Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Alison Bennett and James Murray(1 month, 3 weeks ago)
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James Murray
I was pleased to meet Kim McGuinness just last week and to hear about the excellent work she is doing to champion the north-east. On the better futures fund more broadly, we know that the design must truly be a joint endeavour—it must be built up through an open dialogue with a range of different partners who will be involved in the delivery. I reassure my hon. Friend that DCMS’s stakeholder engagement includes mayoral strategic authorities, as they will be part of that process.
Alison Bennett (Mid Sussex) (LD)
The better futures fund rightly targets the needs of vulnerable children, and one such group are those who are subject to adoption or kinship arrangements. Last week the Department for Education announced that it would renew the adoption and special guardianship support fund for one year, but did not say that it would reverse the 40% cuts in per-child funding that were announced in the spring. Does the Minister agree that reversing those cuts is vital for protecting families and keeping children in adoption arrangements, and will he meet adoptive families from Mid Sussex so that he can better understand the benefits to the Treasury that investing in adoptive families will bring?
James Murray
The hon. Member asks about an important matter. As a constituency MP, I have met families who have an interest in the fund and who are in the process of adoption themselves, so I know on a personal level from my constituency work how important it is. What the Department for Education was able to announce last week was important in confirming the extension of the fund, which will offer some certainty to the affected families. I will continue to work with colleagues in the DFE to ensure that we are doing all we can to support those families, who are playing such an important role for their children and for society.
Farming and Inheritance Tax
Debate between Alison Bennett and James Murray(10 months, 3 weeks ago)
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James Murray
Although our policy should discourage the kind of tax planning to which I think the hon. Gentleman refers, the policy is broader than that. It is necessary to balance significant relief from inheritance tax on family farms with the need to fix the public finances, and that is the balanced decision that we have taken with this policy.
Of course, the decision on this tax policy sits alongside the Government’s wider decisions at Budget 2024. There is £5 billion over two years for farming and land management in England, which will help restore stability and confidence in the sector. That includes the largest ever budget directed at sustainable food production and nature recovery in our country’s history. Despite the difficult fiscal inheritance, £60 million of funding has also been prioritised for the farm recovery fund, to support farmers impacted by severe wet weather over the last year.
Alison Bennett (Mid Sussex) (LD)
The Minister rightly mentions the need for more sustainable land management, but is it not the case that the changes to APR will actually undermine the sustainable land management initiatives that farmers in Mid Sussex are trying to deliver every day?
James Murray
No, that is not the case. The Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Cambridge (Daniel Zeichner), who will be responding at the end of this debate, can set out more about what the Government are doing to support farmers in their work on land management across the country.