Housing: Section 21 Evictions
Debate between Baroness Penn and Lord Browne of Ladyton(2 months, 1 week ago)
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Baroness Penn (Con)
My noble friend is absolutely right that the vast majority of landlords do a great job. The availability of private rented accommodation is a really important part of our property sector. We are bringing forward other measures in the Bill that will focus on standards and targeting enforcement of them. There will be a new private rented sector ombudsman and a new decent homes standard for the private rented sector. The majority of people will already comply with that, and we will focus our efforts and enforcement on that minority.
Lord Browne of Ladyton (Lab)
Does the Minister think that increased taxation and rising interest rates have had any effect on why private landlords are giving up and selling off their properties? She has not mentioned that at all.
Baroness Penn (Con)
My Lords, the Question was about our plans to bring forward the end of Section 21 evictions. The noble Lord is absolutely right that there are a number of different dynamics in the property market that are affecting buy-to-let landlords and housebuilders. We keep them under regular review, alongside industry, to make sure there are plans to reform the sector and increase housing supply to stay on track to deliver what people need.
Authorised Push Payment Fraud Performance Report
Debate between Baroness Penn and Lord Browne of Ladyton(5 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Baroness Penn (Con)
My Lords, it would be interesting to look at that and at how that data might be collected. The point at the heart of my noble friend’s question is absolutely right. Banks have a responsibility in this area, and that is why the reimbursement obligation is coming forward, but others have an obligation in this area too. The recent Online Safety Act imposes new obligations on the largest social media companies and platforms to prevent their users being exposed to harmful content, including fraudulent content. I am sure those measures will make a real difference too.
Lord Browne of Ladyton (Lab)
My Lords, APP fraud rose by 20% in the first half of this year alone and, according to the Payment Systems Regulator, customers of banks and building societies have wildly different and divergent experiences of receiving compensation and restitution. While I welcome the mandatory reimbursement requirement that will come into force next year, in the meantime, what consideration is being given to mandate appropriate resourcing of out-of-hours fraud and complaints teams within banks to ensure that where an APP fraud has occurred it can be reported and acted on with appropriate speed?
Baroness Penn (Con)
As the noble Lord has noted, a significant step towards ensuring greater consistency and user experience will be the mandating of reimbursement; we already have 10 signatories to the voluntary reimbursement code. Of course banks need to have proper processes in place to deal with suspected fraud, and I think publications such as the data we had at the end of last month shine a light on how banks are performing and allow consumers to make informed choices about where they bank.
Gross Domestic Product: Wales and the UK
Debate between Baroness Penn and Lord Browne of Ladyton(10 months ago)
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Baroness Penn (Con)
The statistics that the noble Baroness refers to are more experimental than the ones that I used in my Answer, but they are being refined all the time and they can be subject to greater volatility due to the smaller size that they represent. However, the Government are delivering on their commitment to replace European funding in Wales. As I set out in my earlier Answer, that is just one of the UK Government’s investments in Wales that recognise its great potential to grow even further.
Lord Browne of Ladyton (Lab)
My Lords, talking of figures speaking volumes, the Minister will be aware that last month the annual fraud indicator for the United Kingdom, which of course includes Scotland and Wales as well as England and Northern Ireland, assessed it at £219 billion. Are those fraudulent transactions, the muling of that money and the transfer of it from shell company to shell company, and the export of it in crypto assets, counted as economic activity and therefore aggregated into GDP? When the money comes back into the country to buy houses and land, works of art and other things, is it counted as inward investment?
Baroness Penn (Con)
The classification of these matters is for the ONS, and I shall get the ONS to write to the noble Lord.
Energy Profits Levy
Debate between Baroness Penn and Lord Browne of Ladyton(11 months, 4 weeks ago)
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Baroness Penn (Con)
My Lords, I disagree with the noble Baroness that there is preferential treatment for the oil and gas sector, which faces a far higher tax rate based on the extraordinary profits it is benefiting from. That is entirely appropriate. On the investment incentive, we will continue to need oil and gas as we transition to net zero. We need to encourage investment into UK oil and gas fields to help meet that demand, and that is something the Government will continue to do.
