs and (b) incentives in the food and beverage industry to transition to sweeteners.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The UK already has significant tariffs on UK sugar imports which are imported via the Most Favoured Nation route. These are £280 per tonne for cane sugar for refining and £350 per tonne for other types of sugar. They are, other than in exceptional circumstances, effectively prohibitive to imports via this route and instead imports come from jurisdictions with preferential access. The government has no plans to introduce tariffs on imports from countries which have preferential access into the UK market.
The government recognises the harms caused by high sugar intake and took steps at Autumn Budget 2024 to ensure the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL) remains effective and fit-for-purpose. The levy will be increased, over the next five years to reflect inflation since 2018.
Asked by: Noah Law (Labour - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she hold discussions with HMRC on the potential merits of extending terms for the collection of taxes from businesses; and if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of doing so on working capital for businesses.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
HMRC takes its responsibility seriously to make sure that individuals and businesses who can pay, do so on time. Where taxpayers need additional support, they can enter into payment arrangements with HMRC, allowing taxpayers to pay their tax, including VAT and PAYE, via instalments.
Companies pay Corporation Tax nine months and one day after the end of the accounting period, or in quarterly payments if they are a large company.
At the Spring Statement the Government announced further measures to close the tax gap, to ensure more taxpayers pay the tax they owe.
Asked by: Noah Law (Labour - St Austell and Newquay)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has considered (a) removing the tapering-off of the personal allowance and (b) reducing the threshold for the additional rate of tax.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The withdrawal of the Personal Allowance affects those with income over £100,000 a year, reducing by £1 for every £2 above this threshold until it is fully withdrawn at £125,140.
The additional rate threshold of income tax is currently £125,140, following its reduction from £150,000 in Autumn 2022. The Government remains committed to maintaining strong public finances and ensuring those on higher incomes contribute a fair share.