Finance Bill

Baroness Penn Excerpts

2nd reading & Committee negatived & 3rd reading
Wednesday 19th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My Lord, I too welcome the noble Baroness, Lady Caine of Kentish Town, who clearly brings a wealth of experience to the House. It is always somewhat strange debating a Finance Bill at this end. We cannot amend it; we do not have much time to make our contributions, and it is five months after the measures were first announced in the Budget and a week ahead of the spring forecast, which will provide us with our next update on the state of the public finances. In October, the Chancellor assured people that the spring forecast would not be a fiscal event, and I think everyone would appreciate it if the Minister could repeat that commitment today.

Perhaps in that context it is little wonder that these debates can range more widely than the contents of the Bill, but I shall try to reward the Minister’s hard work in preparing for the debate by focusing on four measures that are related to the Bill—one for each of my remaining minutes.

The first is the changes to stamp duty, which were touched on by several noble Lords, where the additional relief for first-time buyers has been removed and an additional surcharge for second homes increased. Stamp duty is a terrible tax economically speaking but I understand the temptation to increase it. It was our Government who first introduced an additional rate for second home owners. However, the IFS has said that the measures in the Budget will result in even more unaffordable rents, which is the opposite of what our housing market needs. Does the Government’s assessment of the impact of the stamp duty changes agree with that of the IFS that it will lead to higher rents?

The second measure I want to touch on are the changes to the energy profits levy. What assessment have the Government made of the impact of these changes on investment and jobs in the industry and have they made any assessment of the impact on consumers from lower production? More broadly, what is the cost in forgone revenue of the decision to grant no further North Sea licences? Have the Government made an assessment of the emissions impact of importing more gas to meet our domestic needs as we transition towards low-carbon power?

The third measure is the welcome extension of agricultural property relief to land management schemes, thereby supporting the success of those schemes, as noted by my noble friend Lady Coffey. Of course, that is against the background of the wider concerns about the impact of restricting APR and BPR, announced in the Budget but legislated for elsewhere.

To really understand the impact of these measures, it is important that we understand how much revenue the change to each relief is expected to generate. I asked the Minister this in January, but I think he misheard the question, so I will ask again in the hope of getting a response. Can the Government provide separate estimates for the revenue generated by the changes to APR and the changes to BPR?

Fourthly and finally, the Finance Bill sets unchanged income tax rates and thresholds in England and Northern Ireland for the 2025-26 financial year. At the time of the Budget, the Chancellor said this:

“Having considered the issue closely, I have come to the conclusion that extending the threshold freeze would hurt working people ... I am keeping every single promise on tax that I made in our manifesto, so there will be no extension of the freeze … beyond the decisions made by the previous Government”.—[Official Report, Commons, 30/10/24; col. 821.]


Will the Minister repeat the Chancellor’s pledge today? At PMQs, the Prime Minister failed to do so, so perhaps the Minister can do the Prime Minister’s job for him in this debate.