Farming and Inheritance Tax
Jamie Stone Excerpts(2 weeks, 5 days ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Tim Farron
I am going to get to that, but the right hon. Gentleman will have to tolerate me accurately pinning blame on his side before I do so.
We were told by the last Government that they would maintain the amount of funding that we used to spend when we were in the European Union. In England, that was £2.4 billion. In one sense, and one sense only, they kind of kept that promise because it was £2.4 billion throughout that five years. However, they did not spend it, because they phased out the old scheme very rapidly, causing a great hardship, particularly to small family farms, and they brought in the new schemes far too slowly and made it very difficult for people to get into them. By the way, the people who were able to get into the new schemes were the big farmers. They were the landowners who had land agents to help them get into the schemes. So the large landowners with the bigger estates managed to get into those schemes. They are all right, broadly speaking. It is the smaller family farms—the farmers who own their own farms and the tenants—who have struggled.
It is also worth bearing in mind that there has been a little bit of inflation since 2019. The cost of running a farm has gone through the roof when it comes to feed, energy, fuel and all sorts of input costs. So the fact that we are at just £2.4 billion now, as we were five and a bit years ago, is absolute nonsense. It is important also to recognise that the grants that were available under the last Government, and now, are in reality often only available to those who have the cash flow to be able to get them in the first place.
Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD)
If land prices were to go down, as has been described by the Minister—I am not sure I believe that—and a farmer had borrowed heavily from the bank, the bank might look at the value of their asset and could possibly call in the loan, which would put the farmer out of business right away.
Oral Answers to Questions
Jamie Stone Excerpts(2 weeks, 6 days ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Emma Reynolds
I am a Minister in both the Treasury and the DWP, so I have conversations with officials about this all the time. We are absolutely determined that those who are eligible for pension credit should be aware that they can apply for it, given our big campaign to raise awareness—only last week we launched a TV campaign on the issue. We have also deployed an additional 500 staff to process those pension credit claims. Thanks to our campaign there has been a 145% increase in the number of claims, which is why the processing is taking a little longer, but we are absolutely focused on speeding it up and ensuring that those who are eligible receive the help they need.
Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD)
Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)
Jamie Stone
For generations the grim spectre of highland depopulation haunted the area I come from. I can remember my own father saying, before North sea oil came along, that I would have to go south; to go away. Today we have the Inverness and Cromarty Firth green freeport, and we have the prospect of a space launch in Sutherland. May I ask the Government to consider fiscal means whereby these projects can be assisted? I warmly invite a Treasury Minister to come north to my constituency to see what we are doing and what we have on offer.
James Murray
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury will set out any fiscal measures in due course. I am not sure whether I will get away with committing him to a visit to the hon. Gentleman’s constituency, but I am sure that many of us would like to visit it. In fact, I shall be in Scotland in the next few days, but as it is for a Labour party fundraiser, the hon. Gentleman may not want to join me.
Winter Fuel Payment
Jamie Stone Excerpts(3 months, 1 week ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mel Stride
I thank my right hon. Friend for his intervention. It has been suggested that the Government are examining ways of ameliorating some of the harshest effects of this policy, and that might be one of the things they consider. On that particular point, we cannot escape the fact that, whatever age people are, over two thirds of those who are currently pensioners below the poverty line will lose their winter fuel payments under the current arrangements.
Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD)
I have the honour to represent the most remote, the most sparsely populated and the coldest constituency. The Secretary of State, in responding to my hon. Friend the Member for North East Fife (Wendy Chamberlain), said earlier that the Government would try to maximise the take-up of pension credit, and I accept that, but would they accept that sheer remoteness and sheer distance can militate against people taking up this offer? I ask the Government, via the right hon. Gentleman, to please look at this issue, because it means an awful lot to my constituents.
Mel Stride
I am sure that those on the Government Front Bench will have heard the hon. Gentleman’s intervention.
The reality is that the Government want to rush this through so that they can blame it on their predecessor and avoid proper scrutiny. There is no need whatsoever for the haste with which this is being done, other than to meet the political ends of the Labour party. They are ripping the plaster off and hoping that the country will have forgotten by the time of the next general election. That is at the heart of it, but we will not forget. We would not have been given the opportunity to debate and vote on this measure without significant pressure from the Opposition and the wider public. This is nothing to do with fiscal responsibility and everything to do with political expediency—no scrutiny, no impact assessment, no notice. This is an appalling way to govern.
James Murray
I am going to make some progress, as I have taken many interventions already.
Under our approach, those eligible for pension credit will continue to receive winter fuel payments. We want to target winter fuel payments to those on the lowest incomes, which is why we are linking the payment to eligibility for pension credit and other qualifying income-related benefits and tax credits. That is the right approach to help those on the lowest incomes. We are determined to make it as effective as possible by making sure that people who are eligible for pension credit make a claim.
Jamie Stone
The point I made to the shadow Secretary of State, the right hon. Member for Central Devon (Mel Stride), is a fair one. Distance and remoteness militate against take-up. People living in very remote hamlets in the highlands do not necessarily perceive the Department that they should. Can I have an undertaking from the Minister that the Government will look at this issue?
James Murray
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his comment, and I know that my colleagues are aware of this issue. In fact, it is one reason why the automatic payment of pension credit and other benefits is so important. For instance, the merging of housing benefit and pension credit would help to overcome some of the problems. It would help some of the people in the situation he describes. That merger of housing benefit and pension credit was first mooted in 2012, and was delayed several times by the previous Government—I think they intended to leave it until 2028. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is looking at that as a matter of great priority, to ensure that people get the help that they deserve.