Anne McGuire
Main Page: Anne McGuire (Labour - Stirling)Department Debates - View all Anne McGuire's debates with the HM Treasury
(13 years, 3 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Osborne
Of course, the Government want economic growth and prosperity. We want a stable international situation in which we can trade. We have to take account of the fact that major trading partners, such as Germany, France and the United States, have seen either no growth or very limited growth as well. That is the challenge we face. As the right hon. Member for Edinburgh South West (Mr Darling) reminded us at the weekend, we can either have a credible economic policy that takes note of what is going on in the world or, as he put it, we cannot even be at the races.
Mrs Anne McGuire (Stirling) (Lab)
7. What recent assessment he has made of the potential effects on consumer confidence of the change in the basic rate of VAT.
The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (Mr David Gauke)
Sustainable public finances will support confidence in the medium term. Decisive action taken by the Government in the spending review and the June Budget, including the increase in VAT, will put the public finances and spending on a sustainable footing.
Mrs McGuire
The Stirling constituency has a large number of jobs tied up in tourism and hospitality. On 1 July, the Irish Government introduced a temporary reduction in the rate of VAT on goods and services related to the hospitality sector, realising that such a reduction has the potential to kick-start economic growth; indeed, the rate is now 11% less than the VAT rate in the UK. Given stalling UK economic growth figures, does the Minister not accept that he, too, should consider a temporary change in the rate for the sector, and if not, why not?
Mr Gauke
I have had meetings with representatives from the tourism industry at which they have made their case. We will of course keep all taxes under review, but we have to bear in mind the state of the public finances, our limited room for manoeuvre and concerns about adding complexity to our VAT system. None the less, we will look at those arguments.