Autumn Statement

Debate between Lord Sassoon and Lord Wigley

Wednesday 5th December 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sassoon]

Again, I am grateful to my noble friend for her kind words. It is also important that the House recognises that the damage done by the fall in GDP as a consequence of the structural position and the mess left behind by the previous Government, combined with the financial crisis, continues to be assessed as worse and worse. As my noble friend said, it is now estimated to be a fall in GDP of an extraordinary 6.3%.

I also agree with my noble friend that it is important that the banks are realistic about the state of their balance sheets. Linking back to the debate on the Financial Services Bill that we had earlier this afternoon, it is important that the new Financial Policy Committee—up and running now for a period in shadow form—is beginning to get to grips with these issues. These sorts of things were never debated and put on the table by the authorities in the past, when the punchbowl should have been taken away. So my noble friend is completely right.

[Lord Wigley]

My Lords, I also wish the Minister well for the future and add my concern to that expressed already about whether this mini-Budget will trigger the necessary growth. Specifically, with regard to the commitment in the Autumn Statement of £5.5 billion in additional infrastructure investment and the consequential £227 million additional capital funding available to the Welsh Government, will he confirm that that spending can be allocated as desired by the Welsh Government and does not need to follow the pattern of the £5.5 billion that has generated it? Will he also confirm that in the discussions that have taken place between the Treasury and the Welsh Government over recent weeks with regard to the enhanced capital allowance in enterprise zones, that is not assumed to be coming out of that money?

[Lord Sassoon]

I believe that I can confirm both points. The allocation will be for the Welsh Administration in the normal way. I believe that the noble Lord’s understanding on the second point is correct. If it is not, I will correct that understanding.

EU: UK Net Contributions

Debate between Lord Sassoon and Lord Wigley

Wednesday 24th October 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, the UK benefits from its membership of the EU. The UK should make a proper contribution to the net EU budget, but we have to see that the completely unacceptable proposals from the European Commission for the next multi-year period are reined back. The Commission’s proposals, as opposed to a real freeze, would mean an increased UK contribution of £10 billion, or £1.4 billion a year. That is indeed many nurses, policemen and other front-line public servants.

[Lord Wigley]

My Lords, the Minister said that the UK benefited from membership of the EU, and I think that many people will be glad to hear him say that. However, will he confirm that it is not just the rich regions of Europe that benefit from the structural funds? In fact, Wales, with the lowest GVA per head of any country or region in the UK, gets considerable benefit. If there were to be changes in this direction, can he give a guarantee that those sums will still come to Wales?

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, I certainly accept that money should be targeted at the regions where it is most needed. I merely say that recycling money into the wealthiest regions seems like wasteful activity.

Finance: Loan Guarantee Scheme

Debate between Lord Sassoon and Lord Wigley

Tuesday 24th July 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, I am very happy to correct the noble Lord, Lord Barnett. Some £40 billion of projects in the national infrastructure plan that are due to start construction before 2015 could well be eligible for guarantees under the scheme. We are inviting applications for guarantees now and, subject to legislation, we hope to have the first guarantees granted this autumn, so this is absolutely not something that waits till 2014. It is because of the strength of the national balance sheet and the fiscal retrenchment that we are able to come forward with a £40 billion scheme that starts this autumn.

[Lord Wigley]

My Lords, will the Minister confirm that this scheme will extend to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland? That being so, will he confirm that there were discussions with the three Administrations before the announcement was made?

[Lord Sassoon]

I can confirm that the scheme will extend to the devolved Administrations.

Wales: Barnett Formula

Debate between Lord Sassoon and Lord Wigley

Wednesday 20th June 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wigley]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have received from the Welsh Government concerning the reform or replacement of the Barnett formula.

[The Commercial Secretary to the Treasury (Lord Sassoon)]

My Lords, bilateral discussions between the Government and the Welsh Government on all proposals arising from the Holtham commission, including funding reform, are continuing. To repeat what I have said on a number of previous occasions, as set out in the coalition programme for government, while the Government recognise concerns expressed over the Barnett formula, they believe that at this time the priority must remain the reduction of the deficit.

[Lord Wigley]

My Lords, is the Minister aware that in regard to the funding needed to maintain the level of public services in Wales up to the UK average, last year the Holtham report indicated an underfunding of some £400 million? Figures released yesterday indicate that by 2010-11, based on Treasury outcome figures, that had increased to an underfunding of £540 million. Is he further aware that when the Secretary for Wales addressed the National Assembly on 23 May, she said that,

“everybody knows that the Barnett Formula is coming to the end of its life.”?

