Public Appointees (Tax Arrangements)

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd May 2012 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

I am interested to hear that there are particularly egregious offenders in North Tyneside and am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for drawing that to the House’s attention. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has of course drawn this process to the attention of all local authorities precisely to get them to show a transparency similar to that which we have shown with the review today, and I very much hope that they will all follow that example. It is for HMRC to decide whether it wishes to investigate an individual case and whether there is a case to answer. As I have said, the existence of these arrangements does not in itself demonstrate that tax avoidance is taking place, because it is perfectly possible for the arrangements to be in place and for the proper amount of tax to be paid. The problem is a lack of transparency, so getting people to publish the information so that HMRC can decide whether it wishes to investigate must be the right process to go through.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

I welcome my right hon. Friend’s statement. Everyone wants to see public servants paying their right and fair share of tax. I respect the fact that he cannot investigate the tax affairs of all the individuals concerned, given the scale of this activity and the length of time it has been going on for, but what estimate has he made of the total loss that would be caused to the Exchequer if all these people used this legal means to avoid paying tax?

[Danny Alexander]

I am grateful for my hon. Friend’s welcome for this work. I am sure that he would not wish Ministers to investigate the tax affairs of individuals, as that way would lie ruin for the country. I cannot make such an estimate for the reason behind my previous comment: taxpayer affairs are confidential and it is for HMRC to deal with particular cases when it finds that avoidance is taking place. What I can say is that there is a very large number of cases and that this relates to the wider question of consultancy and contingent labour in government. He might be interested to know that in 2009-10 the previous Government spent £2.4 billion on contingent labour of various sorts. In 2010-11, thanks to the additional controls on consultancy that we put in place, we reduced that to £1 billion, and I expect the bill to be reduced further in 2011-12. There are things that central Government can do to reduce dramatically those costs across government, and that is precisely what the coalition Government are seeking to do.

Oral Answers to Questions

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Tuesday 24th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gauke]

Of course, we will listen to the representations that are made, and my right hon. Friend has made representations to me on behalf of his constituents. We are seeking to have a fairer VAT system, but of course we want to listen to those concerns that are raised about the implementation of these matters.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

12. Whether he plans to re-establish the euro preparations unit within his Department.

[The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr George Osborne)]

My hon. Friend asks whether we plan to re-establish the euro preparations unit in the Treasury, and the answer is no we do not.

[Bob Blackman]

I am delighted that we, unlike the Labour party, are committed not to join that foreign currency, which is failing at the present time. No doubt my right hon. Friend, before he became Chancellor, calculated the cost of the unit. How many police, doctors or nurses could we employ for the money that was wasted?

[Mr Osborne]

I only have the figures for the Treasury, but of course other Departments were also embarked on that Labour scheme. The Treasury spent £5 million on the civil servants required for the euro preparations unit, and that for example would pay for 17 nurses and five consultants. I guess, given that the Labour leader is committed to joining the euro, the unit would be re-established.

Amendment of the Law

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Monday 26th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Vaizey]

Without adopting the hon. Gentleman’s language—I would certainly never describe Bromley or its council as out of touch or living in the past—I accept that he makes an important point that is worth labouring. It is vital that local authorities work with broadband providers to ensure the roll-out of broadband, and we are providing the money and working with local councils. We understand why planning regulations are in place, but if they are used in a way that restricts broadband roll-out, councils will be denying their residents the opportunity to access a very important service. It is vital that local councils take a proactive approach and ask not how to apply the planning rules but how to make it as easy as possible to get broadband to as many of their residents as possible.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

Will the Minister elucidate further on the benefits to the whole of London of the roll-out of ultrafast broadband, which will happen much faster as a result of the new initiatives in the Budget?

