Covid-19: Social and Economic Inequalities

Lord Balfe Excerpts

Monday 26th October 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Balfe (Con) [V]]

My Lords, we seem to forget that this huge amount of money we are spending will have to be paid back by the same future generations about whom we are talking. Do the Government have any plans to cut back on expenditure and to examine, for example, the triple lock? It seems to exempt people in my age group from making any contribution at all towards building back.

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

The Government are conscious of this. We distinguish between short-term help during the pandemic—where the extra support we are putting into families and livelihoods will prevent the worst outcomes that could occur during this recession—and the medium term, when we will need to get the public finances back on to a sustainable footing.