Asked by: Earl of Lytton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many residential mortgages were handled by or on behalf of UK Asset Resolution in each 12-month period beginning with 1 July 2017; for each period what were (1) the number of compulsory repossessions and sales of underlying security; (2) the average surplus or shortfall realised upon sale of a security as a percentage of the stated mortgage acquisition cost; (3) the number of mortgagors against whom action was initiated after a sale to recover a shortfall in proceeds; and (4) the average administrative costs charged to mortgagors in respect of the combined property repossession, forced sale, and debt recovery processes.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
UK Asset Resolution (UKAR) sold its former subsidiaries (Bradford and Bingley and NRAM, formerly part of Northern Rock) and the remaining mortgage assets of those subsidiaries in 2021. As a result neither UKAR nor HM Treasury can directly access the relevant account level data that is required to answer these questions. This data is owned by UKAR’s former subsidiaries.Asked by: Earl of Lytton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Financial Secretary to the Treasury on 12 February (218387), what are the measures and reforms which have led to the cuts to business rates in England that are worth more than £13 billion over the next five years; and what are the anticipated amounts attributable to each such measure and reform in each year of that period.
Answered by Lord Bates
Government has announced support for ratepayers in the form of more generous Small Business Rate Relief, linking the multiplier to CPI rather than RPI inflation, a new retail discount, raising the threshold for the standard multiplier, and a range of other smaller reliefs. In total, these measures are estimated to be worth over £13bn between 2019-20 and 2023-24.
This figure includes approximately £6bn for making 100% Small Business Rate Relief permanent and raising the thresholds of the relief from 2017; around £6bn for switching from RPI to CPI inflation from 2018; £0.9bn for the two-year retail discount from 2019; and an estimated £0.5bn for raising the threshold of the standard multiplier from 2017.
Asked by: Earl of Lytton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure prompt repayment of VAT to small building contractors where zero-rated supplies are made in connection with constructing new housing; and whether they will ensure that HMRC adheres to the 30 day target for refunds unless it has first provided compelling reasons for not doing so.
Answered by Lord Bates
On receipt of a VAT claim return, HMRC will issue an automated refund within 6 working days for the vast majority of customers, including most small business contractors.
Where there is an exception to this automated process and the customer has provided all the required information, HMRC will strive to adhere to the 30 day turnaround. Current performance level is over 95% of refunds issued within 30 days.