When will it be buried and replaced by a needs-based formula?

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, first, on the numbers, which the noble Lord, Lord Wigley, quoted, when the Holtham commission reported to the Welsh Assembly in July 2010, it claimed that Wales had a £300 million funding shortfall. I do not recognise the new figure put out by Plaid Cymru yesterday but the point is that Wales has received nearly £500 million additional funding in the current spending review, SR10. In 2010-11, funding in Wales was running at some 15% above the level in England, so we need to keep the numbers in perspective. As I have said previously, yes, we recognise the significant issues that there are with the Barnett formula.

Welfare Reform Bill

Debate between Lord Sassoon and Lord Wigley

Monday 14th November 2011 Grand Committee

[Lord Sassoon]

I do not believe that there is any question of the Government being sued. The matter is clearly regrettable. The error was not spotted by anybody either inside or outside HMRC until August, when a technician in HMRC spotted it. It was not spotted by any of the numerous parties who no doubt crawled over this technical area, and it is now being corrected at the earliest practical time. Therefore, there is no question of the Government being sued by anybody—but it is important that we correct the technical error.

[Lord Wigley]

I thank the Minister for that answer, but I will pursue one point. He made the point that nobody spotted this—including, by implication, opposition Members. Nevertheless, it is not opposition Members who are running HMRC. Has any disciplinary action been implemented over this mistake?

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, if the technician who spotted it was not part of the original drafting, he or she is to be congratulated. I was not making a point about the Opposition; I was merely pointing out that this is a highly technical area that escaped everybody's notice for a considerable amount of time. What is going on now is that HMRC has introduced new procedures to make sure that the checking process that it will go through for these things in future will mean that there will be a significantly reduced chance of anything like this slipping through again.

[Lord Wigley]

My Lords, will the Minister confirm that people who had an entitlement under the law as it stood will be paid fully in accordance with the law as it stood, and that there is no question of a clawback coming through retrospective legislation?

[Baroness Hollis of Heigham]

It is worse than that. Money has been taken from people. The thrust of the noble Lord’s argument suggests that it should be repaid until it has been appropriately legitimised.

Devolved Administrations: Financial Flexibility

Debate between Lord Sassoon and Lord Wigley

Tuesday 8th November 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wigley]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions they have held with the devolved administrations concerning the future working of year-end financial flexibility.

[The Commercial Secretary to the Treasury (Lord Sassoon)]

My Lords, my right honourable friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury announced on 18 July that the Treasury has agreed with the devolved Administrations that a modified version of the budget exchange system will apply to their underspends during the spending review period. The devolved Administrations will be able to carry forward DEL underspends up to a maximum of 0.6 per cent of resource DEL and 1.5 per cent of capital DEL from one year to the next.

[Lord Wigley]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that it is much more prudent for the devolved Administrations to carry forward, as a capital sum, any money that is unspent at year end rather than to rush to spend it? Given that the Assembly Ministers, as he said, have agreed with the Treasury a formula for devolved Administrations to carry forward underspends within these defined limits, why was the Treasury insisting on denying to Wales, and to the National Assembly, some £400 million of accrued underspends in Wales, money which Parliament had voted for use in Wales and which had been accumulated on a formula previously agreed with the Treasury? Will the Minister now discuss with his Treasury colleagues the possibility of releasing that sum over the next two years to augment the National Assembly’s much depleted capital resources?

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, sadly, the previous Government left us with a pot of money of some £20 billion which had been unspent by departments, which, if now spent, would simply increase our deficit; it would increase the stock of debt by £20 billion. It was necessary for the Government, as part of our deficit reduction strategy, to cancel that EYF, but the stock of cancelled underspends in the devolved Administrations was 8.4 per cent of the total, compared with 15 per cent of expenditure, which the devolved Administrations represent, so what they were prevented from spending was rather less proportionately than applied to the United Kingdom as a whole.

Economy: Capital Expenditure

Debate between Lord Sassoon and Lord Wigley

Tuesday 4th October 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sassoon]

I am happy to assure my noble friend that we are thinking of every avenue to unlock flows of funds, whether they are from institutions in this country or abroad. I was in Canada two weeks ago, where some of the longest-term and largest investors in our infrastructure are based. We talk to investors all the time to see what more, if anything, they need from government to facilitate that flow of investment.

[Lord Wigley]

My Lords—