Supermarkets: Voluntary Price Caps

Debate between Lord Livermore and Lord Sahota

Wednesday 20th May 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I am sure that there is much in what the noble Lord says. On regulatory burdens, the Prime Minister has set a 25% target to bring the cumulative cost of regulation down. We have already announced £1.5 billion of gross annual administrative savings so far, and we expect to set out further savings in due course.

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

My Lords, first, I congratulate the Government on bringing inflation down to 2.8% and removing the 5p fuel duty. If the Government had a quiet word with the supermarkets making excessive profits of billions and billions of pounds, telling them to take it easy and not make that much profit, I am sure that the public would welcome that kind of interference, because the public would like cheaper food in every supermarket.

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I agree with the first half of my noble friend’s point but not necessarily the second half—I think there was an “if” in there, which is important. As I have said already, we are taking action across the board to ease the cost of living: we are freezing rail fares and prescription fees, and we have taken £150 off energy bills. These are the driving factors behind today’s bigger than expected fall in inflation, which my noble friend mentioned. Further, today, the Chancellor has extended the 5p cut on fuel duty to the end of the year.

Business Rates Reform

Debate between Lord Livermore and Lord Sahota

Monday 23rd June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I am grateful to the noble Lord for his question. On this Government’s proposals for improving BIDs, the English Devolution White Paper, which I mentioned, set out our intention to strengthen BIDs. We will come forward with further proposals to do so in due course.

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

My Lords, over the years I have run a number of small businesses. In England, any small business with a rateable value of £12,000 or less is entitled to a 100% rebate. Do the Government have any plan to increase that threshold from £12,000?

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

We have set out very clearly that we want to go further to modernise the system, over and above the tax cuts that I set out for small properties, exactly for the reasons my noble friend sets out. We have published a discussion paper setting out priority areas for reform that highlights further areas, including how to incentivise investment. Later this summer, we will publish an interim report setting out a clear direction of travel. We will then set out further policy detail in the Budget this autumn.

Economic Productivity

Debate between Lord Livermore and Lord Sahota

Thursday 5th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I am grateful to the noble Baroness for her Question. To answer her first point, she is incorrect to say that we did not impose any productivity criteria. We have introduced a 2% efficiency and productivity target in the NHS for this year and next year. We have also gone further than the previous Government did by extending that target to all government departments to ensure that we are improving the quality of public services while also improving value for money.

The noble Baroness mentioned planning. A significant programme of planning reform was announced by the Chancellor on her very first day in the Treasury. The previous Government had 14 years to announce those things but never did anything.

[Lord Sahota (Lab)]

My Lords, as a former small businessman, I welcome the Government’s recent announcements to help small businesses, including increasing the threshold for national insurance contributions from £5,000 to £10,500, and cutting business rates for shops, pubs and other leisure properties. Are there any more goodies to come in the future from this new Labour Government for small businessmen?

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I am grateful to my noble friend for his support for the policies we have announced for small businesses. He is absolutely right that we protected small businesses in the recent Budget. SMEs are, of course, an essential part of a growing economy. We set out clear plans for small businesses in our manifesto and we will deliver on those in the coming months.