Oral Answers to Questions

Ben Bradshaw Excerpts

Thursday 1st May 2014 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

My hon. Friend rightly highlights the significant role that BT plays as a huge stakeholder in rolling out superfast broadband around the country. I have already had a meeting with BT in my new role, and I look forward to having further meetings to see how the process can be taken forward.

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

2. If he will meet alleged victims of unethical and unlawful conduct by the press to discuss how to prevent such conduct in the future.

[The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Sajid Javid)]

I support freedom of the press while wanting to ensure that redress is available when mistakes are made, and I will welcome representations from a range of stakeholders who have an interest in the matter. My meetings will, of course, be a matter of public record through the Cabinet Office in the usual way.

[Mr Bradshaw]

I also welcome the right hon. Gentleman to his new job. I think it is probably the best job in government, and I hope he enjoys it.

I was not quite sure from the right hon. Gentleman’s answer whether he will meet victims. I hope he will, because as he will be aware, they are not happy with what has happened since the Leveson report and they are certainly not happy with attempts by some newspapers to set up a replacement for the discredited Press Complaints Commission. Does he agree with the Prime Minister, who said on oath to the Leveson inquiry that the test is

“not: do the politicians or the press feel happy with what we get? It’s: are we really protecting people who have been caught up and absolutely thrown to the wolves by this process”?

[Sajid Javid]

I know that the right hon. Gentleman feels passionately about the issue, and I am sure he recognises that since Lord Leveson’s report was published, we have made significant progress on the issue on a cross-party basis. As he knows, the royal charter has now been granted, and it is now for the press to decide what they wish to do next.

On the issue of meeting alleged victims, if they were to make a formal request, I would give it serious consideration.

Investing in Britain’s Future

Ben Bradshaw Excerpts

Thursday 27th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

The precise details of where the money will be spent will be for the Environment Agency to develop, but the purpose of announcing this funding now is precisely to help communities such as my hon. Friend’s to ensure they are not in danger of flooding in future.

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

My constituents in Exeter saw under the last Government five new high schools, several new primary schools and a new medical school, but so far, in more than three years, they have seen absolutely nothing of what this Government have promised on infrastructure. Why should they believe anything the right hon. Gentleman has said today, given his appalling record at delivering what he has already promised?

[Danny Alexander]

If the right hon. Gentleman were giving a balanced account, he would also have referred to the flood defences we are investing in, and the local road project around Exeter that has been completed.

Finance (No. 4) Bill

Ben Bradshaw Excerpts

Wednesday 18th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

I rise to support new clause 7 in my name and those of several other right hon. and hon. Members.

The upkeep of our beautiful and historic buildings is vital to the preservation of Britain’s unique cultural heritage, and it is often done, particularly in the case of churches, thanks to tireless fundraising by volunteers. Raising VAT from 0% to 20% on alterations to our churches and other historic buildings, at the same time as the Government are making fundraising harder with their cap on philanthropy, represents a double whammy to our heritage sector and a dreadful blow to our historic churches—and cathedrals, in particular.

Our great churches and cathedrals are not just historic piles of bricks and mortar or even just places of worship for the few. They are among our most important tourist attractions, bringing thousands of overseas visitors to Britain every year, and well-run major churches and cathedrals, such as the stunning cathedral in Exeter, open their doors constantly to the local community and provide a vital public service. They are our greatest physical symbol of the big society.

I can think of countless occasions in Exeter—for example, a service of thanks for the work of the Royal Marines in Afghanistan, or a funeral for a local teenager tragically murdered—when the cathedral has been packed to the rafters with local people in celebration or in grief. It is a unique service not provided by any other institution.

[Nicholas Soames (Mid Sussex) (Con)]

I wholly support the point that the right hon. Gentleman is making, and does he agree with me that the issue is about not just cathedrals, but small village churches with, in many cases, small congregations, who go to great efforts to raise large sums of money to make their facilities more usable for the rest of the community? Does he agree also that the proposed change is a pretty poor advertisement for the big society?

[Mr Bradshaw]

I absolutely agree.

The Government, in their consultation document, claim that the impact of the change on churches will be small, but that is not the case. Some 45% of grade I listed buildings in England are maintained by the Church of England, including 42 cathedrals. Their upkeep is incredibly expensive, and there are no central funds available for building maintenance.

A very large proportion of the alterations made to churches are about making them easier for the community to use, including, for example, installing disabled toilets, kitchens and so on, but the charge will also hit traditional skills and crafts, such as bell hanging and organ building. About £100 million is spent on those works annually, and imposing 20% VAT on them will add £20 million a year to those bills. In reality, much of the work will simply stop, and that will hit local churches, local communities and the building trade—and it will not raise a single extra penny for the Treasury.

The Prime Minister said earlier today at Prime Minister’s questions that the Government would be giving churches the money that they need to make up the loss, but that is also not the case. The compensation being offered in the Budget by extending the listed places of worship grant scheme, which currently refunds the VAT liable on repairs, is a wholly inadequate way to meet the extra cost that the VAT rise will create.

The Government have already cut the listed places of worship grant scheme by a massive two thirds, from £23 million to £7 million a year, and it already covers less than half the cost of current repairs.

