Autumn Budget 2024

Lord Shipley Excerpts

Monday 11th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Shipley (LD)]

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Howell of Guildford, reminds us that we are living in very dangerous times, and I agree. I recall my noble friend Lord Fox saying in the early part of this debate that we want the Budget to succeed. I say clearly: I want the Budget to succeed, and for me the key reason is that it is important for the public’s confidence in their governance that the Budget should succeed. I am not looking at this Budget as a one-off; I see it as part of a number of Budgets and spending reviews.

I thank the noble Lord, Lord Burns, for reminding us of the level of UK debt. The noble Lord, Lord Booth-Smith, reminded us in his maiden speech that debt has to be paid for and paid back. I would have liked it a little more had Conservative Members speaking in this debate not been so reluctant to take responsibility for their role in increasing UK debt from 65% of GDP in 2010 to 97% today—almost 100%.

I welcome the Government’s determination to secure better value for money, particularly from infrastructure projects. One of the notable things about the previous Government is that they seem to have presided over cost overrun after cost overrun on major infrastructure projects. They also presided over Brexit, which has not really been mentioned but has had consequential damage on our investment and growth.

The jury is out on this Budget. Clearly, the increase in national insurance on employers will have some impact, but I hope very much that the Government will reflect on this and manage to seek ways out that drive growth, as they are trying to do. It might help the Government if they paid more attention to the importance of impact assessments. There was not one for the winter fuel allowance decision. On the matter of inheritance tax on farms, I heard on “Farming Today” that the Treasury is saying that only 27% of farms are affected, whereas the farmers and their professional bodies are saying that it is two-thirds. These facts matter to the general public.

I should remind the House of my entry in the register of interests, because I welcome the extra funds for housing, schools and the NHS. But as a number of speakers have said, this extra money for the NHS will not fix the crisis in social care. I suggest to the Minister that there has to be cross-party discussion about a way forward. The extra £600 million for social care is obviously welcome, but it is virtually wiped out by the rise in national insurance that those employers have to pay, as do GP surgeries. If they were not in the private sector, they would not have to pay it.

The Government should be trying to sort out social care, which should be seen in the context of spending to save. That is: fixing the social care crisis means that significant savings can accrue to the NHS if bed blocking is ended. Yet most councils with social care responsibilities are well on course to overspend in this and future years, and their position is not helped by the NI increase on employers in the care sector, as I said.

Two-thirds of revenue spending by many councils now goes on providing social care; it has simply got out of control. The reason is council tax—the failure of council tax reform, with no mention of the fact that it is a regressive tax and a means to increase taxes on households when the Government insist that they are not increasing taxation. They blame local government instead as, since 2016, the social care precept can be increased by up to 2% of the council tax bill each year. That has closed libraries and reduced services for young people; it has closed leisure facilities and worsened road safety—and, indeed, every non-statutory service that we can think of.

There is a lot to say about housing, but that is for another time. As I say, the jury is clearly out but I hope that the Government manage to get a spending review and a Budget next year that will actually address some of the problems that the public feel strongly about.