Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made a recent estimate of the financial support it can offer local authorities in Wales to support them with the costs of the no recourse to public funds restriction.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Funding for local authorities in Wales is a devolved matter, and it is for the Welsh Government to allocate their resources as they see fit in this area. The Welsh Government are accountable to the Senedd for their spending decisions.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 28 March 2024 to Question 20114 on Mortgages, whether he has made an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the Financial Conduct Authority's report entitled, Mortgage Charter uptake data, published on 22 March 2024.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The path to lower interest rates is through low inflation, and the Government is fully committed to supporting the Bank of England get inflation back down to the 2% target, including by keeping borrowing under control.
While the pricing of mortgages is ultimately a commercial decision for lenders in which the Government does not intervene, our plan is working, and the average offered mortgage rates on 2-year and 5-year fixed rates are lower compared to their peak in Summer 2023.
The Government’s Mortgage Charter - in addition to the significant safeguards already in place - is providing support to vulnerable households; and mortgage arrears and repossessions remain low.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the impact of interest rate rises on the affordability of mortgages for low-income mortgage holders.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The path to lower interest rates is through low inflation, and the Government is fully committed to supporting the Bank of England get inflation back down to the 2% target, including by keeping borrowing under control.
While the pricing of mortgages is ultimately a commercial decision for lenders in which the Government does not intervene, our plan is working, and the average offered mortgage rates on 2-year and 5-year fixed rates are lower compared to their peak in Summer 2023.
The Government’s Mortgage Charter - in addition to the significant safeguards already in place - is providing support to vulnerable households; and mortgage arrears and repossessions remain low.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what information his Department holds on the number of (a) mortgage term extensions, (b) interest-only payment switches and (c) repossessions in relation to a mortgaged property since the publication of the Mortgage Charter on 26 June 2023.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government’s Mortgage Charter - in addition to the significant safeguards already in place - is providing support to vulnerable households, and mortgage arrears and repossessions remain low.
On 22 March the Financial Conduct Authority published data on the uptake of the Mortgage Charter since July 2023. (https://www.fca.org.uk/data/mortgage-charter-uptake).
More broadly, there is a wide variety of data and statistics about the mortgage market in the UK available from the Bank of England (https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/statistics), the Financial Conduct Authority (https://www.fca.org.uk/data) and UK Finance (https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/data-and-research/data).
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of the Mortgage Charter on levels of (a) forbearance, (b) arrears and (c) repossessions.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government’s Mortgage Charter - in addition to the significant safeguards already in place - is providing support to vulnerable households, and mortgage arrears and repossessions remain low.
On 22 March the Financial Conduct Authority published data on the uptake of the Mortgage Charter since July 2023. (https://www.fca.org.uk/data/mortgage-charter-uptake).
More broadly, there is a wide variety of data and statistics about the mortgage market in the UK available from the Bank of England (https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/statistics), the Financial Conduct Authority (https://www.fca.org.uk/data) and UK Finance (https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/data-and-research/data).
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Insolvency Service's publication entitled, Commentary - Individual Insolvency Statistics October to December 2023, published on 30 January 2024, if he will make an assessment of the reasons for the increase in breathing space registrations under the Debt Respite Scheme in 2023 as compared with 2022.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government launched the Breathing Space scheme on 4 May 2021. The aim of the scheme is to encourage earlier access to debt advice and enable people in problem debt to get their finances back on track. As of December 2022, over 200,000 people in problem debt have benefited from Breathing Space protections.
The Government is committed to supporting individuals in problem debt. At the Autumn Statement, further support to protect struggling families with the cost of living was announced. This brings the total support for households over 2022/23 to 2024/25 to £104 billion – an average of £3,700 per household. In addition, the Government continues to maintain record levels of funding for the Money and Pensions Service to provide debt advice in England, bringing their debt advice budget to £92.7 million in 2024.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Insolvency Service's publication entitled, Commentary - Individual Insolvency Statistics October to December 2023, published on 30 January 2024, whether his Department is taking steps to help reduce the need for breathing space registrations under the Debt Respite Scheme.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government launched the Breathing Space scheme on 4 May 2021. The aim of the scheme is to encourage earlier access to debt advice and enable people in problem debt to get their finances back on track. As of December 2022, over 200,000 people in problem debt have benefited from Breathing Space protections.
The Government is committed to supporting individuals in problem debt. At the Autumn Statement, further support to protect struggling families with the cost of living was announced. This brings the total support for households over 2022/23 to 2024/25 to £104 billion – an average of £3,700 per household. In addition, the Government continues to maintain record levels of funding for the Money and Pensions Service to provide debt advice in England, bringing their debt advice budget to £92.7 million in 2024.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to page six of the NHS Employers publication entitled Government offer in principle for the NHS Agenda for Change workforce, published in March 2023, whether the Government plans to review the effectiveness of other public sector pay review bodies in the 2023-24 financial year.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Government is committed to the Independent Pay Review Body process, which remains the proper, established mechanism for determining pay in the public sector.
However, the government recognises the importance of keeping the process under review.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, on which dates his Department's pay review body remit letters were (a) circulated and (b) published in each year since 2010.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Pay Review Body (PRB) remit letters, PRB reports and the Government’s responses to those reports for previous years are published on gov.uk.
Remit letters, which commence the pay round were sent out on the 20th December to PRBs covering the major frontline public sector workforces, asking them to consider and make recommendations on the pay of their workforces as normal for 2024-25.
Departments are working on their evidence to PRBs which will be submitted in due course. The Government has outlined the requested date to receive the PRBs reports in the remit letters for this year.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish the (a) commencement letters and (b) date each public sector pay review body was requested to publish its recommendation report for each year since 2010.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Pay Review Body (PRB) remit letters, PRB reports and the Government’s responses to those reports for previous years are published on gov.uk.
Remit letters, which commence the pay round were sent out on the 20th December to PRBs covering the major frontline public sector workforces, asking them to consider and make recommendations on the pay of their workforces as normal for 2024-25.
Departments are working on their evidence to PRBs which will be submitted in due course. The Government has outlined the requested date to receive the PRBs reports in the remit letters for this year.