Infrastructure (Financial Assistance) Bill

Debate between Rachel Reeves and Jane Ellison

Monday 17th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. Of course he is agreeing with something that the Business Secretary said, which is that the real problem in the economy is a lack of demand. Supply-side measures will not do very much to help with that. When the Chief Secretary was asked in intervention what projects would be supported by this Bill he could name not one. That is the problem; this is a guarantee scheme, but we do not know what it guarantees. This is a project to help infrastructure investment, but we hear no announcement about which infrastructure investments will go ahead that would not have done previously. No wonder businesses and Members are sceptical and no wonder we are still in recession, if this is as good as the Government can get.

We will not oppose the Bill, but nor will we allow the Government to use the scheme as a substitute for the real plan that the economy and businesses so desperately need. Instead of devoting themselves to the task of getting our economy moving again, the Government have put before us an infrastructure investment guarantee that guarantees no infrastructure investment—fast-track legislation that has had the effect of getting the scheme stuck in the slow lane. The Government are preoccupied with distracting us from their fundamental failure and inaction, but people’s patience is wearing thin. We have had enough of initiatives and announcements: no more excuses, no more evasions—the Government need to get serious.

Two years ago, we warned that the Government’s economic plan would choke off recovery, shatter business confidence and add to borrowing, and that it would make it harder, not easier, to balance our books and pay our way in the world. A year ago, we called on the Government to bring forward infrastructure investment; we called for a bank bonus tax to fund the construction of 25,000 new affordable homes and to deliver a programme of youth jobs. If the Government had taken our advice then, just think how much progress we could have made by now.

[Jane Ellison (Battersea) (Con)]

Before the hon. Lady reaches the end of her speech, perhaps she will comment on this point. If all the things that have not been done are so bad, why did Madame Christine Lagarde say that she shivered to think what would have happened had the Government not taken the action they did?

[Rachel Reeves]

Olivier Blanchard and the International Monetary Fund have been saying for a year that if growth does not materialise the Government should think again. How much longer do we need to be in recession? How much longer must we have rising youth unemployment and rising long-term unemployment before the Government act? The IMF now forecasts that the economy will shrink this year and will barely grow at all next year. That is evidence that the Government need to rethink their strategy, and it is a shame that they have not heeded the advice of the IMF.

Women (Government Policies)

Debate between Rachel Reeves and Jane Ellison

Wednesday 8th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves (Leeds West) (Lab)]

This has been a lively and welcome debate, and a rare occasion on which women have outnumbered men in the Chamber. That said, it was a privilege to be here for the maiden speech of my hon. Friend the Member for Leicester South (Jon Ashworth). He will be a tremendous asset to the House, and he is one of my longest-standing friends in politics. I congratulate him on his election, and also on the birth of his daughter. It will be a busy time ahead for him.

My hon. Friend feared that he would be the token male in today’s debate, and overall the debate has been sisterly, although when my right hon. Friend the Member for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford (Yvette Cooper) was referred to by the hon. Member for Devizes (Claire Perry) as simply the shadow Chancellor’s wife, that was language that one would perhaps have expected more from the Justice Secretary. [Interruption.] Members are saying that that is cheap, but I think it was the hon. Lady’s comment that was cheap rather than mine.

One thing is clear: whether by ignorance or design, the Government are disproportionately hitting women with their cuts, their pensions policy and what is happening in the jobs market. Until now, every generation of women have enjoyed greater opportunity than their mothers or grandmothers. My great-grandmother was a cockle picker on the south coast of Wales, my grandmother worked in shoe factories and my mother is a primary school teacher. However, that expectation that women of the next generation will do better than those of the one before is now threatened, largely by the choices that the Government are making. They risk turning back the clock on women’s equality.

