Oral Answers to Questions

Bill Esterson Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Tulip Siddiq]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. Having served as a local councillor for many years, I very much recognise the problem that he describes. I am sorry to hear about this troubling situation, and I will refer his comments to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and make sure that he gets the response he should have had before.

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

The Minister refers to the £22 billion black hole in the public finances left by the last Government, and which they hid from the British public. Does that not highlight just how important it is to ensure transparency and independent analysis of economic decisions?

[Tulip Siddiq]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question. Upon taking office, as he says, we discovered a £22 billion black hole in the public finances that had been left by the previous Government, and we have now uncovered a litany of unfunded Conservative spending commitments. We recently learned that the deficit is now £4.7 billion higher than the OBR forecast in March because of the previous Government’s economic recklessness. We will rectify this, and we will set out a clear spending plan, and an ambitious plan to get the country back into stable economic conditions, at the Budget.

Public Spending: Inheritance

Bill Esterson Excerpts

Monday 29th July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

I call Bill Esterson.

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

Welcome to your place, Madam Deputy Speaker.

It was not just the public finances that the Conservatives mismanaged over 14 years; they failed to support industry too. Figures published today demonstrate that Britain has dropped out of the top 10 countries for manufacturing for the first time since the industrial revolution. I welcome my right hon. Friend’s commitment to leveraging millions more in private investment to make up for the record low levels of private investment we saw under the previous Government. Does she agree that the latest manufacturing figures show how critical it is that the Government work closely with business and trade unions on a long-term industrial strategy?

[Rachel Reeves]

I too saw the numbers today that show that Britian is out of the top 10 manufacturing countries, which is shameful given our history at the heart of the industrial revolution. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for his work, which ensured that Labour went into the election as the most pro-business party. Through the reforms that we have already announced in our first three weeks in government—planning reforms, the creation of a national wealth fund, reform of our pension system and a modern industrial strategy—we will go about making Britain the best place to start and grow a business, and the best place to invest. We look forward to holding our international investment summit in the UK later this year.

Economy, Welfare and Public Services

Bill Esterson Excerpts

Monday 22nd July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Hunt (Godalming and Ash) (Con)]

I beg to move an amendment, at the end of the Question to add:

“but humbly regret that there is no mention in the Gracious Speech of the improved economic conditions the Government is inheriting, with the fastest recorded growth in the G7, inflation at the Bank of England’s target for the second month in a row, and unemployment at half the rate that it was in 2010; further regret that there is no mention of how to make necessary savings on welfare; urge the Government to meet the commitment set out in the Labour Party’s manifesto not to raise taxes on working people; regret that the Gracious Speech fails to make a commitment not to use changes to reliefs to raise taxes; and call on the Government to increase income tax thresholds to prevent income tax from being charged on the State Pension.”

It is an important and rather painful part of our democracy that today I am a shadow Chancellor, responding to the King’s Speech in exactly the same way that the new Chancellor responded to me just a few months ago, so I start by congratulating her, as well as Mr and Mrs Reeves. As the father of two girls, one of whom has her 10th birthday today, I warmly welcome the smashing of a glass ceiling by Britain’s first female Chancellor. As I said on election night, she has led the Labour party on a difficult journey, which has changed it for the better. Her stated commitment to fiscal responsibility, stability and economic growth has been consistent and, I am sure, not always easy. Unfortunately for us, her success in holding the line means that we face rather a lot of Labour MPs on the Government Benches, but I wish her well in her new role.

I also commend to the right hon. Lady the superb Treasury officials she now inherits, and put on record my gratitude to them the excellent work they did for me, staying up in the middle of the night ahead of fiscal events, engaging in tense negotiations with spending Departments—and occasionally, it has to be said, with No. 10—bringing me endless flat whites and Pret lunches to keep me going and, most of all, making my family feel welcome in the goldfish bowl that is Downing Street. It is part of the magic of democracy that those same officials have seamlessly transferred their allegiance from me to her, and I know that they will serve her extremely well.

In opposition, we will not oppose for its own sake, and there are a number of Bills in the King’s Speech that we welcome. The right hon. Lady is right to focus on growth, and the improvements on planning will build on many reforms introduced by the last Government, including the 110 growth measures I introduced in last year’s autumn statement. Any boost to house building is also welcome. We delivered 1 million homes in the last Parliament, and she will soon find out that if she is to deliver 1.5 million, she will not be able to duck reforming environmental regulations—a change that Labour blocked in the last Parliament but will deliver an extra 100,000 homes. I caution her not to over-rely on bringing back top-down targets. In the end, we will build more houses only if we change attitudes to new housing, and that is unlikely to happen if unpopular targets are steamrollered through local communities.

