Small Farms and Family Businesses

Lord Rogan Excerpts

Thursday 12th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Rogan (UUP)]

My Lords, I too congratulate the noble Earl, Lord Leicester, on securing this most timely of debates. It is sometimes said that that the two most important responsibilities of any Government are to keep the nation safe and to ensure that the population is fed. I am sorry to say that the previous Conservative Government failed to properly invest in our Armed Forces over the past 14 years, with the consequences now being laid bare in an increasingly dangerous world. I wish the Labour Government well in their efforts to paper over these cracks.

However, the new Government now stand accused of placing their duty to provide proper food supplies for the nation at risk by seeking to implement a tax rise with what I suspect are unintentional consequences. The Chancellor’s decision to propose an inheritance tax on farms worth over £1 million will affect a small minority of families in rural England, Scotland and Wales, and a significant number in Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom that is particularly resilient, and reliant on farming. Agriculture provides £6 billion to the local Ulster economy. Given the well-documented problems with the Irish Sea border which the Windsor Framework has created—an agreement negotiated by the previous Government but fully supported by the new crop of Ministers—local farmers’ produce is arguably more important to people in Northern Ireland now than ever before. In light of these plain facts, the Government’s ill-advised—and, it would appear, ill-informed—Budget measure has the potential to decimate the Province’s agriculture sector.

UK Ministers have been wheeling statistics over the past few weeks which they claim indicate that the inheritance tax changes will affect only a tiny proportion of farms. However, earlier this week, the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland published the results of its own analysis, which the Minister may or may not be aware of. Either way, I will welcome his response when he winds up the debate.

This analysis, which took into account residential property, farm buildings, machinery, livestock and land, found that around half of the 26,000 farms in Northern Ireland could be impacted by the inheritance tax changes that the Government seem determined to drive through. To put that into perspective, as the noble Baroness, Lady Foster, has mentioned, this would account for 80% of farmed land across the province, including 40% to 45% of cattle and sheep farms and around 87% of dairy farms. I pose a simple and straight question to the Minister: based on those official figures from a Northern Ireland executive department, how much damage are this Government prepared to inflict on the Northern Ireland farmers before they accept that they have got this wrong?

Whatever the Chancellor may be trying to achieve, her decisions have badly backfired. Respectfully, I suspect that most in government, particularly those forced to defend the Chancellor’s move, including the noble Lord, Lord Livermore, agree. This Government are still in their early moments of office, and mistakes may inevitably be made while they get to grips with the realities of power. Sadly, the farming tax is one of their biggest mistakes. The correct approach should be to acknowledge the error, scrap the tax and move on. They will get credit for doing so, not least from the beleaguered agricultural community in Northern Ireland.

High Street Banks and Banking Hubs

Lord Rogan Excerpts

Thursday 25th January 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Rogan (UUP)]

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Tyler, on securing this important and timely debate. The issues she raises are UK-wide, but your Lordships will understand if I concentrate my remarks on the situation in Northern Ireland, which has a large rural community affected by these closures. But, as we know, this situation also affects urban dwellers and customers just as much.

In Northern Ireland, more than 50 bank branches have closed since 2020, and that number is set to grow again this year. Next month, Barclays will close two of its remaining branches in the Province: one in Newry and one in Coleraine. February will also bring the first of 10 planned Ulster Bank closures, when the Ormeau Road branch in Belfast shuts its doors. Over the next two months, two more will close in Belfast, together with branches in Ballynahinch, Crumlin, Downpatrick, Glengormley, Lisnaskea, Lurgan and Londonderry. Halifax also plans to close its branch in Larne in May.

This seemingly endless round of closures is having a profound and detrimental impact on community life in Northern Ireland, especially in rural areas and on older people who have spent a lifetime banking in person. When banks close their branches, their free ATM services are generally casualties as well. As in Britain, trying to find a high street cashpoint in Northern Ireland is often the worst kind of treasure hunt, with a minimal chance of finding gold at the end of the rainbow. More often than not, the only ATMs available are in shops or stations, where a charge is often levied for even the smallest withdrawal.

I understand the dash towards a cashless society, the pace of which was most certainly quickened with the arrival of Covid-19. But surely some modicum of common sense must prevail—particularly, again, when it comes to older people, including my wife and I, who have spent a lifetime with the comfort of having cash in their pockets and are not about to change their habits now. Internet banking is simply not for everyone, particularly those of us of a certain vintage.