[Mr Vaizey]

Ultrafast broadband will of course benefit London, and across the 10 cities that I mentioned, the Chancellor’s Budget means that 40,000 businesses and 200,000 households will get ultrafast broadband. London is also getting it through private sector providers, to which I will turn in a moment. It is also worth noting that Virgin Media will provide free wi-fi on the London underground during the Olympic games. Some 3 million people will be able to get access to high-speed wi-fi in the 10 best-connected cities. The Chancellor also announced in the Budget an additional £50 million, which will be available to ensure that ultrafast speeds are available to the UK’s smaller cities.

I said in reply to my hon. Friend that the private sector is doing a huge amount to speed broadband roll-out. I can announce that this week, Virgin Media, after £110 million of additional investment—investment over and above the £600 million it invests every year—will complete the upgrade of its network, so all 13 million premises covered by it, which is about half the premises in the UK, will be able to access speeds of up to 100 megabits a second. Average speeds are set to be around 40 megabits a second, which makes Virgin Media’s broadband network the fastest in the world. [Interruption.] From a sedentary position, an hon. Lady accuses Virgin Media of bribing me to say that. I am not sure she will say that outside the Chamber.

Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Friday 23rd March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Tom Blenkinsop), although he seems to have forgotten that a former Labour Chancellor made the greatest raid on pension funds ever, for which we are still paying the price.

I thoroughly approve of the Budget. Raising tax thresholds to take people out of taxation is a thoroughly Conservative way of doing things, as people have more money in their pockets to spend as they choose. One thing I would, however, like the Chancellor to consider for next year’s Budget is radically to increase the tax threshold at which people pay 40%, so that those on reasonably well-paid jobs can gain substantially as the economy improves.

I want to concentrate on the benefits of the Budget to London. The myth is often put about by people from outside London that everyone is paid huge amounts of money in London. That is not so. With the increase in the personal allowance to £9,205, an additional 97,000 people in London will be taken out of income tax altogether, and overall 3 million taxpayers in London will benefit—more than half the working population of London will get a tax cut as a result of the Budget.

The increase in the Growing Places fund, to which I referred at business questions yesterday—the additional £70 million being put in the hands of the Mayor of London—will enable Boris Johnson, over the next four years, to create 200,000 new jobs for people not currently in employment. Even more importantly, the money will enable more and more young people to get and retain work. Furthermore, an extra 7,500 new jobs will be created as a direct result of the enhanced capital allowance for the Royal Docks enterprise zone. Even better, 1,600 of the jobs will be in high-value manufacturing, which is good news for Londoners all round.

The Secretary of State for Transport has told us about the improvement to railways and suburban journeys within London. The investment plan announced in the Budget will benefit Londoners overall. Already, every London local authority has frozen council tax, which is good news for hard-pressed families, and the Mayor of London has reduced his share of the council tax. Effectively, then, every family in London has had a council tax reduction overall. That was good news when the bills were released.

There is more. London will be one of the super-connected cities. The £25 million to deliver ultra-fast broadband will benefit 774,000 residents and 121,000 businesses. That will put London at the forefront and enable it to compete with the rest of the world’s greatest cities. It means that 318,000 people will benefit directly from ultra-fast broadband and wireless connectivity, and that we will be at the very heart of generating new jobs and new prosperity for this country.

I am grateful for the £15 million that will be spent on improving safety for cyclists in London. The increase in cycling in London is welcome, but the fact that people are in danger when they cycle has to be addressed. That is a key part of the Budget.

Finally, on the benefits to London, money has been set aside for the new east London crossings—a ferry, a tunnel and possibly a bridge. I have the honour of pushing the next Transport for London Bill through the House. The Bill will enable tolls to be collected for using the ferries and tunnels. I look forward to that and to the investment that is to be made.

All in all, then, the Budget benefits London and Londoners, and brings home to everyone the importance of the choice they make on 3 May. Do they go back to the bad old days of Ken Livingstone, or do they look to the future with Boris Johnson?

Budget Leak Inquiry

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Thursday 22nd March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gauke]

I am not sure whether we are now getting complaints that we are briefing too much, or too little.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

Clearly, the most difficult job in Parliament is to respond to the Budget speech. If everything was leaked in advance, why did the Leader of the Opposition get it so spectacularly wrong?

