Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of easing taxes for elderly residents who are privately funding their care home place.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
There are a wide range of factors to take into consideration when introducing a tax relief. These include how effective the relief would be at achieving the policy intent, how targeted support would be, whether it adds complexity to the tax system, and the cost.
Tax reliefs are typically of greatest benefit to those paying higher rates of tax. Furthermore, new reliefs also add complexity to the tax system and are likely to result in similar calls for reliefs on other forms of personal expenditure or income, which others may argue are equally deserving.
To support social care authorities to deliver key services, in light of pressures, the Government is making available up to £3.7 billion of additional funding for social care authorities in 2025/26, which includes a £880 million increase in the Social Care Grant. This is part of an overall increase to local Government spending power of 6.8% in cash terms.
Moreover, the Government is making available around £4.6 billion of additional funding for adult social care in 2028/29 compared to 2025/26, to support the sector to improve adult social care.
The Government recognises the significant challenges facing the adult social care system and is committed to transforming the sector and supporting the care workforce. Baroness Louise Casey is leading an independent commission to build consensus on reform. The first phase will report in 2026 and will focus on how to make the most of existing resources.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 2 February 2026 to Question 107997 on Council tax, valuation, if she will publish the list of Value Significant Codes.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Value Significant Codes are used internally by the Valuation Office Agency to indicate specific features that are likely to affect the value of a property – there are therefore no plans to publish these.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 4 February 2026 to Question 108649 on Valuation Office Agency: Training, if she will list the titles of the 400 internal training opportunities in relation to council tax and business rates.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The VOA training modules are for internal use only and are not routinely published.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 4 February 2026, to Question 108650, on Gardens: Council tax, whether there is internal guidance on how gardens are valued for council tax, other than prevailing legislation.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Where a dwelling includes a garden, then this will be reflected in the valuation subject to the legislative framework. The Valuation Office Agency’s internal guidance on when gardens are included in the valuation can be found in the Council Tax Manual, published online here.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reason the council tax surcharge and the ordinary council tax charge for new builds will be based on different antecedent valuation dates from April 2028.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Council Tax bands are based on the price a property could have sold for on a fixed date set in law. The High Value Council Tax Surcharge (HVCTS) is in addition to Council Tax. This will be a new charge on owners of residential property in England worth £2 million or more in 2026, taking effect in 2028. The precise antecedent valuation date for HVCTS has not yet been set in legislation.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of the adequacy of the Valuation Office Agency's responses to Member's correspondence, including on matters of confidentiality.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Valuation Office Agency is committed to protecting taxpayer confidentiality in line with its duty under the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005.
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given, if any, to abolishing stamp duty.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government has no plans to abolish Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT). SDLT continues to be an important source of Government revenue, raising around £14 billion each year to help pay for the essential services the Government provides.
Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment she has had made of the potential merits of extending tax relief for pension contributions for people aged 75 and over.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government wishes to encourage pension saving, to help ensure that people have an income, or funds on which they can draw, throughout retirement. This is why, for the majority of savers, pension contributions are tax-free. This makes pensions tax relief one of the most expensive reliefs in the personal tax system. In 2023/24 Income Tax relief on total contributions and investment income of pension funds and National Insurance relief on employer contributions for pension savings cost the Exchequer £78.2 billion, with around 68 per cent of Income Tax relieved at the Higher and Additional rates.
Ending the provision of tax relief on pension contributions at the age of 75 is a longstanding feature of the pensions tax system. It is the age at which at which most people will bring or will have brought their pension into payment.
The Government does not want pensions to become a vehicle for tax planning, and the Government does not intend to change these rules.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 23 February 2026, to Question 113125, on Erasmus+ programme, if he will publish or provide a relevant hyperlink to the technical amendments made.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The text of the Decision will be published on the GOV.UK, at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/specialised-committee-on-participation-in-union-programmes.
Asked by: Lauren Edwards (Labour - Rochester and Strood)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans her Department has to establish service standards to improve the effectiveness of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS); and pursuant to the Answer of 16 October 2025 to Question 77954 on Financial Ombudsman Service, when she expects to publish a response to the consultation on improving the regulatory coherence between the FOS and the Financial Conduct Authority.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) sets itself performance targets in its annual Plans and Budgets publication.
Ensuring timely outcomes is one of the FOS’s main priorities for 2025-26, as outlined in its annual Plans and Budget publication on 1 April 2025.
In 2023-24, the FOS resolved over half of its cases within three months.
The FOS regularly publishes data on its casework, including progress against its annual performance targets. The latest complaints data is available at https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/data-insight/our-insight and its Annual Reports and Accounts can be found at https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/who-we-are/governance-funding/annual-reports-accounts
The government is considering the feedback received to its recent consultation on the FOS, and will publish a response soon.