Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Cryer Excerpts

Tuesday 10th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

We are committed to ensuring that small and medium-sized enterprises have the access to finance that they need, and we were pleased with the recent announcement by the Bank of England and the Treasury on refocusing the funding for lending scheme on to SMEs from next year. My right hon. Friend will also know that, in the autumn statement, we announced further improvements in the lending appeals process and a consultation on requiring banks to share more information on SME lending.

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

T5. What assessment has the Chief Secretary to the Treasury made of the relationship between consistently falling real wages and the rapid growth of zero-hours contracts?

[Danny Alexander]

As the hon. Gentleman knows, the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills has been acting on zero-hours contracts; it is a subject that is currently under review in his Department. I have made a strong assessment of the connection between sustainable economic growth of the kind that this Government are delivering and the availability of jobs in the private sector, 1.4 million of which have been created since 2010.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Cryer Excerpts

Tuesday 10th September 2013 Commons Chamber

The Chancellor of the Exchequer was asked—

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

1. What recent comparative assessment he has made of trends in real wages in the UK and in similar economies.

[The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr George Osborne)]

The hon. Gentleman asks about trends in real wages. The main deterioration in wages and salaries was from 2007 to 2009 when growth fell from 5.7% to minus 0.6%. This is a vivid reminder of the damage that the great recession did. The Government have taken continued action to help with the cost of living so that last year real household disposable income grew by 1.4%, the fastest growth for three years. Of course, however, these remain difficult times for families, and the only way to deliver improved living standards for the long term is a sustained, balanced economic recovery with low mortgage rates, more jobs and more income tax-free. Our economic plan is delivering that. The Opposition’s plan for more spending and more borrowing would make things worse.

[John Cryer]

Well, that is one of the most vacuous answers I have ever heard, and that is against some very stiff competition. In the past three years real wages in this country have fallen lower than in any G20 country bar one—we are second from bottom. For how long is that going to be sustainable?

[Mr Osborne]

Let us be clear: this country had one of the deepest recessions of any of the countries in the G20 or anywhere else. We had one of the biggest banking crises and our country has had to recover from that, but I point out that in the hon. Gentleman’s own constituency there are now 12,000 more people in work than at the time of the election, and unemployment is down by a third.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Cryer Excerpts

Tuesday 25th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

My hon. Friend is right to raise that issue. He will have upmost in his mind the fact that under Labour, house building fell to its lowest levels since the 1920s. The Government are supporting hard-working households who have saved but who do not have a large deposit from the bank of mum and dad to help in buying their own home. The Help to Buy equity loan scheme he mentioned will help 74,000 families and has already helped 4,000. My hon. Friend will be pleased to know that 20% of the £1.8 billion of additional funding we have promised for affordable homes will go to shared ownership.

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

Will the Help to Buy scheme help to increase the supply of housing? I am not talking about buying capacity; will it specifically increase the supply of housing?

[Sajid Javid]

The short answer is that it most certainly will, and it has been welcomed by the Home Builders Federation. I am pleased that the hon. Gentleman is now concerned about the issue. House building fell to its lowest levels since the 1920s under the previous Government. The number of affordable homes decreased by 421,000 over 13 years and local authority waiting lists almost doubled from 1 million to 1.8 million under Labour—a shameful record.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Cryer Excerpts

Tuesday 14th May 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gauke]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. It is important that we have better information that we can provide to developing countries. Whether we do that by exchanging information along the FATCA lines or by encouraging better global reporting to tax authorities by multinational companies, that information will prove very helpful for both developed and developing countries.

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

The Minister will be aware that some employers are increasingly using payroll companies and umbrella companies to avoid paying tax and national insurance. What can the Government do to address that tendency?

[Mr Gauke]

We are taking measures to address this: the hon. Gentleman will be aware of the action that we took in the last Budget to close the loophole relating to offshore companies. We of course want a tax system that ensures that the tax is consistent with the economic reality, and that is what we intend to have.

Youth Unemployment and Bank Bonuses

Lord Cryer Excerpts

Monday 23rd January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

I will give way in a moment.

We have plans that will help to foster a recovery led by our private sector, by entrepreneurs and by exporters, creating the kind of growth that the Opposition failed to deliver in over a decade in government. We face the monumental task of dealing with their legacy of unsustainable spending and debt-fuelled consumption, which left the coalition the task of dealing with the largest peacetime deficit on record.

