Andrew Griffith
Main Page: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)Department Debates - View all Andrew Griffith's debates with the HM Treasury
(1 year, 10 months ago)
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Andrew Western (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)
The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Andrew Griffith)
Mortgage lenders are required to offer a range of tailored support to borrowers in financial difficulty. The Chancellor and I have made clear our expectation that they live up to those responsibilities.
Mike Amesbury
A typical family are now paying up to £2,000 more for their mortgage, partially as a result of the former Prime Minister. First, will the Chancellor apologise to those people, who number about 20,000 in my constituency? Secondly, will he seriously do something about it?
Andrew Griffith
The Government are supporting households with a £94 billion package of support. We have kept the energy price guarantee for an additional three months and we are bearing down—I hope the hon. Gentleman joins us in doing this—on the biggest cost of living challenge faced by families, which is inflation.
Andrew Western
Thirteen years of failed Tory economic policies, alongside last year’s disastrous mini-Budget, have, as my hon. Friend the Member for Weaver Vale (Mike Amesbury) says, left thousands and thousands of mortgage holders subject to high interest rates and sky-high inflation. So I repeat his call: will any member of the Treasury team have the decency to apologise to the very many hard-pressed families who are currently subject to the Tory mortgage penalty?
Andrew Griffith
Interest rates are not only falling but are still below the level at which they peaked under the last Labour Government, despite the fact that we have had a covid pandemic and war in Ukraine. I welcome the news last week from the Office for Budget Responsibility that the country is on track to avoid a recession, and we must never forget the words of the right hon. Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill (Liam Byrne): there is no money left.
Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)
A competitive and viable banking sector is essential to offer competitive mortgages to constituents right across the country. What assessment has my hon. Friend made of the treatment of additional tier 1 bonds in relation to the Credit Suisse takeover, which could well undermine the sector elsewhere, and what assessment has he made of the value of those bonds here in the UK?
Andrew Griffith
I thank my right hon. Friend for his comments. The Government join the Bank of England in welcoming the comprehensive set of actions taken yesterday by the Swiss authorities to ensure financial stability. It would not be for me to talk from the Dispatch Box about the treatment of creditors, but the UK’s bank resolution framework has a clear statutory order in which shareholders and creditors would bear losses in a resolution or insolvency scenario.
Andrew Griffith
The hon. Member—[Interruption.] Forgive me, the right hon. Member will be aware that interest rates have been increasing globally. Interest rates in the UK are now lower than the equivalent in the US and are lower than they were last autumn. The Government have a range of measures to help hard-pressed mortgage payers, but above all else, our strong stewardship of the economy is bringing down interest rates and means that we are on track to halve inflation this year.
Andrew Griffith
The OBR has confirmed that the UK economy will avoid a technical recession and was the fastest growing economy in the G7 for the past two years.
Mr McFadden
The Minister either does not know or will not say what the total cost was. Is it not interesting that it is always someone else’s fault? One of the first things that the Prime Minister did when he took office was to give in to his Back Benchers on house building targets. The Home Builders Federation now says that the supply of new housing is likely to fall to its lowest level since the second world war—less than half the Government’s target. How will building fewer homes as a result of a back-stairs deal inside the Conservative party help young people in our constituencies who dream of owning their own home and getting on the property ladder?
Andrew Griffith
We share the aspiration of young people to own their own home, but the best way to help them do that is to have a vibrant, growing economy. We are on the side of doing that. We are taking actions that will restore the economy to growth. Every Labour Government who have ever taken office have left unemployment at a higher rate than when they came in.
Stewart Hosie (Dundee East) (SNP)
Last August, there were 75,000 mortgage approvals. That number halved by December. We are all aware of the reports from late last year of the number of mortgage products that were removed and the troubling reports of mortgage offers being withdrawn. Before we even get to the issue of support for mortgage holders, what is the Treasury doing to ensure the availability of mortgages, a good range of mortgage products and an end to offers being withdrawn unless there is a very, very good reason to do so?
Andrew Griffith
We have recently renewed the mortgage guarantee scheme, which helps the availability of high loan to value ratio mortgages. We are looking very clearly at the mortgage market and at things that we can do to help first-time buyers. The right hon. Member should also know that mortgage arrears, which we monitor very closely, remain low. In fact, they are lower now than they were prior to the pandemic.
Stewart Hosie
Of course, 18 months ago a two-year fixed-rate mortgage with a 5% deposit was under 3%. It is now north of 6%. A two-year fixed-interest mortgage with a 25% deposit, which was 1.25%, is now also north of 6%. How can it possibly be fair that somebody buying an average-priced house in Scotland worth around £190,000, putting down a £50,000 deposit, could face an interest rate that has gone up by 500% in that time?
Andrew Griffith
Interest rates are now falling, something the right hon. Gentleman declined to mention. The best thing we can do to help with those interest rates is to deliver on the Prime Minister’s objective of halving inflation, and I am encouraged that we are on track to do so.
Catherine West (Hornsey and Wood Green) (Lab)
Gary Sambrook (Birmingham, Northfield) (Con)
The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Andrew Griffith)
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The measure will help public servants, hospital consultants, prison governors, headteachers and senior police leaders, which is why I agree with the hon. Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting) when he said that removing the cap would save lives and that he himself would scrap the “crazy” cap.
Steven Bonnar (Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill) (SNP)
Andrew Griffith
I welcome the universal credit reforms we have made, and also the fact that under this Government, by raising the basic income tax threshold, we have taken up to 3 million workers out of income tax altogether.
Mr Robin Walker (Worcester) (Con)
Priti Patel (Witham) (Con)
In the light of the current pressures on the international banking system, can the Chancellor give an assurance about and an update on the actions he will be taking to ensure that credit flows to small and medium-sized enterprises, our rural businesses and, indeed, start-ups, because at the end of the day they should never be penalised for the misdemeanours of large banks?
Andrew Griffith
Yes, I can give my right hon. Friend that assurance. This Government are very keen to make sure that there is a strong flow of credit to the very smallest businesses in society.
Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)