We will also look carefully at the right hon. Lady’s Budget Responsibility Bill. We are proud that a Conservative Government set up the Office for Budget Responsibility, and I commend the work of Richard Hughes and his team. We did not always agree, but in the end, that is the point of an independent watchdog. We all understand the politics of a Bill that allows the Government to make endless references to the mini Budget, but if the right hon. Lady is really committed to fiscal responsibility alongside growth, I hope that she will today confirm that she will not fiddle with the five-year debt rule to allow increased debt through the back door. We—and, it has to be said, markets—will be monitoring the overall level of debt very carefully to make sure that that does not happen. I also hope that she will commission the OBR to do 10-year forecasts of our long-term growth rate rather than five-year forecasts, as at present, in order to bake long-term decision making into Treasury thinking.

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

The shadow Chancellor was talking just now about fiscal responsibility. During the election campaign, he committed to a series of tax cuts, but I noticed that yesterday on Laura Kuenssberg’s show he said that it would not have been possible for him to proceed with those tax cuts. What has changed, and why did he make that commitment during the election campaign, knowing full well that he could not afford to carry it out?

[Jeremy Hunt]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for that intervention, because it allows me to explain why he is completely mistaken in what he is saying. We offered a set of carefully and fully funded tax cuts—unlike the £38.5 billion of unfunded spending commitments that came from the Labour party—but we always said that they would be brought in over time over the next Parliament. We did not make a commitment that they would come in immediately, and indeed they would not have. We would have done it in a responsible way.

When it comes to dubious claims, the new Chancellor herself has been making some that do not withstand scrutiny. She said, for example, that the economy would have been £140 billion bigger if we had matched the average OECD growth rate, but she knows that the OECD is a diverse group of 38 countries, including many with economies very different from our own, such as Turkey, Mexico or Luxembourg. A much more meaningful comparison is with other similar G7 economies, which shows that since 2010 we have grown faster than France, Italy, Germany and Japan. Indeed, the International Monetary Fund says that thanks to difficult measures taken by the last Conservative Government, we will grow faster than any of those four countries, not just in the short term but over the next six years. One reason for that is our record on attracting investment.

Since 2010, greenfield foreign direct investment has been higher in the UK than anywhere in the world except the United States and China. In the last year alone, Nissan, Jaguar Land Rover, Tata, BMW Mini, Google and Microsoft have all voted for the UK with their dollars, not least because of cuts in business taxation, such as full expensing, introduced by the last Government. If the Chancellor now looks for back-door ways to increase business taxation, as many fear, she will risk the UK’s attractiveness to foreign investors, of which she is now the beneficiary.

Financial Services Reforms

Bill Esterson Excerpts

Tuesday 11th July 2023 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Griffith]

My hon. Friend, who knows so much and speaks so lucidly for Cities of London and Westminster, is absolutely right. These are a bold and ambitious set of reforms. They will not just help communities across the whole of the United Kingdom—I never fail to remind the House that financial services touch almost every constituency—but continue to underwrite the strong and leading position of the City of London, which she so ably represents.

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

It is always fascinating to hear Ministers justifying their failure over the last 13 years. The Minister would do well to recognise that business investment is at a record low in this country. One way to address the record low in business investment is to listen to the professional services sector, which says that a mutual recognition agreement with the EU would increase that performance and contribution. Why have the Government made no progress on that mutual recognition agreement?

[Andrew Griffith]

I am enormously proud of the fact that we have recently reached agreement with all the member nations of the European Union on the memorandum of understanding in respect of financial services. That joins a number of such agreements, all of which have the objective of seeking access to as many of the growing markets in the world as possible for our financial and professional services. Only last week I met my opposite number, the German deputy Finance Minister, and next week I will be meeting the Luxembourg Finance Minister.

Mortgage Charter

Bill Esterson Excerpts

Monday 26th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Hunt]

The truth is that Members can pick countries in Europe where things have not been as severe as they have here, but they can also pick countries in Europe where things have been more severe, such as the 14 EU countries that have higher core inflation.