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

rose—

[Geraint Davies]

rose—

--- Later in debate ---

[Danny Alexander]

If the hon. Gentleman looks around Europe at the countries that have failed to tackle their deficits, he will see much more serious economic problems—problems of the kind that we would have here if we followed Labour’s policies. He should start by apologising for the mess that his party made of the economy.

[John Cryer]

rose—

[Danny Alexander]

I am going to make some progress now.

As the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills outlined today, we will also take the tough decisions to tackle excessive executive pay. At a time when millions of workers face a pay freeze or worse, and when many businesses are confronting a difficult trading environment, the highest-paid cannot be disconnected from reality. That is why the Secretary of State announced new measures to drive through greater transparency on executive pay, to empower shareholders to deliver responsible pay, and to reform remuneration committees to break the old boys club.

It is for that same reason that the Government are leading efforts, domestically and internationally, to reform our banking sector fundamentally in order to protect our competitiveness while safeguarding our stability. We are abolishing the tripartite system of regulation that failed so dramatically in the run-up to the last crisis, and putting the Bank of England in charge of both micro and macro-financial supervision. We are reforming the sector itself, as recommended by the Independent Commission on Banking, to safeguard the UK’s position as host to a world-class financial services sector without putting UK taxpayers at risk.

We have implemented a permanent bank levy to ensure that banks make a fair contribution to tackling the deficit, reflecting the risks that they pose to the system while encouraging them to move away from riskier models of funding. As we announced in the autumn statement, we have increased the levy from 1 January this year to ensure that it yields at least £2.5 billion a year, which is more than the amount yielded by the previous Government’s one-off tax on bonuses—a tax that

“failed to change the industry’s behaviour over pay”.

Those are not my words, but those of the previous Chancellor, who was responsible for the policy in the first place.

Through the Financial Services Authority’s remuneration code, we have ensured that bonuses are deferred over at least three years, and linked to the performance of the employee and the firm. Through the disclosure regime, we have provided more transparency than ever on pay. And while the previous Government managed to get only four of the top 15 banks to sign up to the code of practice on taxation for banks that was introduced in 2009, we have ensured that all are signed up.

Our expectations of the banking sector are clear: banks should make a full and fair contribution. They must respect the spirit, not just the letter, of the law, and make a commitment not to use artificial schemes to avoid tax. The new Bank of England Financial Policy Committee, established as a result of this Government’s reforms, has warned that in these turbulent times it is capital levels, not bonus payments, that have to be the priority. Did the hon. Member for Leyton and Wanstead (John Cryer) want to intervene?

[John Cryer]

I wanted to intervene while the right hon. Gentleman was speaking earlier.

[Danny Alexander]

The hon. Gentleman may intervene now if he wishes to.

[John Cryer]

Going back to the subject of unemployment rates, youth unemployment in my constituency has gone up by 140% since the election. That is what is happening now, not what happened under the previous Government. Will the Chief Secretary to the Treasury deal with the immediate issue and tell us why that is happening? Will he also tell us whether he thinks it is a price worth paying?

[Danny Alexander]

As I made clear earlier, I do not consider it to be a price worth paying. That is why the Government are doing everything possible, through investment in apprenticeships, in our youth contract and in the Work programme, to ensure that there are opportunities for people.

Public Service Pensions

Lord Cryer Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

I am grateful for those comments. It is important that teachers, health workers and civil servants study for themselves what the Government are offering. There has been a great deal of misinformation around this debate. We are setting out a document today that describes the position in detail. A new website, too, will be available for public sector workers to see precisely what it might mean for them. I hope those people will seek to form their own opinion of what the Government are offering.

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

Will the Chief Secretary clarify one comment he made in his statement, when he said that the offer is conditional upon reaching agreement? Does that imply that any industrial action taken anywhere by any trade union member will mean the offer being withdrawn?

[Danny Alexander]

No, this is not conditional on industrial action. Some unions are saying that they are planning strikes on 30 November. Talks on a scheme-by-scheme basis will still be going on at that time. I hope that those unions will feel that, on the basis of this offer, they no longer need to go ahead with that action. I think that would be a constructive response to what I have set out today. The offer is conditional upon an agreement being reached—an agreement by the end of the year on the heads of terms on a scheme-by-scheme basis. It is appropriate that we set out a good offer; as a Government, we want to reach agreement, but at the end of the day the trade unions need to want that, too.

