Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact on future VCT fundraising by reducing upfront VCT Income Tax relief from 30% to 20% from April 2026; and when her Department will publish that impact assessment.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
At Budget, the government announced a comprehensive package of entrepreneurship tax measures designed to provide substantially enhanced support for scaling businesses across the UK. This includes doubling the maximum amount that a company can raise through the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and the Venture Capital Trust (VCT) scheme. These increases will lead to around £100 million per year of extra investment into the most successful scaling companies, supporting their further growth and development.
The Government recognises that there may be other ways we could support companies to scale in the UK. We have therefore launched a Call for Evidence on tax policy support for investment in high-growth UK companies to gather views and evidence from founders, entrepreneurs, scaling companies and investors. This will assess the impact, accessibility, and generosity of existing schemes, and explore potential policy options to go-further.
A Tax Information and Impact Note published at Budget outlines the policy rationale and impacts of these measures. It can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/enterprise-investment-scheme-eis-and-venture-capital-trusts-vct-changes/venture-capital-trusts-enterprise-investment-scheme-investment-limit-increase-and-restructure
The Policy Costings document contains further information on the costing methodology. This can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/692872fd2a37784b16ecf676/Budget_2025-Policy_Costings.pdf
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate she has made of the average increase in annual tax paid by households earning between £25,000 and £50,000 following the Autumn Budget 2025.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Treasury’s ‘Impact on households’ publication, produced alongside Budget 2025, shows that the impact of government tax, welfare and public service spending decisions from Autumn Budget 2024 onwards are progressive and benefit households in the lowest income deciles the most, on average, with increases in tax concentrated on the highest income households. On average, all but the richest 10% of households will benefit from policy decisions in 2028-29.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of raising taxes on property income on the private rented sector, including supply and rent levels.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The independent Office for Budget Responsibility does not expect that the reform to property income tax will have a significant impact on rental prices.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment has been made of the potential impact of coordinating place-based (a) Government funding and (b) philanthropic, institutional and private sector investment on regional growth.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Following a review of the Green Book, the government has announced the introduction of place-based business cases. This new approach will highlight the reinforcing effects of different investments within an area and better coordinate both public sector funding decisions and non-public sector investments in specific places to support growth. Liverpool, Plymouth, Port Talbot and Birmingham will be the first adopters of place-based business cases. The government will set out plans to rollout place-based business cases further in due course.
More widely, Government is giving local leaders and communtiies the power and resources to make decisions for their places.
Asked by: Lewis Cocking (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Autumn Budget 2025, published on 26 November, HC 1492, on what evidential basis she estimated the saving arising from the abolition of Police and Crime Commissioners and re-organising local government structures.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Government is committed to cutting the cost of politics.
The figures were calculated based on estimated savings from the potential reduction in local councillors through local government reorganisation and from the abolition of Police and Crime Commissioners.
These estimates are built from a range of sources including Local Government Boundary Commission data; salaries; office costs; election costs; sampling of councillor expenditure data from current authorities.
Asked by: Kenneth Stevenson (Labour - Airdrie and Shotts)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department has considered publishing separate figures for the amount raised in each nation and region, including Scotland, from the apprenticeship levy collected via HMRC.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
HMRC does not require or collect data on where in the UK the economic activities occurs in order to collect the Apprenticeship Levy.
Receipts data based on company registered addresses do not necessarily reflect where liabilities are accrued.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the policy papers entitled Spending Review 2025, published on 30 June 2025, and Budget 2025, published on 28 November 2025, what their Department’s capital Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) will be in each year of the Spending Review period; how much capital funding has been allocated to each of their Department’s programmes; and how much and what proportion of the capital DEL allocation remains unallocated in each year.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The capital DEL budget is as published in the Spending Review 2025 documentation. The detailed allocation of the capital DEL budget is still to be finalised in the annual business planning process.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will provide a list of assets held by the Crown Estate.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
This information can be found on The Crown Estate website.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of of 7 May 2025 to question 48538, what the timetable is for the Crown Estate negotiating a Partnership Agreement with GB Energy.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Great British Energy's Strategic plan, published on 4 December 2025, sets out detail regarding arrangements between the two organisations.
Asked by: Simon Hoare (Conservative - North Dorset)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much the OBR has cost the public purse for each year since it was established.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) was established by the Budget Responsibility and National Audit Act 2011. Its annual report and accounts, which are laid before Parliament and published on its website, set out in detail the OBR’s expenditure and funding for each year since its establishment.