Oral Answers to Questions

Yuan Yang Excerpts

Tuesday 28th April 2026 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

What the right hon. Gentleman is basically admitting is that he would have gone ahead with the increases in fuel duty and business rates, and that he would take that money out of our national health service. We made those changes on the mandate that we got at the election, and at the same time we are reducing the budget deficit so that, for the first time in six years, it is now below 5% of GDP. As a result, the Bank of England has cut interest rates six times, helping all our constituents with their mortgages. This is very different from the hikes in mortgages that we saw under the previous Tory Government.

[Yuan Yang (Earley and Woodley) (Lab)]

T2. This weekend, while door-knocking in Woodley, I spoke to a young father of three who, despite working multiple skilled jobs, feared being made homeless because of high and rising costs of rent. Will the Chancellor examine the case for a fixed-term rent freeze in the private rented sector to protect renters like my constituent from rising costs following the invasion of Iran, and to bring inflation down in the wider economy?

[Rachel Reeves]

As my hon. Friend knows from sitting on the Treasury Committee, this Government have already taken action to reduce the cost of living and to bear down on inflation with the changes around energy prices, fuel duty, prescription charges and rail fares. I will do everything in my power and use every lever we have to bear down on the cost of living, including for people in the private rented sector. That is why we have already introduced the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. People who have mortgages have seen cuts in their mortgage rates since we came into office, and we will also do everything we can to help people in the private rented sector too, because we must ensure that this conflict in the middle east does not result in our constituents being poorer.