Eurozone (Contingency Plans)

Lord Cryer Excerpts

Monday 20th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hoban]

We all recognise the challenges that the Greek economy faces as a consequence of high levels of debt. That is one reason why it has been proposed that the banks take part in a voluntary initiative to roll over their debt, to reduce some of the burden on the Greek economy.

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

In answer to one of his Back Benchers, the Minister said that if we put money into the IMF or the EU, that does not affect the rest of public spending. However, the rest of the world would recognise that if we spend money on one thing, that gives us less to spend on other things. Is that right or is it wrong?

[Mr Hoban]

If that is the hon. Gentleman’s view, he should talk to those on his Front Bench, who seem happy to propose £51 billion of unfunded tax cuts. Money that we lend to the IMF is money that is sitting on the Government’s balance sheet; it does not affect the spending decisions that we make. We are paid interest on the amounts lent to the IMF, which do not affect the amount of money that we can spend on pensions, schools or health, and I made the same point about how the EU funds the European financial stabilisation mechanism.

Finance (No. 3) Bill

Lord Cryer Excerpts

Wednesday 4th May 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hanson]

There is, and my hon. Friend will know that we have been very clear that the Government’s wider proposed changes to child benefit are not fair or equitable, and that child benefit should remain universal. The former Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, and the former Chancellor, my right hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh South West, decided that child care was poorly targeted, but that if universality was to be broken, we must provide help and support to the poorest families to ensure that they had child care for two-year-olds. The Labour Government planned some 65,000 to 68,000 child care places as a result of the measures that are now in clause 35. The current Government have accepted those measures in principle, as we did, but unless the Exchequer Secretary tells me otherwise I do not believe they are delivering the outputs that we planned as a benefit of saving resources.

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

We know that whenever means-testing is put in place, there is a cost because of the bureaucracy that is needed to administer it. Does my right hon. Friend have any idea how much this particular method of means-testing will cost?

[Mr Hanson]

My hon. Friend raises an interesting point. That is another issue that we wish to explore not just today, but when we debate schedule 8 upstairs in Committee at a later date. The element of complexity and randomness in the application of the clause has been raised with me by the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group. It is incumbent on the Exchequer Secretary to answer those criticisms before we consent to the clause.

There are choices to be made in tackling the deficit and we must look at the options. The then Labour Government made the same choice, but would have ensured that more child care places were available.

--- Later in debate ---

[John Cryer]

Does my hon. Friend agree—this is in line with the intervention from my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry North West (Mr Robinson)—that this badly thought out measure is an attack on the collective ethos of society, which is always dangerous?

[Grahame M. Morris]

I am grateful for that point. Others have made it, and I have tried to echo its sentiments. The Government have the opportunity to rethink the implications of this decision, because implementation is not until 2013, so I hope that the Minister will address that point at the close of the debate. I am sure that hon. Members will recall that when the measure was proposed, Labour was engaged in a leadership election. Perhaps it was an attempt to steal the headlines.

However, from representations that I have received from expert groups, individuals and constituents—I am sure that other Members have received similar representations—it seems that the policy has been shown to be ill thought out. Whatever one’s views about middle England—whether it exists, whether it should be protected —it is crystal clear that the policy will disproportionately affect families with a single high earner. As someone who considers himself a socialist and something of a champion of the working classes and those at the lower end of the income spectrum, I think that there is a basic issue in this debate about justice and fairness. For families with a single high earner and perhaps no second earner, there is a clear injustice and anomaly when compared with a family with two high earners, as both families would lose the same amount.

--- Later in debate ---

[Andrew Gwynne]

I am happy to say that all three of my children went to St Anne’s primary school in Denton, where my wife, who is up for election tomorrow, is a chair of the governors. My eldest son goes to Audenshaw high school, which is also in my constituency, and all my children are getting a first-class education in those schools.

Let me return to clause 35, Mr Evans, for fear of being told off by your good self for straying too wide of the issue. The issue, for Labour Members, is this. We support the extra investment in child care for two-year-olds, especially in constituencies such as mine. Denton and Reddish is quite a deprived constituency, which covers five wards in the Tameside metropolitan borough—which is, I believe, the 52nd most deprived local authority in England—and the two Reddish wards in Stockport, which, although Stockport itself is a much more prosperous borough, are the two most deprived wards in the constituency. Investment in early years education has made a big difference to young people in constituencies such as Denton and Reddish. I would particularly welcome extra investment in nursery education in those deprived communities and, indeed, the Labour party proposed to provide it. I am pleased that the present Government are pressing ahead with a change that we proposed when we were in government.

