Oral Answers to Questions

David Evennett Excerpts

Tuesday 20th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Hunt]

I will be happy to write to the hon. Gentleman to talk to him about that initiative. We are making great progress in our schools—we have risen to fourth in the global league table for reading—but we can always do more.

[Sir David Evennett (Bexleyheath and Crayford) (Con)]

T6. I welcome my right hon .Friend’s commitment to making inflation and the cost of living his top priority, as it is also a top priority of my constituents. Does he agree that the Institute for Fiscal Studies is entirely correct to say that Labour’s plans for £28 billion of borrowing in its green prosperity plan would simply lead to higher rates of interest and higher inflation?

[Jeremy Hunt]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right; the answer to inflation is to tackle it, not to make it worse.

Finance (No. 2) Bill

David Evennett Excerpts

Committee of the whole House
Wednesday 19th April 2023 Commons Chamber

[James Cartlidge]

My hon. Friend asks an excellent question, and I will be more than happy to write to him setting out more detail on the benefits, but I hope he agrees that the key point is this: we in this House all know that pubs suffered terribly in the pandemic, if we are honest. We literally legislated to close them, obviously for a very good reason—to support public health and stop the spread of that terrible disease—but the fact is that doing so was costly to pubs, so we had to support them. In addition, since then they have seen their energy bills surge on the back of the invasion of Ukraine. We want to do what we can to support them.

[Sir David Evennett (Bexleyheath and Crayford) (Con)]

Pubs are so important in our communities. My constituents in Bexleyheath and Crayford find their pubs pivotal to the social environment. We have a very good micropub in Crayford, the Penny Farthing, which I occasionally go to at lunchtime. My hon. Friend makes an important point. We need these pubs. They are centre stage for our local communities. They do a good social job, and also they are a safe place for people to go to. What the Government are doing is commendable.

[James Cartlidge]

We have had strong support from public health groups for the differential duty, because the evidence shows that is healthier to drink in a social environment than privately. That is another significant benefit.

Oral Answers to Questions

David Evennett Excerpts

Tuesday 7th February 2023 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Hunt]

That is exactly why we are taking difficult decisions to give this country a high-skill, high-wage economy—measures that the Scottish National party opposed at every step.

[Sir David Evennett (Bexleyheath and Crayford) (Con)]

10. What fiscal steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support businesses with energy costs.

[Peter Aldous (Waveney) (Con)]

11. What fiscal steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support businesses with energy costs.

--- Later in debate ---

[James Cartlidge]

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It is good when a Treasury Minister gets the numbers right.

I can confirm that the Government are supporting businesses with energy costs during the winter by means of the energy bill relief scheme. The scheme came into effect on 1 October 2022, and will run until 31 March this year. Following the review of the operation of the current scheme, we announced that we would launch a new energy bills discount scheme, which will provide eligible, non-domestic energy users—including eligible hospices—with a discount on their energy bills for a further 12 months from 1 April until 31 March next year.

[Sir David Evennett]

Businesses in my constituency are grateful for all the support that the Government have given them over the past few very difficult years—they appreciate that—but what steps are the Government taking to protect energy-intensive industries from high energy prices, about which they are concerned?

[James Cartlidge]

My right hon. Friend is right to highlight not only the generosity of the support but the issues facing specific sectors. The Treasury recognises that some businesses are highly exposed to both energy prices and international competition, which means that they are unable to pass on or absorb these higher costs. Following the review of the operation of the current energy bill relief scheme, we decided to target additional support beyond April this year at the most energy and trade-intensive sectors, which are primarily manufacturing businesses.

Oral Answers to Questions

David Evennett Excerpts

Tuesday 15th November 2022 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Hunt]

Of course, there are lessons to be learned about the way those schemes were administered, but I am very proud that unemployment remains at a 50-year low because of the decisions that the Prime Minister took on the furlough scheme and Government-backed loans. That was the right thing to do.

[Sir David Evennett (Bexleyheath and Crayford) (Con)]

I regularly visit small businesses and entrepreneurs across my constituency of Bexleyheath and Crayford. They are the backbone of our local economy, but like families, they have been badly hit by the cost of living. Will my right hon. Friend reassure me that this Government will do all they can to help small businesses across the country to thrive?

[Jeremy Hunt]

That is what Conservatives are all about so I am happy to give him that assurance. It is not just words; it is action: the halving of business rates for most retail, hospitality and leisure businesses; the freezing of the multiplier on business rates; the furlough scheme; the Government-backed loans and the energy price support that we are giving businesses. All that is because this Government back business.

National Insurance Contributions (Increase of Thresholds) Bill

David Evennett Excerpts

2nd reading
Thursday 24th March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Sir David Evennett (Bexleyheath and Crayford) (Con)]

My right hon. Friend is making a powerful and informative speech. I welcome this Bill, as will my constituents in Bexleyheath and Crayford, because it is helping those on lower incomes. Increasing the national insurance threshold to be the same as the personal allowance is sensible and logical, and it will help the simplification and understanding of the system. I very much hope that he and the Government will in future look at more simplification of the system.