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

The Chancellor is not going to get off with not answering that question. We are going to keep asking him again and again until he answers. Why is it that people are paying £800 less in Germany, £1,000 less in Ireland and Belgium, and £2,000 less in France than they are paying here? What is it that their Governments and their economies are doing differently—or is it just that they do not have the problem of 13 years of this Tory Government? What is behind it?

[Jeremy Hunt]

Let me give the same answer that I gave to the hon. Member for Chesterfield (Mr Perkins). Core inflation is higher in more than half the EU countries, so it is not just about us.

UK Infrastructure Bank Bill [Lords]

Bill Esterson Excerpts

2nd reading
Tuesday 1st November 2022 Commons Chamber

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

Labour supports the creation of the UK Infrastructure Bank, and we support the Bill’s placing the bank on a statutory footing. In Committee, we will want to see changes to ensure that the bank focuses on strategically important areas, not least energy efficiency, nature-based solutions and job creation. We will also want to see changes to the governance of the bank, for example ensuring that there is a workers’ representative on the board of the bank.

This Government have a terrible record on infrastructure over the last 12 years, whether it is their cancellation of Northern Powerhouse Rail or their dismal failure to invest in renewable energy or take decisions on new nuclear. Their lack of strategy and planning was also shown when they closed the UK’s gas storage facility. Indeed, these 12 years of failure on infrastructure are central to the Conservative Government’s failures of low growth, low productivity and low investment.

Those 12 years of failure were also the prelude to the disastrous mini-Budget of 23 September. The Bank of England was forced to step in four times to support financial stability and rescue pensions, and there was criticism of the UK Government by the International Monetary Fund. Interest rates went through the roof, there was huge volatility in the pound and inflation is higher than in comparable countries. So, yes, the Conservatives crashed the economy. The result is higher mortgage payments for households, higher borrowing costs for businesses, chaos from the Government, crisis for ordinary people and crisis for the economy. The economic failure by the Conservatives has left the UK ill-prepared for the current energy crisis, pushing up bills and risking energy shortages.

A strategic approach to infrastructure is essential, and it is Labour’s industrial strategy that follows the evidence from across the economy. Unlike the Conservatives, our plan follows evidence from around the world. At the heart of our plan is Labour’s green energy plan. We will invest in the energy sources of the future. Our plan will deliver self-sufficiency in renewable energy by doubling onshore wind, trebling solar and quadrupling offshore wind, all supported by the creation of a publicly owned “Great British Energy” company. Our plan will create half a million jobs in renewable energy and a further half a million jobs in insulating 19 million homes over 10 years. Our plan will invest in the technologies and industries of the future, from EV charging points, supporting a burgeoning electric car industry, to clean steel and developing shorter, more resilient supply chains. Our plan will create jobs, cut bills and deliver energy security, and it will transform our prospects after 12 years of economic failure by this Government.

The UK Infrastructure Bank has to take a long-term view in the national interest. So what is the Government’s record? The sale of the green investment bank to private equity, yesterday’s distressing news about Britishvolt and the failure of the green homes grant scheme—all mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing North (James Murray) and all examples of where the UK Infrastructure Bank could do so much better to ensure a greater chance of success with the right strategic mandate.

What should be the approach of the UK Infrastructure Bank? Labour’s industrial strategy will deliver prosperity through partnership: the Government working with business and trade unions to create thriving businesses, prosperous workers and successful communities that benefit from investment in the whole country and from a strategy that supports the everyday economy as well as those in advanced manufacturing. The question for this Government is whether their approach to the UK Infrastructure Bank matches the scale of our ambition.

It is worrying that, just last week, the Prime Minister answered a question about onshore wind by talking about offshore wind. I wonder whether he understands the difference. His refusal to end the moratorium on onshore wind is telling, and it certainly is not an indication that this Government intend to make a bold, ambitious commitment to benefiting from the opportunities of a low-carbon economy. A good test of whether this Government really are committed to infrastructure investment is whether the new bank will deliver the decarbonisation we need and whether it will enable this country not just to survive but to thrive, by making the most of the massive economic opportunities available from the energy transition.

We have exciting technologies in wind, solar, tidal, carbon capture and storage, nuclear and hydrogen. Will the bank give investors the confidence they need to develop the benefits for our domestic economy and for export markets, too? So far, the bank has faced criticism for following the market rather than setting new strategic priorities for big infrastructure projects. Will the bank really support local and regional economic growth? After 12 years of failure, people can be forgiven for being somewhat sceptical.