Where we differ is in our approach to targeting. My hon. Friend the Member for Easington made a valid point about that. Although I understand the arguments for targeting as a way of ensuring that communities such as his and mine receive the benefit of extra early years provision, some constituents who are better off than the average in my constituency tell me—and it is difficult to argue against what they say—that they pay considerably higher taxes and pay into a welfare state system, and that they expect to get at least something in return. Those payments are their buy-in to the universal welfare system. I take on board your strictures, Mr Evans, but I also take on board the points made by my hon. Friend.

[John Cryer]

What concerns me about the changes is their incoherent nature. It appears that there have been knee-jerk reactions to save a bit of money here and a bit of money there. I fear that the Tory party may be moving from being, as Disraeli said, the party of organised hypocrisy to being the party of disorganised hypocrisy. For the benefit of Government Members, incidentally, Disraeli was a Prime Minister, and a Tory Prime Minister.

[Andrew Gwynne]

I entirely understand what my hon. Friend has said. There is a real inconsistency in the Government’s approach. While I think it commendable to raise additional money to target early years provision, particularly in constituencies such as mine, I also think that the Government’s so-called family-friendly approach is deeply questionable. As I said earlier in an intervention, when the Prime Minister was Leader of the Opposition he made it clear that he would be proud to lead the most family-friendly Government in history. Whether the Government are family-friendly is, of course, a matter for debate and conjecture. I can only say that the constituents who regularly come to my advice bureau seem to have been clobbered time and again by the changes that the Government are implementing, many of which—

Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Cryer Excerpts

Tuesday 8th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

Clearly, we as a Government are having to clear up the enormous mess that the previous Government left. That is why we have had to embark on some very difficult decisions on public spending and, indeed, taxation, but it is just worth listening to the OECD, which states that

“the UK was unique in its need for fiscal consolidation, because the deficit had gone completely out of control.

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

On the basis of what the Chief Secretary has just said, why did the current Chancellor promise in 2008 to match Labour’s spending plans?

[Danny Alexander]

Our country’s key problem—the hon. Gentleman should accept it, not deny it like his Front Benchers—is that we have an enormous budget deficit, which was caused by the previous Government’s failures. We have to clean up that mess if our country is going to get back to prosperity, and, until the Opposition accept that very simple fact, they will have no answers at all.

National Insurance Contributions Bill

Lord Cryer Excerpts

Thursday 13th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Kelvin Hopkins]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention, which gives me the opportunity to say what I have said many times in recent weeks and months. We are still benefiting from the pre-election reflation of the Labour Government. To save the economy from a massive depression, and perhaps from sliding into serious long-term deflation, Labour sharply reflated the economy, and it was absolutely right to do so. We are still benefiting from that, because of the time lag effect in economics.

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

May I remind my hon. Friend that some time ago, leaked Treasury papers demonstrated clearly that unemployment in both the private and public sector would rise very sharply during this Parliament? When the Prime Minister was questioned about those figures on the Floor of the House, he refused to answer the question.

[Kelvin Hopkins]

I am not at all surprised that the Prime Minister was not prepared to be drawn on that. What happens in a year’s time, and in two years’ time, as a result of what the Government are doing now will be the true measure of whether their policies are successful. I suspect that we will have a massive rise in unemployment, as forecasts suggest. That will tend to damage confidence among consumers, businesses and everyone else in the long-term future of our economy, so the Government are pursuing a dangerous policy.

The Bill, although welcome, is modest in comparison with what the Government are doing as a whole. The precise impact of what it will do needs to be measured and published, so that we can set it in the context of the rest of the economy rather than let it drift along, with the Government perhaps making exaggerated claims for its success.

--- Later in debate ---

[John Cryer]

If the information is available, I do not see any problem with just publishing it. I represent some of the poorest wards in London—and that is against some pretty stiff competition. My constituency will not be subject to the holiday for start-up businesses, whereas some of the leafier areas in the north-west will benefit. Tatton, a wealthy area with low unemployment, springs readily to mind as somewhere that will be subject to the national insurance contributions holiday.

[Mr Gauke]

We come back to the central point that we are acting on a regional basis rather than trying to break down the figures for wards, constituencies or boroughs because of the nature of the labour market and people travelling to work. I concede that several hon. Members will not accept that, but it is the right approach given the nature of the labour market.