I wish to address some of the specific points that have been made today. My hon. Friends the Members for Oldham East and Saddleworth (Debbie Abrahams), for Newport East (Jessica Morden), for Aberdeen South (Dame Anne Begg), for Wolverhampton North East (Emma Reynolds), for Worsley and Eccles South (Barbara Keeley) and for Edinburgh North and Leith (Mark Lazarowicz) all mentioned the state pension age for women, as did the hon. Members for Solihull (Lorely Burt), for North Wiltshire (Mr Gray) and for Belfast East (Naomi Long). Earlier today, the hon. Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole (Annette Brooke) and my hon. Friend the Member for Glenrothes (Lindsay Roy) challenged the Prime Minister about it.

The changes that the Government plan will mean that women have to wait up to two years longer for their state pension, whereas no man will have to wait more than a year longer. They will mean a loss of income of up to £15,000 for up to 33,000 women, yet the coalition agreement states that the parties agree to

“hold a review to set the date at which the state pension age starts to rise to 66, although it will not be sooner than…2020 for women.”

Yet under plans in the Pensions Bill, the state pension age for women will start to rise to 66 in 2018.

As the hon. Member for Belfast East said, MPs of all parties can show that they understand the fierce concerns and aspirations of women by opposing the Government’s proposals to increase the state pension age at such a pace. A petition with more than 10,000 signatures has been presented to the Prime Minister, and Age UK and Saga are calling on the Government to think again. I welcome the chance to hear what the Minister for Equalities has to say about that, and I welcome the fact that the Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions, the hon. Member for Thornbury and Yate (Steve Webb), is also in his place. I hope that they will listen to the concerns that women are raising.

As for incomes, either by accident or by design the Government’s policies on tax and welfare changes will, as my hon. Friend the Member for Oldham East and Saddleworth mentioned, have twice as much of an impact on women as on men. All incomes are being squeezed during these difficult economic times, but some are being squeezed more than others. That is particularly the case for women and children. Does the Minister for Women and Equalities really believe that it is fair that women are paying the highest price for budget deficit reduction? If not, will she look again at some of the Government’s policies?

My hon. Friends the Members for Leicester West (Liz Kendall) and for Worsley and Eccles South spoke passionately about Sure Start and its tremendous work in all our communities. Many mothers and children rely on the services that Sure Start and our children’s centres offer, and although the hon. Member for Corby (Mrs Mensch) thinks they are failing families, the women and children I talk to in Leeds West and across the country believe that they are making a massive difference. The Government say that that money is protected, but in reality, particularly in northern cities where there are cuts of up to 27% of total spending, it is not possible to ring-fence that money. I ask the Government to look again at ensuring that vital services such as children’s centres and the Sure Start offer are protected.

The latest job figures show that jobseeker’s allowance among women is at its highest level since 1996. As my hon. Friend the Member for Stretford and Urmston said, 474,000 women are now claiming it. Those problems are only likely to get worse. Sixty-five per cent. of public sector workers are women, as are 75% of those working in local government. If the Office for Budget Responsibility’s predictions of 310,000 job losses in the public sector in this Parliament are correct, we can expect a large proportion of those to be among women, meaning that the highest unemployment among women since 1996 will get worse, not better, in the years ahead.

[Jane Ellison]

Given that the deficit is in the public finances, and given what the hon. Lady said about the proportion of women who work in the public sector, how would the Labour plan, which we have yet to hear, address that problem?

[Rachel Reeves]

There are three issues. First, the speed at which we cut the budget deficit; secondly, the timing of the cuts; and thirdly—this is critical to today’s debate—whether the cuts are made fairly. I do not believe that it is fair that two thirds of the cuts fall on women. All Members of the House believe that that is unfair. That is the key point.

The cuts to women’s pensions, Sure Start, child benefit and local services are not inevitable; they are choices that the Government have made. As hon. Members have reminded us this afternoon, they are unfair choices—they penalise women pensioners, mothers, women students, women carers and women in the labour market. By choosing to cut too far and too fast, the Government have embarked on a slash-and-burn approach to the services, protections and benefits that provide the most support—in good and bad times—to women up and down the country.

The Minister will have a chance to respond shortly, but surely the question is this: where was she when the Chancellor decided to slash child benefit? Where was she when the Secretary of State for Education decided to cut Sure Start?