Lord Browne of Ladyton (Lab)
My Lords, in November 2022 the current Chancellor estimated that the levy would raise £40 billion over six years. Six months later, the Treasury’s estimate seems to have gone down to £28 billion. What is responsible for that? Is it by any chance the OBR’s estimate of the increase in oil and gas expenditure by these oil and gas companies, rather than renewables expenditure, which they released alongside the Spring Budget, and the consequential forecast increase in tax relief on those sectors’ windfall tax bills?
Baroness Penn (Con)
My Lords, a number of factors affect predicted revenues from the EPL, not least the high degree of volatility that we have seen in commodity prices. I say to the noble Lord that, if we do not have investment allowances in place and if we do not invest in the future of this industry in the UK, there will be less revenue in future coming from UK oil and gas fields to contribute to the Exchequer and our priorities in future.
Covid-19: Financial Support Schemes
Debate between Baroness Penn and Lord Browne of Ladyton
Baroness Penn (Con)
I think one of the reasons that the Treasury, and other government departments, can have high turnovers is that they have talented staff who do excellent work, and that can be desired by those in the other sector. We work hard to ensure that the Civil Service is a great place to work, and that people have the job satisfaction to carry on.
Lord Browne of Ladyton (Lab)
My Lords, the Minister says that the Government take fraud seriously. I am tempted to say that if they did, this would not have happened—but let us test that. In the Spring Statement, the Chancellor announced £48.8 million for this new authority, but that money is against an estimated loss of £15 billion from fraud and error across Covid-19 state-backed business schemes. The £48.8 million over three years is
“to support the creation of a new Public Sector Fraud Authority and enhance counter-fraud work across the British Business Bank”—
which lost lots of money—
“and the National Intelligence Service”,
with the intention of recovering “millions of pounds”. Those are the Chancellor’s words. Does that not tell us a lot about the Government’s priority in relation to this when, in the same Statement, the Chancellor announced investing
“£510 million to increase DWP’s capacity and capability to prevent and detect fraud and error”?
National Insurance Contributions
Debate between Baroness Penn and Lord Browne of Ladyton
Lord Browne of Ladyton (Lab)
My Lords, the Minister will be aware that, even before the pandemic, the poorest 10% of households paid 47.6% of their income in direct and indirect taxes. That compares with 33.5% by the richest 10% of households. So the national insurance hike will just worsen the hit on the poorest. Can the Minister explain what the latest hike in national insurance will do to the tax burden on the poorest, and when the Government will begin to reverse that trend?
Baroness Penn (Con)
My Lords, as I explained in my original Answer, the 6.1 million individuals earning less than the primary threshold will not pay the levy at all. In addition, in the analysis that I mentioned earlier, if you take the package together, both the levy and the spending that is ring-fenced for the health and social care system, lower-income households will be the largest net beneficiaries from this package, with the poorest households gaining the most.
Cryptocurrencies
Debate between Baroness Penn and Lord Browne of Ladyton
Lord Browne of Ladyton (Lab)
My Lords, I cannot resist the temptation to engage a Minister on this issue for the third day in a row. From January 2020 firms carrying out crypto asset activities in the UK have had to comply with the money laundering, terrorist financing and transfer of funds regulations and to register with the FCA. The FCA helpfully publish a list of 220 or more businesses that appear to be, in its words,
“carrying on crypto asset activity that is not registered with (the FCA)”
for anti-money laundering purposes. I have given the Minister notice of my question, which is: why are we allowing—if we are—non-compliant crypto asset businesses to trade with impunity, and when can we expect that they will be put out of business?
Baroness Penn (Con)
I hope the third time is at least in part the charm. It is a criminal offence for a crypto asset exchange provider or custodian wallet provider to operate in the UK without anti-money laundering registration, and the FCA is empowered to take enforcement action against such a firm and its offices. The FCA is contacting firms on this list to establish whether they are operating in the UK, and it will take appropriate follow-up action.
Crypto Currencies
Debate between Baroness Penn and Lord Browne of Ladyton
Baroness Penn (Con)
My Lords, we are taking action to manage the most pressing risks from crypto assets. That includes including crypto assets in the most robust standards for money laundering and countering terrorist financing, and moving to regulate crypto asset promotions to ensure that they are held to high standards for fairness, clarity and accuracy.
