Finance (No. 3) Bill

Debate between Andrew Percy and Chris Leslie

Monday 4th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Chris Leslie]

I must correct the hon. Lady. I know that there is a review of sorts going on, but it relates to credit card lending and high bank charges on lending. The letter that my hon. Friend the Member for Walthamstow (Stella Creasy) received in May from the Under-Secretary said that the high-cost credit market

“was not specifically included in the call for evidence”

for the current review. That was what the letter of 25 May said—from the same Minister, incidentally, who refused to meet my hon. Friend.

The Financial Secretary is far too relaxed about this issue, and the Government are not exercised enough about it.

[Andrew Percy]

rose—

[Chris Leslie]

Members of all parties, including the hon. Gentleman, to whom I may give way in a moment, have made the point that there is great concern among our constituents in our surgeries about the real suffering and punitive charges that they sometimes face. The organisations in question admittedly engage in legal lending, but their activity feels immoral to many of us.

My hon. Friend the Member for Makerfield (Yvonne Fovargue) said that help from the financial inclusion fund ought to be there for our constituents. The Minister tried to explain that that fund will remain for another nine months, but as my hon. Friend said, it will end, and for those who struggle even to open the envelopes containing the bills as they stack up, there is no substitute for such face-to-face advice. The Government need to do better to ensure that face-to-face advice services remain and do not fall away when the cuts to them are compounded by local authority cuts.