[Jonathan Ashworth (Leicester South) (Lab)]

I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for giving way, and I suppose I should declare an interest as a patron of the St Peter’s project in my constituency, where we are trying to raise funds to make much-needed alterations and renovations to St Peter’s church in Highfields. There are already considerable pressures on the listed places of worship grant scheme, which is a very good scheme, but one problem with it is that when a church applies to it there is no certainty about the amount of grant that it will receive. Now that this change is being made, those pressures are only going to increase.

[Mr Bradshaw]

My hon. Friend is exactly right. As I said, the grant already covers only less than half of the cost of repairs, and the £5 million that is being offered to extend it to alterations covers only a quarter of the likely annual cost of those alterations.

A number of churches and cathedrals have already put on hold schemes that were planned or under way. My own cathedral in Exeter faces having to raise several hundred thousand pounds more for its exciting cloister project. The wife of the dean of Wakefield cathedral, which faces an extra £200,000 of costs for alterations, has famously composed a protest song about the VAT hike. The lovely little church in the small Herefordshire village of Llangarron, at which I attended Easter Eucharist, will have to find an extra £60,000 for a project that has been in the pipeline for seven years.

As 26 deans of cathedrals wrote in an unprecedented letter to The Sunday Times on Sunday, this change will seriously jeopardise the sustainability of many of our great buildings, not only for present-day use but for that of future generations. I urge the Government to think again on this very important matter, and I hope, Ms Primarolo, that you will help to facilitate the expression of the will of the House on it shortly.

[Mr David Davis (Haltemprice and Howden) (Con)]

I want to associate myself with the comments made by my right hon. Friend the Member for East Yorkshire (Mr Knight), by my hon. Friend the Member for Beverley and Holderness (Mr Stuart), and by my right hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle (Alan Johnson); I embarrass him again by calling him that. The proposal for VAT on static caravans will have a seriously deleterious effect on all of east Yorkshire, including Hull, dramatically cutting employment in the area at a time when we are trying to encourage growth and to balance the books. This proposal will do neither; in fact, it will reverse both.

This is a Finance Bill; the aim is to raise money. The latest estimates of the employment impact of this measure are that it will result in 4,000 to 7,500 job losses, of which 1,500 to 2,000 will be in the vicinity of our constituencies. The effect of that in financial terms is pretty straightforward to calculate. The Government estimate that they will raise £30 million to £40 million in VAT from this change. They will lose between £32 million and £65 million in lost national insurance, lost inland revenue, and extra welfare costs. It will therefore do the opposite of what the Budget is attempting to do. When I put that point to the Treasury, people said to me: “We don’t calculate things in that way.” That might sound silly, but there is a substantive point behind it—as I am sure that the shadow Chancellor, who is smiling, will know. Usually when one introduces a tax change that leads to job losses, people will, in due course, find another job. In east Yorkshire, two of the three Hull seats have dramatically high unemployment levels already, and the ratio of jobs available to unemployed people seeking them is one of the highest in the country. As a result, the resulting unemployment will not be short term but is likely to last for more than five years. We should calculate the effects of the proposal in this way because, for the foreseeable future, it will cost more than it will raise.

Budget Leak Inquiry

Ben Bradshaw Excerpts

Thursday 22nd March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gauke]

In the interests of brevity, Mr Speaker, I agree.

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

Given the failure of Ministers to admit whether they will benefit from the cut in the top rate of tax and the description by the Chancellor of tax avoidance as “morally repugnant”, will the Exchequer Secretary now ensure that all Ministers’ tax arrangements are published?

[Mr Gauke]

We do not have a tradition of politicians publishing their tax affairs, but I have to say that for a Labour politician to say that in the context of the current mayoral election takes some nerve.

Eurozone Crisis

Ben Bradshaw Excerpts

Thursday 3rd November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hoban]

We would lose our seat on the IMF board; we would lose credibility in international economic debates; and we would lose our influence on measures to solve global economic problems. We would become marginalised—rather like Labour Members when it comes to their contributions to economic debates.

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

In 2009, when the world faced economic catastrophe after the banking collapse, there was real leadership at the G20 summit in London, which helped to avert a disaster and put Britain back on to a path of growth. Where is that leadership now, and where is the plan for growth?

[Mr Hoban]

I thought that the outcomes of that G20 summit were very impressive. I particularly welcomed the achievement of the previous Prime Minister in agreeing a commitment to treble the resources available to the IMF, but the right hon. Gentleman, along with his colleagues, voted against that commitment.

Financial Assistance (Ireland)

Ben Bradshaw Excerpts

Monday 22nd November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

Yes, I do. Ireland’s links are not just with Northern Ireland, they are also with Wales, Scotland and England. The Irish banks were of course engaged in lending into the UK economy, UK banks have engaged in lending into the Irish economy, and many companies export to each other’s countries. We are deeply interconnected, which is why I have proposed this set of measures.

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

Does the right hon. Gentleman not have the tiniest smidgen of regret about what he used to say about the Irish economic model?

[Mr Osborne]

I seem to remember plenty of Labour Ministers standing at the Dispatch Box praising what Ireland was doing to make itself competitive, to reduce its corporate tax rates and to create a flexible labour market. That is the tragedy—it did so much in that direction to make itself competitive, but it did not properly regulate its banking system. We in the UK know the price of that.