Lord Browne of Ladyton (Lab)
My Lords, crypto assets are used extensively for money laundering, as the Minister implied and the noble Lord, Lord Young, made clear. Since January 2020, crypto asset businesses in this country have had to comply with money laundering regulations and to be registered with the Financial Conduct Authority. Helpfully, the FCA has a list of approximately 30 businesses that are compliant and registered, but for some bizarre reason it also has a list of 200 or more companies that are non-compliant and not registered. Whatever the original reason for that, it seems to me to be a directory for kleptocrats, drug dealers and criminals to access some business that will not comply with the regulations. What are the Government doing about it, and about these businesses?
Baroness Penn (Con)
My Lords, if I understand the noble Lord correctly, he may be referring to the transition arrangements that were put in place following the inclusion of crypto assets into the anti-money laundering regime. That transition regime is due to expire on 31 March 2022, when all companies will need to be registered.
Windfall Tax: Oil, Gas and Energy Companies
Debate between Baroness Penn and Lord Browne of Ladyton
Baroness Penn (Con)
My Lords, the Government agree that an abrupt tax change could put investment in this sector at risk. While the overall tax burden is high, we have had to take certain decisions to aid our recovery from the pandemic. We saw the Government put in place so much support during the pandemic, but we need to recover, for example by getting on top of NHS waiting lists.
Lord Browne of Ladyton (Lab)
My Lords, the Minister tells us that the Government are concerned that a windfall tax would deter companies from investment, so let us look at that. The Norwegian Government tax companies at 22% and add 53% for those that operate in the North Sea. We apply 40% tax to profits, but we have massive rebates for investment and for decommissioning, with the result that, over five years, 19 companies that operate in the North Sea have paid no tax at all. The Norwegians have no problem getting corporate investment in the North Sea; why would we have any problem getting corporate investment in the North Sea, if we took some of these unearned profits this year to help poor people with difficulties paying their own energy bills?
Baroness Penn (Con)
My Lords, I want to be absolutely clear that the Government have put in support to help people pay their energy bills—we are spending around £9 billion on that. The noble Lord is right that the UK provides tax relief for decommissioning costs, which is something that we have in common with Norway. Of course, different oil and gas fields are at different levels of maturity and have different costs relating to further extraction, and that is reflected in our approach to the North Sea oil and gas fields that we have in the UK.
Covid-19: Social and Economic Inequalities
Debate between Baroness Penn and Lord Browne of Ladyton
Baroness Penn (Con)
My Lords, I cannot anticipate the outcome of future fiscal events in this House, but I assure the noble Baroness that I will take her contribution and views back to the Treasury to ensure they are heard.
Lord Browne of Ladyton (Lab) [V]
My Lords, in January 2019, the Environmental Audit Committee, accusing the Government of turning a blind eye to malnourishment, called for the appointment of a Minister of Hunger. In July this year, the Defra committee urged the Government to appoint a Minister for Food and, last week, before the FSM vote, the chair of the Education Committee called on his party and Government to come up with a long-term strategy to combat child hunger. If building back better does not include one of the above, just what is the plan to address the increasing inequity being forced on the rising number of children facing hunger in this country?
Baroness Penn (Con)
My Lords, the Government are conscious that families are facing an incredibly difficult time at the moment, which is why we have increased the generosity of universal credit by £20 a week. I also remind the noble Lord that the Government have expanded eligibility for free school meals: all children in reception, year 1 and year 2 have access to free school meals, as well as eligible students from low-income families in FE colleges and, during the pandemic, children from low-income families who have no recourse to public funds.
Green Investment Fund
Debate between Baroness Penn and Lord Browne of Ladyton(3 years, 8 months ago)
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Baroness Penn (Con)
The Government remain completely committed to the commitments they made in Paris. Emissions are falling and the Government set out in their carbon budgets their plan to meet their targets in each period that those carbon budgets cover.
Lord Browne of Ladyton (Lab) [V]
My Lords, success for the £800 million of public investment in carbon capture and storage that the Minister referred to depends on a credible business model; the previous two competitions failed because of the absence of one. When will the Government publish their response to the eight-week consultation on CCUS business models that ended a year ago?
Baroness Penn (Con)
I am afraid I do not have a date for the noble Lord for the response to that consultation, but I can say that at Spring Budget 2020 the Government announced at least £800 million to support this sector in two industrial clusters. We aim to have the first one up and running by the mid-2020s.