An industrial strategy is a partnership between Government, employers and workers. In government, we enshrined partnership working in the Olympic Delivery Authority to ensure good local jobs, and to ensure that those jobs were central to the construction of Olympic facilities. We set up the Automotive Council with employers and trade unions to protect local jobs. We will be pursuing amendments in Committee to enshrine a commitment to local jobs in the bank’s remit, and we will push for worker representation on the board. That is the recommendation of E3G, which says that a diverse representation includes workers. Partnership in a successful economic and industrial strategy depends on worker representation. We will follow the evidence in our approach. Our amendments in Committee will push this Government to do so, too. Labour’s approach to infrastructure and industrial strategy is through partnership. We recognise that success will follow when Government work with business and with workers.

Investing in infrastructure in a low-carbon future can deliver across the country, not least because of how the exciting opportunities are geographically spread. It can deliver prosperity in every community. The jobs in insulating 19 million homes will, by definition, be created in every community, especially in those with the poorest housing stock, which are those with the greatest need of good jobs as well as warmer homes. We can transform our prospects at home and through the export potential of new technologies. But the bank has to be on a sound footing, alongside a strategy and with objectives that are consistent with the way the bank is set up. We support the creation of the bank. It is a great way for us to implement our plans in government. It is a great way to give businesses and investors certainty. It is a great way of offering prosperity to communities through the creation of new jobs. But the bank has to be allowed to be ambitious, to push for new opportunities and to set the market, not just follow it. That is what an industrial strategy does. It is what Government can contribute to as a partner, where business would otherwise struggle to attract investment. It is also how to transform our economy, our country and our communities.

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)]

I welcome the Minister back to the Dispatch Box.

Oral Answers to Questions

Bill Esterson Excerpts

Tuesday 17th May 2022 Commons Chamber

[Helen Whately]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to campaign for better access to stations for disabled people. I am pleased to confirm that Chalkwell is included in the Department for Transport’s £350 million Access for All programme, and that construction will begin to install a new footbridge and lift this autumn.

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

The Government have cut the infrastructure that they promised at the last election, not least in Northern Powerhouse Rail. The economy needs greater rail capacity for passengers and freight, so does not this great rail betrayal show that the Government are not interested in the infrastructure needed for the economy in the north and the midlands to thrive?

[Helen Whately]

I simply do not recognise the picture that the hon. Member is painting. This Government are absolutely committed to investing in infrastructure because that is at the heart of our ambitions for economic growth and levelling up across the country, including £96 billion for the integrated infrastructure rail plan for the north of the country.

Oral Answers to Questions

Bill Esterson Excerpts

Tuesday 15th March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Frazer]

As my hon. Friend knows, we have introduced a range of measures to support families, both working and not working. The price of energy is now set until the autumn, and a significant amount of money is going in now and in the autumn.

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

7. What recent steps he has taken to help reduce economic inequality.

[The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Lucy Frazer)]

Work is the best route out of poverty. We are investing more than £6 billion in labour market support over the next three years to help people to move into and progress in work. In addition, analysis published at the last autumn Budget shows that in 2024-25, tax, welfare and spending decision since the 2019 spending review will have benefited the poorest households the most as a percentage of income.

[Bill Esterson]

But real wages are falling by the largest amount since 2014, inflation is set to hit 8% and the energy price cap is going up. In the cause of fairness and sound economics, when will the Financial Secretary and her colleagues admit that it makes sense to use the record profits of North sea oil and gas to help ordinary people, who face a cost of living crisis?

[Lucy Frazer]

The hon. Gentleman knows from the statistics announced this morning that wages are up in real terms compared with pre-pandemic levels. In fact, unemployment is now almost back to pre-pandemic levels, and is lower than in Canada, France, Italy, Spain and Australia. On his specific question, the North sea oil industry already contributes additional taxes through a 40% rate, which is double the amount that other corporations pay.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lucy Frazer]

My hon. Friend is right to highlight the effect of a high effective tax rate on incentives to work. That is why the Government reduced the universal credit taper rate from 63% to 55% and increased the universal credit work allowance by £500 per year, which is essentially a tax cut for the lowest-paid, worth more than £2 billion in 2022-23, and means that 1.9 million households will keep an extra £1,000 per year on average.

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

T4.   Waste recycling businesses face an increase in tax on red diesel of thousands of pounds per month from April. I take it that the Chancellor agrees that waste recycling has important economic as well as environmental benefits, so what plans has he to address the sudden rise in costs for businesses that process and reuse waste materials?

