National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill

Aphra Brandreth Excerpts

Consideration of Lords amendments
Wednesday 19th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[James MacCleary]

I thank my hon. Friend for providing such a concrete example of the real suffering these changes will cause. This is not an abstract thing; it is about real people’s lives, and there are people who will suffer as a result, as in the example given by my hon. Friend.

I will move on to nurseries and early years providers, an issue very close to my heart. In my constituency, they are facing the same impossible squeeze. The rise in national insurance contributions, combined with the increased statutory wage costs, is pushing many to the very brink. The National Day Nurseries Association has warned that the average nursery will see an additional £47,000 in costs, which the Government’s funding increase does not come even close to covering. If nurseries are forced to close, it will leave working parents, who are already struggling with the cost of living, without the childcare they need. If schools are exempt from this tax hike, as they should be, the nurseries that provide the very foundation of a child’s education should be, too.

What makes this even worse is that the Government are not just undermining essential services, but forcing more people towards them by stripping away other forms of support. At the same time as these tax hikes, Ministers are cutting vital benefits such as personal independence payment, leaving thousands of vulnerable people struggling to afford the basics, meaning that more people will have no choice but to turn to the very care providers and community health services that are now being hit financially by these national insurance changes. The Government cannot claim to support essential services while actively driving them towards collapse. They are giving with one hand, while taking much more with the other.

I find that a gauge of the level of enthusiasm and pride that a Government have in a policy they have put forward is often the number of their representatives who turn up to support it and be associated with it. Notwithstanding the heroic contribution of the hon. Member for Loughborough (Dr Sandher), the emptiness of the Government Benches speaks volumes.

The Liberal Democrat Lords amendments before us today would help to prevent irreparable damage to GP practices, care providers and the wider healthcare system. I urge the Minister to back them, because failing to do so will cost not just money, but lives.

[Aphra Brandreth (Chester South and Eddisbury) (Con)]

I draw attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.

The Bill is yet another example of legislation from this Government that breaks their manifesto promises, harms local business, negatively impacts our constituents and limits the prospects of growth in my local economy of Chester South and Eddisbury and, indeed, the country.

Fundamentally, these changes will hit working people the hardest—the very people the Chancellor said would be shielded from the impacts of the Bill will be the most affected. It will mean lower wages, higher unemployment and increased costs for businesses, resulting in higher prices in the shops. Do not just take my word for it: the Office for Budget Responsibility has stated that

“additional payroll costs for employers are passed through into lower wages.”

When I speak with business owners in my constituency, they say they feel like they are swimming against the tide, from the NIC increases to the reduction in business rates relief. The recurring message from every company I speak to is that confidence in the economy is down. I must ask the Minister: how is that conducive to growth?

I will speak to two of the amendments. Exempting hospices from this damaging increase in employer national insurance contributions is the right thing to do. I have had the pleasure of visiting both the hospice of the Good Shepherd in Backford and St Luke’s hospice in Winsford, which provide a vital service to the most vulnerable of my constituents at the most difficult time in their lives. They provide the very best care and support, and I encourage the Minister to visit and see for himself the warm, compassionate and welcoming environment that they offer, which reflects the attitude of the doctors, nurses and, indeed, all the staff who go above and beyond in their work.

The financial implications of an increase in national insurance contributions and the resulting consequences for services and staff will be hugely damaging. Those hospices have shared with me their challenges with recruitment and their deep concern that these tax rises will make paying their staff in line with what their colleagues receive in the NHS even harder than it already is.

[Joe Robertson]

My hon. Friend talks passionately about hospices. Does she agree that taxing hospices but providing tax relief to hospitals through the relief to the NHS actually disincentivises moving people out of hospitals, which the Secretary of State for Health says is his intention?

[Aphra Brandreth]

I completely agree with that excellent intervention. The frustration that hospices have is that in order to recruit staff, they need to pay wages comparable to what NHS staff receive, and this change is making that virtually impossible to do. Hospices requires a highly specialised workforce to provide the levels of care and dignity that they offer to patients. Without the proposed exemptions, I am unsure as to the sustainability of the hospices that serve my constituents.

The second issue I would like to mention briefly is the impact on transport for children with special educational needs. As we know, the complex needs and challenges of SEN children varies from case to case; some will need specialist transport to and from school, for appointments, or just for everyday tasks. Many of these young people are vulnerable children, to whom process and routine matter. They might have a driver with whom they have built a bond and who understands their needs; they might be a highly anxious child, or perhaps a non-verbal child who has a driver who can use British Sign Language.

For my constituents in Chester South and Eddisbury, specialist transport is of the utmost importance. Our communities are isolated and rural, and parents and children rely on this vital service. There are no transport alternatives in many areas. People cannot get a bus—not even one without a specialist driver—leaving many of my villages cut off with no public transport options at all.

[Daisy Cooper]

In my constituency of St Albans, which is not particularly rural, many children with special educational needs have to travel a great distance, because we do not have enough special school places. Does the hon. Member agree that this is an issue that affects children right up and down the country?

[Aphra Brandreth]

The hon. Member makes an important point. It does not matter whether we are talking about a rural or an urban community, these young people often have to travel large distances, and we really need to think about their welfare. In my constituency, they literally have no other option. If we make this service effectively unaffordable, we are just taking away that option from SEN children.

In conclusion, I simply say to the Minister and to Government Members that they should consider the real people behind these decisions, the support that will be taken away from vulnerable people and the vital services that will no longer be affordable because of this inexcusable tax increase.

[Several hon. Members rose—]