[Mr Clarke]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right in saying that we want a simpler tax system, and we want to make sure that the burden of tax is lower. In the end, the tax system should be an incentive that rewards work, and that is what our measures today continue to support. On the point raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (Ruth Edwards), 70% of all workers will have their NICs cut by more than the amount they will pay through the new health and social care levy.

Oral Answers to Questions

David Evennett Excerpts

Tuesday 15th March 2022 Commons Chamber

[John Glen]

As ever, the hon. Gentleman has made a powerful point about a very important matter. Work with our allies is ongoing to establish how we can deepen our response in a co-ordinated way in order to make a real impact on illicit finance.

[Sir David Evennett (Bexleyheath and Crayford) (Con)]

T10.   I regularly visit businesses throughout my constituency, and have been fortunate enough to meet some very talented apprentices who are eager to develop their skills and build careers. Does my hon. Friend agree that apprenticeships will play a key role in closing the skills gap by helping young people to gain employment in more highly skilled roles, and can he say what action the Government are taking to encourage more employers to take on more apprentices?

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Mr Simon Clarke)]

My hon. Friend has made an excellent point. He is right to champion the value of apprenticeships, in which the Government keenly believe. I had a great roundtable with apprentices in Newcastle recently, and heard for myself just what a difference they are making both to their employer and to the wider economy.

Oral Answers to Questions

David Evennett Excerpts

Tuesday 7th December 2021 Commons Chamber

[Rishi Sunak]

No, I did not attend any parties.

[Sir David Evennett (Bexleyheath and Crayford) (Con)]

May I advise my right hon. and learned Friend that the Government’s step in the Budget last month to cut business rates by 50% for retail, hospitality and leisure companies, which means that 90% of all eligible businesses will see a cut of at least 50%, has been warmly welcomed across my Borough of Bexley? It will help many business to not only survive, but flourish.

[Lucy Frazer]

I am very grateful to my right hon. Friend for mentioning that. We have business rates relief of almost £1.7 billion next year for retail, hospitality and leisure, which is part of a package of £7 billion over the next five years.

Oral Answers to Questions

David Evennett Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Jack Brereton (Stoke-on-Trent South) (Con)]

7. What progress his Department has made on supporting young people into high-skilled jobs.

[Sir David Evennett (Bexleyheath and Crayford) (Con)]

9. What progress his Department has made on supporting young people into high-skilled jobs.

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Mr Simon Clarke)]

Through our plan for jobs, nearly 95,000 young people so far have started a kickstart job; we have extended that scheme to March 2022. More than 100,000 apprentices, of whom 75% were under 25 years old, have been hired under our new incentive payments. More than 17,000 young people have started a traineeship, and we have provided funding for 24,000 traineeships a year at the spending review.

[Mr Clarke]

My hon. Friend is always a fantastic champion for Stoke and the wider community. There are 145 employer-designed apprenticeship standards that relate to engineering and manufacturing roles. At the spending review, we announced that funding for apprenticeships will increase to £2.7 billion by 2024-25. We are also continuing to improve the system for employers. That includes an enhanced recruitment service for small and medium-sized enterprises, supporting the use of flexible training models, and a new return-on-investment tool so that employers can see the benefits that apprentices create in their business.

[Sir David Evennett]

We all welcome the fact that nearly 100,000 young people across the country have already started a job through the kickstart scheme, including 20,000 in London. Does my right hon. Friend agree that by extending the scheme until March next year, we are giving more young people the opportunity to develop the skills, confidence and experience that they need to get into high-skilled, high-wage and long-term sustainable jobs?

[Mr Clarke]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right. Kickstart is providing valuable jobs and work experience to thousands of young people. As of last week, nearly 95,000 young people had started a kickstart job, compared with 56,000 young people at the equivalent point for the last Labour Government’s future jobs fund. That shows that it is a very successful programme. With the current pace of starts, we are confident that earlier this month, 100,000 young people will have started a kickstart job.

Budget Resolutions

David Evennett Excerpts

Wednesday 27th October 2021 Commons Chamber

[Sir David Evennett (Bexleyheath and Crayford) (Con)]

I am delighted to follow my right hon. Friend the Member for Tunbridge Wells (Greg Clark), who speaks so powerfully about science and research.

I welcome the Chancellor’s Budget and the actions that he is taking so that we can build back better from the effects of the covid-19 pandemic. It was a constructive, thoughtful, innovative and conservative Budget that was presented with style and dynamism by my right hon. Friend. We are recovering faster than our major competitors, more people are in work and growth is going up. That is brilliant news and a testament to his hard work and his and his team’s successful policies. I congratulate him on and thank him for all his work over the past 18 months. His actions have protected jobs and livelihoods with £407 billion, supporting more than 14.5 million jobs and providing more than £100 billion-worth of business grants and loans, throughout the pandemic.

I know from conversations and correspondence I have had with businesses in my constituency and across my borough of Bexley that the Government support has been much appreciated, particularly the ability to furlough staff and the coronavirus grant funding. These measures have been vital to help businesses survive during a really difficult time, particularly when many of them have not been operational due to necessary restrictions. I also meet and talk to people from small and medium-sized businesses around the country. They, too, are very pleased to have a Chancellor who listens to them, hears what their problems and challenges are, takes note of them and tries to implement policies to assist them. We must never forget that these small and medium-sized businesses are the backbone of our economy and our country.

