Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much of the (a) £1 billion in 2022-23 and (b) £1.5 billion in 2023-24 allocated from Treasury reserves to fund asylum processing and refugee hosting costs will be reported as Official Development Assistance as a (i) gross figure, (ii) proportion of the £2.5 billion allocation and (c) proportion of eligible Official Development Assistance costs.
Answered by John Glen
Over the past 12 months the government has acted decisively and compassionately to support the people of Ukraine and Afghanistan to escape oppression and conflict and find refuge in the UK. The government is providing additional resources of £1 billion in 2022-24 and £1.5 billion in 2023-24 to help meet the significant and unanticipated costs which have been incurred. These additional resources are all Official Development Assistance (ODA).
Funding will be provided through the Reserve and has not yet been allocated to departments; final allocations will be made through the Estimates process.
The UK’s ODA spending will be reported in the annual Statistics on International Development publication.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to his written ministerial statement entitled FCDO Update, published on 22 November 2022, HCWS379, how the additional £2.5 billion of resources will be spent.
Answered by John Glen
Over the past 12 months the government has acted decisively and compassionately to support the people of Ukraine and Afghanistan to escape oppression and conflict and find refuge in the UK.
At the Autumn Statement, the government committed to providing additional resources of £1 billion in 2022-23 and £1.5 billion in 2023-24 to help meet the significant and unanticipated costs which have been incurred.
Funding will be provided through the Reserve and has not yet been allocated to departments; final allocations will be made through the Estimates process.
The UK’s ODA spending will be reported in the annual Statistics on International Development publication.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to his written ministerial statement entitled FCDO Update, published on 22 November 2022, HCWS379, how much and what proportion of the additional resources will be allocated to help clear the asylum processing backlog; and how many and what proportion of the asylum applicants that have been waiting for between one and three years will be supported by this funding.
Answered by John Glen
Over the past 12 months the government has acted decisively and compassionately to support the people of Ukraine and Afghanistan to escape oppression and conflict and find refuge in the UK.
At the Autumn Statement, the government committed to providing additional resources of £1 billion in 2022-23 and £1.5 billion in 2023-24 to help meet the significant and unanticipated costs which have been incurred.
Funding will be provided through the Reserve and has not yet been allocated to departments; final allocations will be made through the Estimates process.
The UK’s ODA spending will be reported in the annual Statistics on International Development publication.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on the cost of asylum processing backlogs to the official development assistance budget; and what recent estimate he has made of the level of other Departmental expenditure allocated to the official development assistance budget in the last 12 months.
Answered by John Glen
The government is delivering the most comprehensive reform in decades to improve the asylum system, through the New Plan for Immigration. These reforms aim to make the system fair but firm, enabling us to offer support to those most in need while returning those without a genuine right to remain in the UK.
The Government set out its ODA allocations by department at the 2021 spending review.
The UK’s ODA spending is reported in the annual Statistics on International Development publication. The final publication for 2021 can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statistics-on-international-development-final-uk-aid-spend-2021.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the potential fall in real household disposable income in Birmingham in the (a) 2022-23 and (b) 2023-24 financial years.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
HM Treasury does not prepare formal forecasts for household income or the outlook for the UK economy, which are the responsibility of the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). The OBR does not forecast household income for different UK regions.
Prior to recent support announcements, the OBR forecast UK wide real household disposable income per person to fall by 4.3% in 2022/23 and 2.8% in 2023/24, and to start recovering from Q4 2023.
The government has announced further support for next year designed to target the most vulnerable households. This cost of living support is worth £26 billion in 2023-24, in addition to benefits uprating, which is worth £11 billion to working age households and people with disabilities. This support for 2023-24 is in addition to the generous support already in place to support households this winter. In addition to the Energy Price Guarantee, the government has announced £37 billion of support for the cost of living in 2022-23.
The OBR estimated that government support helps offsets half of the fall in RHDI per person that would have otherwise occurred in 2022/23, and around a quarter of the cumulative fall between 2021/22 and 2023/24.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the number of bank branch closures in (a) Birmingham, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England in each of the last five years; and what steps he will take to ensure people have access to local banking services.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
The Chancellor meets with his Cabinet colleagues on a regular basis, to discuss a variety of issues. The way people bank in the UK continues to develop at pace, with more consumers and businesses than ever enjoying the convenience, security, and speed of digital banking. In 2021, 86% of UK adults used a form of remote banking, such as an app, online or on the phone. Banking customers have never had more choice in how they fit their banking into their everyday lives.
The Government believes that all customers, wherever they live, should have appropriate access to banking services. However, decisions on opening and closing branches are a commercial issue for banks and building societies. The Government does not intervene in these decisions or make direct assessments of these branch networks.
Guidance from the Financial Conduct Authority sets out its expectation of firms when they are deciding to close their branches or free-to-use ATMs. Firms are expected to carefully consider the impact of planned branch closures on their customers’ everyday banking and cash access needs and consider possible alternative access arrangements. This ensures that the implementation of closure decisions is undertaken in a way that treats customers fairly. The guidance has recently been strengthened to enhance protections for consumers that rely on branch services.