Not so long ago, and certainly when I was a young man opening my first bank account, in small rural towns and rural areas of Northern Ireland the local doctor, the principal of the local school and the local branch manager were all pillars of civil society. They knew you and your background, and you could go and speak to them personally. When you needed a mortgage or wanted to have an overdraft facility, you simply applied for an interview with a local branch manager. Often, having explained the situation, a decision could be made that very day, and, if not, the request was sent up to headquarters in Belfast and a decision was taken in the next four or five working days. This personal contact is lost to impersonal automation.

The noble Baroness, Lady Tyler, rightly references in the title of her debate the desire for a national network of banking hubs. Although they may not deliver the quality of service of local bank branches, they are better than nothing, which is what many small communities in Northern Ireland have, sadly, been left with. Just last month, the Province’s first-ever banking hub was opened in Kilkeel, County Down. Operated by a non-profit firm, Cash Access UK, it offers a Post Office counter service that allows customers of all major banks to carry out regular cash transactions. Five different local banks are rotating, with a different branch available each weekday, allowing customers to talk to their own bank in a dedicated meeting room. I understand that four more banking hubs are expected to open in Northern Ireland, in Comber, Warrenpoint, Portrush and Newcastle. This is welcome news, although it will still leave large parts of the Province without in-person banking facilities. To illustrate, until the hub opened at Kilkeel in December, customers seeking counter service had to travel around 40 minutes to Newry, Downpatrick or Castlewellan.

I warmly commend Cash Access UK, which is owned and funded by nine major high street banking providers, for opening these hubs in Northern Ireland. I hope that many more will follow. The company rightly acknowledges that up to 6 million adults across the UK still rely on cash in their everyday lives, and it has vowed to work with a growing number of communities to meet their cash and basic banking needs.

I ask the Minister to give an insight, in her closing remarks, into what His Majesty’s Government are doing to ensure that Cash Access UK is receiving the support it requires to provide high-quality banking services, and, more importantly, to ensure that it is able to significantly expand the number of hubs it operates. That particularly applies to Northern Ireland because, although having five banking hubs by the end of this year is incredibly welcome, there is clearly a need for many more if communities, especially rural ones, are not to be left behind.

Autumn Statement 2022

Lord Rogan Excerpts

Tuesday 29th November 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Rogan (UUP)]

My Lords, I too welcome the noble Baroness, Lady Lea of Lymm, to the House. In the absence of a functioning Executive and Assembly at Stormont, I wish to place some concerns and some positive words on the record about how the Autumn Statement relates to Northern Ireland.

I welcome the £650 million in Barnett consequentials for public services in Northern Ireland over the next two years. However, there is something of a dark irony about this amount, given that it almost precisely mirrors the £660 million black hole in Northern Ireland’s budget in the current financial year.

In a Written Ministerial Statement published last week, the Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr Chris Heaton-Harris, chose to adopt a rather aggressive stance towards the Province’s political parties, accusing them of failing

“to display the necessary political leadership for which they were elected.”—[Official Report, Commons, 24/11/22; col. 18WS.]

He followed this up with a BBC interview, where his tone was similarly blunt. This was disappointing on two levels.

First, by common consent—not a normal occasion in Northern Ireland politics—my Ulster Unionist colleague Robin Swann was an outstanding Health Minister, who, alongside the incredible health workers themselves, played a heroic role in tackling the challenges before him, particularly during the pandemic. The DUP’s decision to, in effect, collapse the Executive has robbed the Department of Health of the type of political leadership Mr Heaton-Harris said he wanted.

Secondly, a great many people in Northern Ireland are deeply worried about their personal finances as the cost of living crisis tightens its grip. The last thing they need at this moment is to see Mr Heaton-Harris on their television screens telling them that Northern Ireland-specific spending cuts are on their way. He then also threatened to increase fares on public transport, raise the regional rates and introduce water charges. What he failed to do was to provide an indication of when Northern Ireland consumers can expect to receive the £400 promised to them through the energy bills support scheme and the £200 home heating oil support payment promised by the Chancellor in his Autumn Statement.

