Wales: Public Services

Lord Anderson of Swansea Excerpts

Tuesday 5th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Anderson of Swansea (Lab)]

My Lords, the blunt fact remains that Wales is at or near the bottom of all the indices of deprivation within the United Kingdom, so will the Government look at this again, particularly in relation to Scotland, and try to align Wales’s position not just in comparison with England but with Scotland?

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I do not think the Government have any such plans, but the Budget delivered for all the devolved assemblies a record amount in settlements since devolution.

Banking Hubs

Lord Anderson of Swansea Excerpts

Monday 11th December 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con)]

I recognise what the noble Baroness is saying. The criteria currently used to assess whether a community needs a banking hub are set out in consultation with the financial services sector; that is part of the current voluntary arrangement. I point the noble Baroness to the FCA consultation, because the criteria to be set out going forward are far more detailed and focus on the needs of not only local communities but SMEs. The consultation will also look at seasonal fluctuations in the need for cash access and the ability of SMEs to get coins and notes. The FCA is going further than the current voluntary arrangements.

[Lord Anderson of Swansea (Lab)]

As with rural bus services, the loss of banking facilities bears most heavily on the elderly. Does the Minister agree with the principle that the last facility in a community should not be lost until a hub is established?

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con)]

I agree with that in principle, and that is what the FCA set out in its consultation. If the assessment is that a community needs services, it will be beholden upon the designated firms—the banks—to put an alternative service in place before the last bank is closed, or alternative services will need to be put in place within three months if the existing service had somehow disappeared many months or years beforehand and an assessment was made that the community was lacking access to cash.

Gross Domestic Product: Wales and the UK

Lord Anderson of Swansea Excerpts

Thursday 6th July 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My Lords, perhaps I can provide a little reassurance to the noble Lord. Yes, the gap between GDP per head in Wales and the rest of the UK is too large, but Wales has had the highest growth in GDP per head since 2010 of all regions and nations across the UK, increasing by 15.7% compared with 6.9% across the UK. He talked about the Welsh Government and the UK Government working together. That is something that we have done successfully on city and growth deals across Wales that were developed jointly by the UK Government and the Welsh Government. This included £500 million for the Cardiff capital region and over £100 million in north Wales and Swansea. On his point about the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, he works hard and closely with the devolved Administrations—I know that is something he is very committed to—but I will take the noble Lord’s specific point away.

[Lord Anderson of Swansea (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Lord Browne of Ladyton (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Baroness Williams of Trafford (Con)]

My Lords, I think that noble Lords need to decide between them which one of them will speak.

[Lord Anderson of Swansea (Lab)]

May I invite the Minister to examine all the relevant indices of poverty and deprivation? She will find that Wales is mostly at the bottom, with 75% of the average, whereas the Government in levelling up concentrates simply on north-south. Should not the Government by contrast look also at the east-west divide?

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

I reassure the noble Lord that levelling up is not viewed through the prism that he says it is. When it comes to the looking at the needs in Wales and the funding to be matched to them, that is what we do through the Welsh fiscal framework. In the 2021 spending review, the largest annual block grant in real terms was assigned to Wales since the devolution Acts were passed.

Defence Spending

Lord Anderson of Swansea Excerpts

Thursday 16th March 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

I am afraid that I will have to write to the noble Lord on those two specific questions, but I should make a very important clarification of the additional funding going into our Armed Forces. Our support for Ukraine is over and above the additional investment I have mentioned, so it will not be drawn on in future years when we continue that support for as long as the conflict lasts.

[Lord Anderson of Swansea (Lab)]

Does the noble Baroness agree that Poland has been a model in respect of additional expenditure, and does she share the concern about the delay in Germany fulfilling its commitment? She talked about long-term commitments. Does this mean that the new expenditure will be backloaded and there will be some for several years in the future?

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

We welcome the contribution from all our allies and partners. I think I have been clear that nearly £5 billion of the £11 billion of additional funding is over the next two years. We have provided clarity beyond the existing scorecard period to help facilitate long-term investment in our future defence.

Russia: UK Companies

Lord Anderson of Swansea Excerpts

Thursday 8th December 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My Lords, that is an individual decision for people to take. Where individuals have found themselves invested in companies that are subject to sanctions, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation has issued some general licences to facilitate the divestment of those shares where individuals need to do so.

[Lord Anderson of Swansea (Lab)]

My Lords, British companies are able to call on the very best professional advice to conceal their relationships with Russian companies, both direct and indirect, in Russia and outside Russia. Are we totally confident we have the best intelligence to bring to light those relationships?