I should like to direct my main comments to businesses and skills. Business is the key to the economic success of our country. Our ability to invest in our vital public services relies on successful businesses paying the taxes that can then be used for those public services. Our priority now therefore has to be to help people into work and to help them develop the skills they need to progress their careers, as well as to increase and spread opportunity across the whole of the UK by supporting businesses, investing in infrastructure, and encouraging growth.

The Government had already taken positive steps towards that aim, and our plan for jobs is supporting people to gain the skills our economy needs. The £2 billion kickstart scheme has already seen 85,000 young people into employment, and the £2.9 billion restart scheme has helped over 1 million long-term unemployed people to find work.

Regrettably, our country does have a skills shortage. New employees often do not have the skills that employees want, and we need retraining and reskilling of the existing workforce. In an age of great change, and to have a successful, innovative and entrepreneurial economy, we need to boost skills. I am particularly pleased with the commitment to create a new UK global talent network to work with businesses and research institutes to identify and attract the best global talent in key science and tech sectors.

The Government very much understand the importance of lifelong learning and developing skills to support our economy, increase productivity and spread opportunity. The lifetime skills guarantee offers adults in England without an A-level or equivalent the chance to retrain, realigning further education with employers’ needs. The measures announced today to tackle poor numeracy through a new UK-wide numeracy programme called Multiply will benefit some half a million adults through a £560 million investment. This is really good news to help people who do not have the skills or the education to get jobs and make something of themselves throughout their lives. I welcome that really strongly and passionately, because social mobility is so important, and without the basic education we do not get the social mobility that all of us, in all parts in this House, want to see.

I also welcome the substantial commitment to increasing overall skills spending by £3.8 billion over the course of the Parliament, equating to an increase of some 42%. That is big money. We are not talking trivia; we are talking big investment. This includes more hours’ learning for 16 to 19-year-olds, including those who are taking T-levels, which are another great innovation; more traineeships; building institutes of technology to help to close skills gaps in key STEM areas; funding the lifetime skills guarantee; upgrading our further education college estate; quadrupling the number of places in skills bootcamps; and increasing funding for apprenticeships to a record £2.7 billion by 2024-25.

I believe, and have always believed, in local colleges. I had the pleasure of working for one in the years when I was not in Parliament. They have a vital part to play in our determination to upskill and reskill individuals to maximise their potential. In my area of London, we are extremely fortunate in having a first-class college in London South East Colleges, led by Sam Parrett CBE. I regularly visit the Erith campus. The college does a fantastic job in the field of training, spread over the Bexley, Greenwich and Bromley boroughs, and—this is the key point—in working closely with businesses and local authorities to find out what businesses need and then being able to deliver it. The increase in money for schools is very welcome, as is the commitment for more money for per pupil funding and for new school places, particularly for children with special educational needs and disability. That is really good news for education.

The Budget also strikes the right balance between supporting businesses to recover from the pandemic and investment in our public services. One area I have regularly raised is the hospitality industry, which was the first to close but the last to reopen. I have had many discussions with businesses in my area dealing with hospitality on the issues they have had and the problems of lock- down measures and local restrictions. I know that the announcement today to cut business rates to help hospitality, retail and leisure will be most welcome across my borough of Bexley. The measures, alongside the small business rates relief, equate to a business tax cut worth £7 billion for more than 700,000 eligible businesses. It is the biggest business rates tax cut in 30 years. It will significantly reduce the financial burdens on businesses to support further investment.

In conclusion, I am pleased to give this Budget my full support. My right hon. Friend the Chancellor has struck the right balance between improving public services, supporting businesses, upskilling individuals and looking at the public finances. He has delivered a positive and constructive Budget that is good for our country. I think I can do no better than quote my right hon. Friend’s concluding sentence, when he said:

“This Budget builds a stronger economy for the British people.”

I believe it does.

Oral Answers to Questions

David Evennett Excerpts

Tuesday 7th September 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (Kemi Badenoch)]

We support the UK oil and gas sector, especially as gas is a transition fuel to net zero. The sector supports 147,000 jobs directly in its supply chains. I take the point that the hon. Gentleman raises; if he would like to write to me with more detail, I think I will be able to give him more comprehensive answers.

[Sir David Evennett (Bexleyheath and Crayford) (Con)]

I commend my right hon. Friend the Chancellor for all his determination to create new jobs and new investment and to upskill the workforce; I believe it is paying dividends, as we are seeing in the economy. Does he agree that further education colleges have a vital role in upskilling our workforce, both young and not so young, to get the best jobs for the future?

[Rishi Sunak]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right about the important role of FE colleges, which is why I was pleased in the last Budget to invest billions over this Parliament to improve the infrastructure and the quality of our FE estate. With the Prime Minister’s lifetime skills guarantee, FE colleges will be instrumental in delivering to all adults the extra qualification that they need to get better-paid jobs. My right hon. Friend is absolutely right to focus on that.