Autumn Budget 2025

Lord Hamilton of Epsom Excerpts

Thursday 4th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hamilton of Epsom (Con)]

I pay tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours. He is very courageous in the way that he still contributes to the proceedings of this House, albeit over the internet.

You do not have to be a rocket scientist to have been able to tell way before the last election that Labour was going to win it. That seems to have been a pretty well-established fact long before the general election was held, although we did not know that the majority was going to be as big as it was. We all knew that Labour was going to win, so why did it not have a more coherent policy vis-à-vis the economy of this country?

We are talking now as though the unaffordability of the welfare state is something new. It has been there for a very long time, and Labour should have known that for ages and produced ideas for how to tackle it. When it was looking around for policies to follow, surely it could have done a lot worse than many of those of the Blair Government. They were re-elected more than once as a Labour Government and can be put down as one of the successful Labour Governments in this country in recent history. Why did Labour not look at what the Blair Government did and think, “Should we be emulating that as way forward in running the economy?”

The Government have put an enormous premium on the whole matter of growth, and that is absolutely right. But the problem with infrastructure growth is that it takes a very long time to come through. Orders get disputed the whole time. There is a dispute about a major nuclear power station, I think in Essex, because there is bird sanctuary next door, and it says that a number of rare birds will be wiped out if the power station is built. It is the first time I have heard of birds being affected by building power stations; you very much feel that any excuse is better than none to try to stop the progress of building this power station. The Prime Minister himself pointed out that £100 million was spent on a bat tunnel on HS2. Going by reports in the newspapers, none of the bats has gone into the tunnel but their number has increased in the meantime. It seems that we are getting slightly carried away by all these environmental concerns which slow everything down.

The answer is to look to the private sector. Before the election, it was very keen to expand and confidence was growing. As my noble friend Lady Neville-Rolfe pointed out, there was a lot of Budget speculation which meant that a lot of people who might have taken the decision to expand their business said, “There’s so much uncertainty around, I’ll sit on my hands and wait to see what the Budget produces”. To their alarm, the first Budget produced a whole mass of taxes that were damaging to small businesses, so they not only sat on their hands for that period but continued to do so and did not expand. That is why the economy is rapidly slowing down and unemployment is rising.

There was no question of the Blair Government ever taking this view towards the private sector. Indeed, they kept most of Thatcher’s reforms in place; they did not drive away the non-doms and rich people. The noble Lord, Lord Mandelson, who was a big chief in the Blair Government, went around saying that he was very comfortable with the filthy rich. It is extraordinary that no lessons have been learned from the Blair Government, and the result is that I do not think that this Government’s mismanagement of the economy will survive the next election.

Pension Fund Reliefs

Lord Hamilton of Epsom Excerpts

Tuesday 4th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

The noble Baroness talks of a sense of urgency, but, of course, she had 14 years to do something about this and did not. The previous Government never legislated for the reforms they brought forward. We are legislating for them. As I said, we are absolutely concerned that UK pension funds are investing less in the domestic economy, which is exactly why the pensions review is looking at the issue.

[Lord Hamilton of Epsom (Con)]

My Lords, one of the obligations on the trustees of pension funds is to get the best return for pensioners. Is the Minister resigned to the fact that, if we invest in British infrastructure, pensioners will be worse off as a result?

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I am not sure that the noble Lord should talk down the British economy in quite that way.

Growing the UK Economy

Lord Hamilton of Epsom Excerpts

Monday 3rd February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I was lucky enough to be in the House for the noble Lord’s question to my noble friend the Transport Minister, and I obviously agree with what my noble friend said to him. In terms of timescales, the Government have asked Heathrow to come forward with its proposal by the summer of this year, and we have said that we want to confirm planning consent by 2028. That is obviously an accelerated process, but we are determined to do everything it takes to accelerate it. I am confident that there will be spades in the ground at Heathrow within this Parliament. The third runway is part of a wider programme of expansion of Heathrow, including various terminal expansions, so without question there will be spades in the ground at Heathrow. However, we also want to see spades in the ground for the runway within this Parliament.

[Lord Hamilton of Epsom (Con)]

My Lords, as is predictable, the Minister trotted out the usual thing about the black hole of £22 billion. On the other hand, the Government are looking at departmental budgets, which by most people’s reckoning are completely bloated, and looking for savings. What are the chances of those savings well exceeding £22 billion?

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I am very grateful to the noble Lord for raising the £22 billion—he knows it is one of my favourite topics, and I am always very happy to talk about it. It was obviously one of the most shocking features of our inheritance from the previous Government that they had £22 billion of commitments that they did not fund and sought to conceal from various government bodies. That is deeply shocking and should not be taken lightly. The noble Lord has said to me previously that the Government’s budgets are bloated; most government departments would dispute that, after decades of austerity under the party opposite. We know that public services are stretched extremely thin. I have asked him before for his examples of that bloating, and what savings he would propose. I would be more than happy to discuss any potential savings that he has in mind, but I think they are unlikely to reach the level that he describes.

United Kingdom Declining Birth Rate

Lord Hamilton of Epsom Excerpts

Wednesday 6th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

It is a very important point and one that we should retain as we make policy.

[Lord Hamilton of Epsom (Con)]

My Lords, was the Minister not moved by reports in the press that AI is going to account for 6 million jobs in this country? If that happens, will we not be quite grateful for a low birth rate?

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

We have to ensure that changing technology works to the benefit of all in society and contributes to our key objective of economic growth.

Fiscal Rules

Lord Hamilton of Epsom Excerpts

Tuesday 29th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I hear what the noble Baroness says. As I have said already, the Chancellor will set out the Government’s full fiscal plan, including the precise details of our fiscal rules, in tomorrow’s Budget.

[Lord Hamilton of Epsom (Con)]

My Lords, when the Minister was first talking about the so-called black hole, it was £21 billion. Does he accept that this is actually less than 2% of total government spending? It is almost inconceivable that anybody with their head screwed on properly in the Treasury could not find savings to that amount.

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I am very grateful to the noble Lord for allowing me to talk about the £22 billion black hole in the public finances that was covered up from the British people, from this House and from the OBR, which has confirmed it by establishing its independent review. It was always £22 billion, contrary to what the noble Lord says. If he would like to come up with £22 billion of savings, I would more than like to hear them.