I pay tribute to His Majesty’s Government for setting aside these much-needed funds at this most difficult time, but it surely cannot be right that while households in Great Britain began receiving their energy bills support scheme payments in October, people in Northern Ireland are yet to receive any payment whatever. Speaking in another place two days before delivering his Autumn Statement, the Chancellor said he was “absolutely determined” to release this money to Northern Ireland households. However, two full weeks have come and gone and still there is no firm indication of how and when these payments will be made. Indeed, the Energy Minister, Graham Stuart, recently admitted that a joint task force set up to deliver the payments had met only twice—I repeat, only twice—between the middle of August and the middle of November. I would be grateful if the Minister, in her concluding remarks, could update me and, most importantly, the people of Northern Ireland on when she expects the first energy payments to be released, and by which mechanism. It is truly a dominant issue in Northern Ireland at present, as I am sure the Minister will fully understand.

One announcement in the Autumn Statement which did not get the attention it merited was the Chancellor’s promise to fund a trade and investment event in Northern Ireland next year. As your Lordships will be aware, next year marks the 25th anniversary of the Belfast agreement, which, counter to the views of naysayers, should be a moment of pride and optimism for Northern Ireland. That landmark should also be used as a catalyst to attract inward investment, which we certainly deeply need. I would be grateful if the Minister could tell me more about the nature of the event the Government have in mind. I would be happy if she writes to me on that.

Finally, I was delighted to hear the Chancellor confirm that he intends to

“proceed with round 2 of the levelling-up fund, at least matching the £1.7 billion value of round 1.”—[Official Report, Commons, 17/11/22; col. 852.]

When he said, “at least matching,” I hope that he meant “increase” because I know many of the bids have been impacted by inflation, with the cost of building materials increasing significantly since the date for final submissions in July. I am delighted that Northern Ireland is very much part of this bidding process, with at least 3% of the £4.8 billion capital fund due to be allocated to bids in the Province, subject, according to the official guideline, to a suitable number of high-quality bids being submitted.

On a day when the minds of many in this House will be at least partially focused on a certain international football match in Qatar, I bring good news for Ministers about a high-quality levelling-up fund bid relating to local football in Northern Ireland. Earlier this month, I was invited to visit Coleraine Football Club, on the stunning Causeway Coast, to hear more about its bid to redevelop its home ground, which is located between two wards within the top 10% most deprived areas of Northern Ireland. The planned works include a vibrant community hub, with meeting rooms for community events and classrooms for educational programmes. There will also be a 3G community training pitch with floodlighting, which will provide a real boost to youth football, both male and female.

I was pleased to see that the club’s application has attracted the support of all sides—I stress, all sides—and at every level of community, business, political and sporting life in the north-west of the Province, as well as from several former Northern Ireland Secretaries of State and other distinguished parliamentarians. I urge the Minister to take an active interest in Coleraine Football Club’s bid, because it surely represents what the Government’s levelling-up agenda is all about.

Ulster Bank

Lord Rogan Excerpts

Thursday 5th July 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, I do not accept that for one minute. This is a very serious issue affecting, as the noble Lord says, 100,000 individuals in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has been actively on the case. He has discussed the Ulster Bank issue with my right honourable friends the Chancellor and the Secretary of State for Business. The Minister of State for Northern Ireland has spoken to the Northern Ireland Minister of Finance and Personnel and to Sir Philip Hampton, chair of RBS, who has made commitments about the fair and proper treatment of Ulster Bank’s customers with full compensation for financial loss. Ulster Bank itself is putting out daily updates and extending branch opening hours and has a freephone number. These are very serious issues. Once the dust has settled, the FSA will be requiring a full explanation from RBS and NatWest to make sure that any necessary steps are taken so that this does not happen again.

[Lord Rogan]

My Lords, this morning a spokesman for Ulster Bank stated that this technical failure will not now be fixed until 16 July. This further delay, now to be some three weeks, will compound the already serious cash-flow problems businesses are encountering. Some companies are inevitably going to suffer losses. Does the Minister agree that this raises the question of compensation for consequential losses caused by the IT breakdown?

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, I agree that the difficulties clearly are continuing. I looked at the Ulster Bank website. I see that it is giving daily updates of the situation and it has been completely clear that it is unlikely that it is going to be fully resolved until around 16 July. I repeat that RBS has made a commitment that no business or individual will be left permanently out of pocket as a result of this. The interpretation of that will no doubt raise the issues which the noble Lord raises.