Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase Stamp Duty Land Tax for foreign buyers.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
At Spring Budget 2020, the Government announced that from April 2021, non-UK residents will be charged a Stamp Duty Land Tax surcharge of 2%.
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to bring forward the start date for the Coronavirus Self-employment Income Support Scheme.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Delivery of the SEISS is a substantial operational task for HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) because it requires an entirely new system to be built and tested from scratch in a matter of weeks. In early May HMRC began contacting individuals who may be eligible for the scheme, and HMRC have invited them to claim using the GOV.UK online service. This service will open on 13 May, ahead of schedule, and those eligible will have the money paid into their bank account?by 25 May, or within six working days?of completing a claim.
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the operation of UK credit scoring agencies; and (2) reports that such agencies have closed their telephone helplines but continue to blacklist customers whilst their automated systems are not functioning effectively.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The Government recognises that the outbreak of COVID-19 may lead to consumers facing financial difficulty and uncertainty. The Government is working closely with industry, including credit reference agencies (CRAs) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – the regulator responsible for CRAs – to ensure that consumers are not treated unfairly as a result of this crisis.
Some CRAs have experienced operational difficulties with respect to its telephone helplines due to a reduction in call centre capacity. CRAs’ online portals are available for customers to make any inquiries while these issues are being resolved.
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what financial support they are planning to give to the leisure and entertainment sector, including theatres, restaurants and pubs, if any such businesses cannot claim against their insurance for any losses incurred as a result of COVID-19.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The government understands that the leisure and entertainment sectors are particularly affected by this crisis. For businesses which have a policy that covers pandemics, the government’s actions will allow them to make an insurance claim against their policy. In addition, the government is providing £10,000 grants to over 700,000 small businesses across England, and increased grants for qualifying retail, hospitality and leisure businesses of up to £25,000 per property.
More generally, the Chancellor has announced an unprecedented package of measures to protect businesses and workers, including an initial £330 billion of loan guarantees. This is on top of compensation for statutory sick pay announced in the Budget. On Friday 20 March the Chancellor announced the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to help firms continue to keep people in employment. Businesses can put workers on temporary leave and the government will pay them cash grants of 80% of their wages up to a cap of £2,500, providing they keep the worker employed.
The government stands ready to take whatever action may be necessary to support businesses through this economic and human crisis.
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, if any, of what the expenditure on HS2 could otherwise have been spent on; and whether any such assessment included consideration of the number of affordable homes which could be built with the equivalent funds.
Answered by Earl of Courtown - Captain of the Queen's Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard (HM Household) (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Government is committed to delivering value for taxpayers’ money and all decisions on spending take account of a range of factors including costs, benefits, and alternatives.
The Prime Minister has now confirmed that the Government will proceed with HS2 to deliver essential North-South connectivity, greater capacity, and shorter journey times. Investment in infrastructure will level up opportunity and connectivity across the country.
The Government is also committed to increasing the supply of affordable housing and has made £9bn available through the Affordable Homes Programme to March 2022 and in 2018 announced an additional £2bn beyond that. In the manifesto the government committed to renewing the Affordable Homes Programme. In 18/19, 57,485 affordable homes were completed in England, up 22% on the previous year.
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to reform Stamp Duty Land Tax.
Answered by Lord Bates
The Government reformed Stamp Duty Land Tax on residential properties at Autumn Statement 2014, cutting the tax for 98% of people who pay it, unless they are purchasing additional property.
The Government’s priority is to support first-time buyers. At Autumn Budget 2017, the Government removed Stamp Duty Land Tax for all first-time buyers purchasing properties up to £300,000 with the relief also extending to purchases worth up to £500,000. Since introduction, these changes have benefitted 121,500 households with one million households expected to benefit over the next five years.
The Government keeps all taxes under review as part of the Budget process.
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to tackle the use of trust funds (1) to avoid tax, and (2) to claim benefits which would not otherwise be available.
Answered by Lord Bates
HMRC undertake tax compliance activity on trusts in the same way as they do other compliance activity and come down hard where tax avoidance or evasion is discovered. Since 2010 over £160 billion in additional tax revenue has been secured and protected as a result of actions to tackle tax evasion, avoidance and non-compliance.
In 2017, HMRC established a register of trusts incurring UK tax consequences, enabling law enforcement authorities to identify beneficial owners of relevant trusts and at the Autumn Budget 2017 the Government announced it will publish a consultation in 2018 on making the taxation of trusts simpler, fairer, and more transparent.
Benefit claimants are required to inform the DWP of the income and capital that they possess, or have access to, in order to properly determine their benefit entitlement and the correct amount of payment.
The benefit regulations contain provisions that ensure that the claimant is treated as possessing any income or capital which they have deprived themselves in order to get the benefit or a higher payment, whether or not it has been placed in a trust.
Final estimates for 2016-17 indicate that 2.0% of benefit expenditure was overpaid due to fraud and error. The Government remains committed to tackling both over and underpayments of benefit. This includes protecting the public purse from those seeking more than their entitlement. The Government will continue to explore the role data matching can play as part of this approach.
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether Infrastructure UK has attached a BB+ non-investment grade rating to the Hinkley Point nuclear project in Somerset.
Answered by Lord O'Neill of Gatley
The European Commission’s Closing Decision of October 2014 records that, as a result of the protections for debt built into the financing agreements, Infrastructure UK believed the Hinkley Point project should be able to achieve a rating equivalent to BB+/Ba1 during the construction period. It was not possible to conclude the originally envisaged guarantee for £16 billion but the Chancellor announced in September 2015 an initial guarantee for debt of £2 billion which will be repaid in December 2020 by the shareholders, EDF and CGN. There is no obligation to issue further guarantees for the project thereafter.
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of recent flooding, what plans they have to re-allocate the proposed funding for HS2 to the funding of strengthened flood defences.
Answered by Lord O'Neill of Gatley
There are no plans to re-allocate HS2 funding to flood defences. The HS2 budget is to deliver HS2.
The Government is separately investing £2.3bn in flood defences through the six-year capital programme, which will better protect 300,000 homes and reduce overall flood risk in England by 5% by 2021.