(12 years, 7 months ago)
Lords ChamberMy Lords, what would be the effect of the suggestion that was made about Bermuda? Would it be possible for the Caribbean countries to reclassify themselves with Bermuda? What would that involve and would it make quite a difference to them, as has been claimed with regard to the United States?
(12 years, 8 months ago)
Lords Chamber
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, in the light of the Law Commission’s Report Intestacy and Family Provision Claims on Death, they intend to review inheritance tax law.
My Lords, there are no plans to review inheritance tax law in the light of the Law Commission’s report. The first £325,000 of every estate is exempt from inheritance tax. Inheritance tax is not usually paid on transfers of assets between spouses or civil partners. Only 3 per cent of estates are expected to have an inheritance tax liability in 2010-11.
The Answer does not surprise me but does disappoint me. Perhaps we do not need to look as far as the whole inheritance tax law situation. My concern is about people who live together long-term as carers or sisters—there is the famous case of the Burden sisters—and yet on the death of one, they are often forced to sell their home. Would it not be possible, even for the Chancellor in his Budget, to agree that under such circumstances there should be no obligation to sell the family home? To make people homeless at the present time, when things are pretty desperate for many people, would perhaps cost the Treasury more in the social benefits that they will require than exempting the home in which they have lived for so many years.
My Lords, it would be nice to come to the House bearing gifts in answer to the final Question before the Christmas Recess. However, I think noble Lords would be surprised if a Treasury Minister, of all people, came here to give some good news on this or much else. I say to my noble friend that I hear—
(13 years, 2 months ago)
Lords ChamberAs I have explained, to date I have seen no evidence that leads to that conclusion. The Treasury has done no detailed studies on the matter.
My Lords, is the Minister aware that the health reforms seek to ensure that the sort of situation that the noble Baroness, Lady Farrington, described, whereby the National Health Service has had to pick up all the failings of the private sector, will not happen again?
My Lords, I can only repeat that there is no intention to change the relationship between private healthcare provision and entitlement to NHS care.
(13 years, 10 months ago)
Lords Chamber
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what they expect to be the effect of the limitations on shared ownership for first-time buyers as set out in the Financial Services Authority’s policy statement A Specialist Sourcebook for Building Societies, published in March 2010, stating that a maximum of 15 per cent of a building society’s whole mortgage book will be available for non-prime owner-occupied mortgages.
My Lords, the regulation of building societies is a matter for the Financial Services Authority, which is an independent body. I have, however, raised this question with the FSA and I understand that it has written to my noble friend, explaining how it uses its Specialist Sourcebook for Building Societies.
I thank my noble friend for that Answer, but is he aware that the 15 per cent limit also covers buy-to-let, commercial and social landlords and equity release schemes, so an awful lot is crammed into it? The problem seems to have arisen because the FSA says that this is guidance but building societies have said at a recent meeting of 14 major and minor societies that individual supervisors from the FSA have insisted that this was an absolute maximum and that there was no question of discretion. Will my noble friend clarify that this is just guidance?
Well, my Lords, the FSA, and what my noble friend has reported it as saying, must stand for themselves. I cannot directly answer for the FSA. However, my clear understanding is that the source book offers guidance on the way that the FSA undertakes its regulation and does not consist of formal rules. Indeed, for those societies with advanced risk management systems, there is not even an indicative limit on the level of shared ownership in which they can engage. As I understand it, building societies can lend within their statutory limits. They can undertake any lending up to their statutory limits provided they have appropriate controls in place.
My Lords, it is important that we have diversity and a variety of providers of financial services. In that context, building societies of course have an important role to play—particularly in the area of shared-ownership mortgages, which is the subject of the Question. Many building societies continue to offer products in this area, and I welcome that.
Will the Minister confirm that, in spite of what my noble friend Lord Forsyth said, there is a self-limiting situation, in that someone applying for shared ownership can have the mortgage for their percentage of ownership tailored exactly to an amount that they can be sure of paying?
My Lords, questions about what people can afford to pay are essentially for the mortgage provider to judge in the context of its commercial decisions, made within the responsible lending guidelines set down by the FSA.