Alternative options for access can be via telephone banking, through digital means such as mobile or online banking, and the Post Office. The Post Office Banking Framework allows 99% of personal banking and 95% of business banking customers to deposit cheques, check their balance and withdraw and deposit cash at 11,500 Post Office branches in the UK.
As part of the Financial Services and Markets Bill 2022, the Government has introduced legislation to protect access to cash. The Bill protects access to cash by establishing the Financial Conduct Authority as the lead regulator and providing it with appropriate powers to ensure reasonable provision of withdrawal and deposit facilities.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions he has had with Cabinet Colleagues on reducing the number of bank branch closures.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
The Chancellor meets with his Cabinet colleagues on a regular basis, to discuss a variety of issues. The way people bank in the UK continues to develop at pace, with more consumers and businesses than ever enjoying the convenience, security, and speed of digital banking. In 2021, 86% of UK adults used a form of remote banking, such as an app, online or on the phone. Banking customers have never had more choice in how they fit their banking into their everyday lives.
The Government believes that all customers, wherever they live, should have appropriate access to banking services. However, decisions on opening and closing branches are a commercial issue for banks and building societies. The Government does not intervene in these decisions or make direct assessments of these branch networks.
Guidance from the Financial Conduct Authority sets out its expectation of firms when they are deciding to close their branches or free-to-use ATMs. Firms are expected to carefully consider the impact of planned branch closures on their customers’ everyday banking and cash access needs and consider possible alternative access arrangements. This ensures that the implementation of closure decisions is undertaken in a way that treats customers fairly. The guidance has recently been strengthened to enhance protections for consumers that rely on branch services.
Alternative options for access can be via telephone banking, through digital means such as mobile or online banking, and the Post Office. The Post Office Banking Framework allows 99% of personal banking and 95% of business banking customers to deposit cheques, check their balance and withdraw and deposit cash at 11,500 Post Office branches in the UK.
As part of the Financial Services and Markets Bill 2022, the Government has introduced legislation to protect access to cash. The Bill protects access to cash by establishing the Financial Conduct Authority as the lead regulator and providing it with appropriate powers to ensure reasonable provision of withdrawal and deposit facilities.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the impact on LICs of rising interest rates on foreign loans.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
The recent IMF World Economic Outlook underlined the difficulties that tightening financial conditions pose for low-income countries. In this environment, it is essential that countries take on new debt responsibly and that lenders provide credit on terms that promote sustainability. The UK is a signatory to the OECD Sustainable Lending Principles, which help ensure this.
We monitor the risks posed by global interest rates and are fully committed to working with our international partners to help the most vulnerable countries address the challenges they face.
For example, it is a UK priority to ensure the swift implementation of the Common Framework, which was agreed to help deliver a long-term, sustainable approach for supporting low-income countries to tackle their debt vulnerabilities.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate he has made of the mortgage default rate in (a) Birmingham, (b) the West Midlands and (c) the UK.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
Mortgage arrears levels remain historically low. According to the latest UK Finance data, there were 74,560 residential mortgages in arrears at the end of June, 10% fewer than in the same period in the previous year.
Around 75% of residential mortgage borrowers are on fixed-rate deals and are therefore shielded from interest rate rises in the short term.
However, the Government has already taken immediate action to help households, including those in Birmingham, through the Energy Price Guarantee and the Energy Bills Support Scheme. This is in addition to the £37 billion of targeted support for the cost of living this financial year.
For mortgage borrowers that do enter financial difficulty and struggle to keep up with payments, Financial Conduct Authority guidance requires firms to provide support through tailored forbearance options. This could include measures such as a payment holiday, partial payment, or an extension of mortgage term.
The Government has also taken a number of measures aimed at helping people to avoid repossession, including Support for Mortgage Interest loans for those in receipt of an income-related benefit, and protection in the courts through the Pre-Action Protocol, which makes it clear that repossession must always be the last resort for lenders.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support homeowners in Birmingham with rising mortgage rates.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
Mortgage arrears levels remain historically low. According to the latest UK Finance data, there were 74,560 residential mortgages in arrears at the end of June, 10% fewer than in the same period in the previous year.
Around 75% of residential mortgage borrowers are on fixed-rate deals and are therefore shielded from interest rate rises in the short term.
However, the Government has already taken immediate action to help households, including those in Birmingham, through the Energy Price Guarantee and the Energy Bills Support Scheme. This is in addition to the £37 billion of targeted support for the cost of living this financial year.
For mortgage borrowers that do enter financial difficulty and struggle to keep up with payments, Financial Conduct Authority guidance requires firms to provide support through tailored forbearance options. This could include measures such as a payment holiday, partial payment, or an extension of mortgage term.
The Government has also taken a number of measures aimed at helping people to avoid repossession, including Support for Mortgage Interest loans for those in receipt of an income-related benefit, and protection in the courts through the Pre-Action Protocol, which makes it clear that repossession must always be the last resort for lenders.