Stock Markets

Lord Anderson of Swansea Excerpts

Thursday 17th November 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

I cannot speak for the right reverend Prelate but he mentioned two things. One was ensuring green growth, which I have addressed, and the other was workers and jobs. Maybe he knows that there are 2.3 million jobs supported by the financial services sector, with two-thirds of these outside London in finance hubs including Birmingham.

[Lord Anderson of Swansea (Lab)]

My Lords, what is the Government’s considered view on which provides the greatest pressure on the standing of London as a financial centre: Brexit, or the chaos and instability caused by the last Conservative Government?

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My Lords, I do not accept the premise of the noble Lord’s question, which he may be unsurprised to hear. In fact, in 2021, over 120 companies chose to list in London, the highest number since 2014 and ahead of its European competitors. These listings raised a total of £17 billion, the most raised in 15 years.

Wales: Economic Investment Projects

Lord Anderson of Swansea Excerpts

Tuesday 12th July 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord O'Neill of Gatley]

My Lords, as I mentioned in my opening statement, the legislation that is currently being discussed in the other place makes provision for the Welsh Government to use income taxes to give themselves a lot more leeway to spend and invest in the way that they see fit.

[Lord Anderson of Swansea (Lab)]

My Lords, one of the major investment projects in Wales is the Swansea lagoon, which is pending and has been delayed on a number of occasions. Can the Minister indicate whether there will be further delays to this valuable project?

[Lord O'Neill of Gatley]

My Lords, I have two quick answers. First, there are many investment projects that have, in principle, been committed to all over the United Kingdom, not just in Wales. Secondly, I am unaware of any specific delay on anything that has been agreed with respect to the Swansea tidal lagoon plant.

Barnett Formula

Lord Anderson of Swansea Excerpts

Monday 3rd November 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby]

Yes, my Lords, but the Barnett formula is the opposite of most government policies, which do not survive very long. His has survived a lot longer than anybody ever envisaged.

[Lord Anderson of Swansea (Lab)]

My Lords, I join the tributes to my noble friend Lord Barnett.

Does the Minister agree that the problem is not in the formula itself? The grievance, as seen in Wales, is the lack of fair funding. When the Government look at the totality of relations with Wales, perhaps avoiding the straitjacket of the formula, would they consider a multitude of matters, including for example helping Wales by abolishing the tolls on the Severn bridges, which amount now to a tax on the people of Wales?

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, the Barnett formula is a bit like the Schleswig-Holstein problem. Virtually nobody understands how we got to where we are today. The key question is how much money makes its way to Wales. As I said earlier, for the period ahead Wales will receive a figure in line with most definitions, I believe, of what people think is fair.

Finance: Fiscal Devolution

Lord Anderson of Swansea Excerpts

Wednesday 9th July 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby]

I am afraid that there has been a very chequered history of attempts to devolve power—within England, at least. This Government, by devolving half the income generated by business rates, have begun a process. The growth deals announced at the beginning of this week—under which, over a period, £12 billion will be devolved to local enterprise partnerships, whereas it would otherwise have been administered by central government departments—is a big move towards greater devolution. I suspect that in the next Parliament there will be much more pressure to do more.

[Lord Anderson of Swansea (Lab)]

My Lords, if London benefits with its high property values and other advantages, does that not inevitably mean that other parts of the UK will not benefit? How does one prevent that sort of fiscal competition, which surely cannot be to the benefit of less favoured areas?

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, the principle that operates if one is devolving tax revenue to a lower tier of government is that the amount of tax devolved is subtracted from the amount of grant which that tier of government would otherwise be getting. Therefore, at the start of the process at least, there is no net shift of revenue from one area to another.

Taxation: Rental Income

Lord Anderson of Swansea Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd December 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, I am sure that the whole House knows that the Liberal Democrats are in favour of a mansion tax. I remind the House that, in the recent Budget, the Government introduced an annual tax on high-value dwellings—so-called enveloped dwellings —owned by companies, which will generate from £15,000 a year for properties worth between £2 million and £5 million to £140,000 a year for properties worth more than £20 million.

[Lord Anderson of Swansea (Lab)]

My Lords, what advice is given to our local authorities to ensure that, when housing benefit is paid, the recipient landlord pays UK income tax?

[Lord Newby]

I do not know the strict answer to that question, but HMRC makes strong efforts to bring home to everybody who should be paying tax that they should be doing that, which is why the Government have put in almost an extra £1 billion a year towards tackling tax avoidance and evasion.