Cost of Living

Debate between Sajid Javid and Lindsay Hoyle

Wednesday 27th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Helen Jones]

On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. I note that the Chief Secretary to the Treasury is not present. Can you investigate whether that is because the Lib Dem part of the coalition no longer takes responsibility for economic policy?

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

As the hon. Lady well knows, that is not a point of order. It is certainly not a matter for the Chair and does not want to be. I call the Financial Secretary.

[Sajid Javid]

I give way to my hon. Friend the Member for Bedford (Richard Fuller).

--- Later in debate ---

[Sajid Javid]

I will give way to my hon. Friends in a moment. The Opposition spokesman talked about breaking records, so let us take a quick look at Labour’s record breakers—they are enough to make Roy Castle jump up and down with excitement. Labour gave this country the deepest recession in living memory, and the biggest budget deficit in our post-war history, and the largest in the G20. To answer the question from my hon. Friend the Member for Bedford (Richard Fuller), Labour was borrowing almost £160 billion—£300,000 a minute, or £5,000 every second. Labour gave this country the largest bail-out the world has ever seen. [Interruption.]

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

Order. I find it strange that I cannot hear the Financial Secretary because Government Members are making so much noise. I would have thought they ought to listen to him, just as I wish to hear him.

[Sajid Javid]

I think the House missed hearing about another record breaker that Labour gave this country, which was the largest bank bail-out the world has ever seen. That is Labour’s legacy, and if the Opposition spokesman wants to apologise, he is welcome to do so.

--- Later in debate ---

[Sajid Javid]

The hon. Lady—[Interruption.]

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

Order. The hon. Lady has made her intervention. She cannot keep going.

[Sajid Javid]

The hon. Lady needs to check her figures. She will see that, as I have said, the sharpest rise in the debt-to-GDP ratio took place during the last 10 years of the Labour Government.

Finance Bill

Debate between Sajid Javid and Lindsay Hoyle

Tuesday 2nd July 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Sajid Javid)]

I beg to move amendment 17, page 205, line 7, after ‘(g)’, insert ‘or (4A)’.

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

With this it will be convenient to discuss the following:

Government amendments 18 to 29.

Amendment 52, page 213, line 2, at end insert—

‘(aa) the policy has an annual premium of £3,600 or less.’.

Amendment 53, page 213, line 2, at end insert—

‘(ab) the policy is subject to capital gains tax.’.

[Sajid Javid]

Amendments 17 to 29 make a number of technical changes to schedule 9 and clause 25 to ensure that the qualifying insurance policy regime works as intended. Let me set out some brief background to these changes. The qualifying policy regime was introduced in 1968 to preserve pre-existing tax treatment for traditional moderate value, long-term, regular premium savings policies that contain a significant element of life insurance.

No upper limit was set for the investment premiums that could be paid into a QP, which allowed individuals to obtain unlimited relief from higher rates of income tax. In the 2012 Budget, the Government announced a restriction to the tax relief available for QPs. Clause 25 and schedule 9 introduce an annual premium limit of £3,600 on qualifying life insurance policies. This restriction limits the amount of premiums payable into QPs for an individual to no more than £3,600 in any 12-month period, with effect from 6 April 2013.

This measure supports the Government’s objective of promoting fairness in the tax system by ensuring that tax reliefs for QPs are correctly targeted. Consultation since the Bill was introduced has continued and identified the need for Government amendments to clause 25 to deal with points of detail in 13 areas. None of these represents a change of policy; as I have said, they are technical adjustments to ensure that the rules operate effectively and as intended. The amendments have been discussed with industry representatives and have benefited from the comments received.

Let me briefly explain the amendments in slightly more detail. The purpose of the changes is to provide flexibility to deal with potential future exclusions from the non-assignment rule and potential future exclusions from the circumstances under which beneficiaries must make statements, to extend the period by which an individual must first make a statement and to clarify what information an insurer must provide and obtain from a policy beneficiary and what an insurer must provide to HMRC. In addition, a number of amendments make minor corrections or consequential changes to the more material changes that I have described.

If I may, Mr Deputy Speaker, I will speak to amendments 52 and 53, standing in the name of my hon. Friend the Member for West Worcestershire (Harriett Baldwin), at the end of the debate.

Fuel Duty

Debate between Sajid Javid and Lindsay Hoyle

Monday 12th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

If the hon. Lady is patient, I will give way in a moment—[Interruption.]

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

Order. I do not need an answer back; I am just saying that the hon. Lady does not need to keep jumping to her feet. The Minister has promised to give way, but I do not know whether he is giving way now.

[Sajid Javid]

Not yet.

The hon. Lady does not want me to tell the House what the Labour Government did when they looked at this tax loophole. They declared:

“The Government has considered all the consultation responses and believes that on balance the negative effects of changing existing legislation outweigh the benefits"

To address just this issue, this Government have already strengthened HMRC's enforcement and compliance teams, and protected tens of millions of pounds of revenue. So the nub of today's debate is a call to clamp down on avoidance of a relief that the Opposition declared they could do nothing about, to pay for a cut in fuel duty that they supported. Mr Deputy Speaker, you couldn't make it up.

Beer Duty Escalator

Debate between Sajid Javid and Lindsay Hoyle

Thursday 1st November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that the British brewing sector, British pubs and the British people have paid a heavy price for the previous Government’s beer duty escalator? May I urge him to hold a review and then do what Treasury Ministers have done to the previous Government’s fuel duty escalator, which is to stop it? In that way, he will deserve a celebratory pint from all my constituents in Gloucester, a pint of beer from the—

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

Order. The Minister will not have time to drink the pint if we have such long interventions.

[Sajid Javid]

I thank my hon. Friend, and I will come on to that point.

The Government really do recognise the importance to the British economy of pubs and brewers. I fully support the industry, and I know that Members of all parties would like to see it prosper. We have heard a lot from hon. Members about beer duty, but let us be clear that the previous Government introduced the escalator. They increased beer duty by 60% while they were in office, and in fact for the poorest households it went up by 80%. That was the inheritance that we had to deal with. At the same time, as we all know, we were burdened with a huge budget deficit of £159 billion, or 11% of gross domestic product, which was greater than that of any other developed country. That inevitably meant that the incoming Government had to take some difficult decisions that the Labour party dodged. We had to deal with that legacy.

We set out a clear plan to deal with the deficit, part of which was the planned increase in beer duty rises until 2014-15, about which we have heard so much today. We have announced no changes to that policy. Cancelling the planned 2% duty rise represented by the escalator portion of beer duty would cost £35 million next year and £70 million the following year. If that tax were cancelled, the revenue would have to be recouped one way or another, either through further public spending cuts over and above what is already necessary or by finding increases in other taxes or duties.