[The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (Helen Whately)]

The changes to the taxation of red diesel were announced back in 2020, were confirmed in spring 2021 and are coming in this year, so businesses, including in the sector that the hon. Member refers to, have had plenty of time to prepare. It is absolutely right that we tax fuels that are highly polluting; unfortunately, diesel is one of them.

Draft Consumer Scotland Act 2020 (Consequential Provisions and Modifications) Order 2022

Bill Esterson Excerpts

Wednesday 8th December 2021 General Committees

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mrs Murray—I was elected at the same time as you, but I think this is the first time we have been in this situation. I congratulate the Whip-cum-Minister on her fine delivery of her notes, on a subject that, it is fair to say, both she and I are coming to quite late in the day—this is not my normal brief either. I thank her for confirming my understanding of what the statutory instrument covers, and I have a few questions for her. I understand that she may be able to answer some of them today and that, if not, she will do so in writing later.

The SI was laid as a result of the Consumer Scotland Act 2020, which established Consumer Scotland as a non-ministerial body of the Scottish Administration. It makes provisions in consequence of the Act, which established Consumer Scotland as the body responsible for the devolved areas of consumer advocacy and advice in Scotland. That is the point the Minister made, and I will be teasing out the practical realities as well as the theoretical position that the SI sets out.

The SI is required to ensure that the Scottish Administration’s role in dealing with consumer advocacy is reflected in relevant UK legislation, as well as to amend legislation outside the competence of the Scottish Parliament that will allow Consumer Scotland to fulfil its new role in dealing with consumer advocacy and advice. I understand that this will largely involve changing references to Citizens Advice Scotland to Consumer Scotland. The SI is not controversial, and we support the establishment of Consumer Scotland as a non-ministerial body of the Scottish Administration. We support the SI because it puts Consumer Scotland on a statutory footing.

Scottish consumers must have their interests fully represented, so we welcome the fact that through this SI there is a heightened duty for public bodies in Scotland to tackle consumer concerns and manage trust in business. Consumer Scotland will have responsibilities across reserved and devolved areas, and it is critical that the UK and Scottish Governments work together. Sadly, the SNP and the Conservatives have been more interested in constitutional wrangling than working in the shared interests of people in Scotland. Labour believes that consumer interests are of high importance and that all political parties should champion the interests of consumers by supporting the work of Consumer Scotland. Let us hope that the other parties in Scotland also recognise the importance of supporting consumer rights, as opposed to spending their time on constitutional matters.

I wish to ask the Minister a few questions about the SI and about wider consumer advocacy and protection in Scotland. The success of Consumer Scotland will be in how it acts and to what extent it protects and upholds the interests of consumers. It cannot be another Scottish Government quango. What assessments has the Minister made to ensure that Consumer Scotland’s statutory powers will be impactful and will be implemented to make a meaningful contribution in terms of being on the side of Scottish consumers? Have she or her colleagues discussed with their counterparts in the Scottish Government how Consumer Scotland can be proactive as well as reactive, not only protecting consumers from harm but educating them so that they can avoid being harmed? What relevant impact assessments have been made on the new body by the Scottish Government? What discussions have the Minister or her colleagues had with Scottish Ministers about the devolved areas affected by this SI—energy, water and postal services?

We support the Minister in laying this SI before Parliament. Labour supports the creation of Consumer Scotland, and we believe that public bodies have a responsibility to drive up industry standards and to protect and empower consumers.

Oral Answers to Questions

Bill Esterson Excerpts

Tuesday 7th December 2021 Commons Chamber

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

Florence Roby Ltd was turned down when it bid for Government contracts for personal protective equipment last year, despite a 50-year track record of high-quality production. It was not asking for special favours; all it wanted was a fair chance of winning Government contracts. Some £3.5 billion was handed out to friends and donors of the Conservative party through a VIP lane. That is in stark contrast to the experience of Florence Roby Ltd. When will good people such as my constituents get access not to a VIP lane, but to a level playing field?

[Mr Simon Clarke]

We worked at speed to secure the PPE needed to protect our frontline workers, and we supplied over 58,000 different healthcare settings. We now have a four-month stockpile of all critical PPE to make sure that the NHS can continue to be protected. All these bids are assessed in line with standard guidance to make sure that there is total equity in that process. Any suggestion to the contrary is fundamentally misleading.