[Mr Gauke]

There is a theory that we might have wanted to help him, but I can assure my hon. Friend that that is not the case, although I can see the argument why the Leader of the Opposition might have wanted that help.

Public Service Pensions

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Tuesday 20th December 2011 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

The hon. Gentleman is wrong in everything he says. The fact that a coalition Government of Liberal Democrats and Conservatives have been willing, through a process of painstaking negotiation, to reach agreement with the unions on difficult decisions actually strengthens the industrial relations climate in this country. We now have a good, fair foundation for the relations between the trade unions and the Government; it is a relationship not between paymaster and servant but between two organisations working together to secure the best interests of their members.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend confirm the number of trade unions that have reached agreement, and tell us what will happen to those public sector workers who are in unions that have not reached agreement? Their pensions are clearly under threat.

[Danny Alexander]

I think that there are 28 unions altogether, of which 26 have signed up to the agreement in principle, although it is fair to report that they now need to take the issues back to their members and executives. Unite has reserved its position in a number of areas, and the PCS has refused to sign up, which is deeply disappointing. In the teachers’ scheme, all the unions were present at the discussions and have agreed in principle, although four unions have asked to reserve their position pending sight of the technical annexes that will accompany the heads of agreement.

Autumn Statement

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Tuesday 29th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

From memory, I think it is going to help 100,000 people, and that is a real boost. With the other housing measures we are taking, including the support for stalled sites—the £400 million package we are providing—we hope that that is going to create several hundred thousand jobs in the construction industry over the period going forward. The 50% right-to-buy discount we are introducing revives one of the most effective social policies of the past few decades—one that the Labour leader recently had to admit had worked and that the Labour party was wrong to oppose. A crucial additional element is that we are going to use the money to build social housing, which is why I think it is a policy appropriate to the modern age.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

One of the key inflationary pressures on the cost of housing is the level of housing benefit available, which was scandalously allowed to rise out of all proportion under the previous Government. Will my right hon. Friend confirm that there will be no slackening of controls over housing benefit, so that housing costs can be controlled?

[Mr Osborne]

I can absolutely assure my hon. Friend that we are going ahead with the cap on housing benefit, which is an important part of controlling costs. It is not fair that working people pay taxes to fund the rent for people who live in houses that those working people could never afford out of their salaries. It is quite right to introduce a cap to try to control those costs. Of all the benefits provided under the previous Government, this was one that really went through the roof, so to speak. Dealing with it and controlling it is a very important policy and it is a tragedy that the Labour party opposes the measure and no doubt wants to get rid of it at the next election.

Eurozone Crisis

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Thursday 3rd November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hoban]

My hon. Friend hits the nail on the head. It is because we took that tough action and are tackling our deficit, and have a credible plan for putting our public spending back on a firm footing, that we have lower interest rates than countries with a lower deficit than ours.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

This week we have witnessed the spectacle of the Greek Prime Minister being summoned, like a naughty schoolboy, to President Sarkozy’s study for having the temerity to call a referendum in order to get the support of his people for the proposed austerity measures. Given that our deficit and debt levels are higher than Greece’s, what does my hon. Friend think would be happening if we had adopted the policies of the Opposition?

[Mr Hoban]

I think we would find that our credit rating would be under pressure, as Standard & Poor’s suggested in its report last month, and we know that when credit ratings are downgraded, the natural consequence is higher interest rates, which hits families and businesses and makes recovery harder to achieve.

Summer Adjournment

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Tuesday 19th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

I want to draw the House’s attention to increasing concern in my constituency about gang-related crime.

Let me begin by saying that the London borough of Harrow is the second safest borough in London in terms of crime. The police do a brilliant job in apprehending criminals and ensuring that they are processed through the courts and punished accordingly, and they have my huge support. The Mayor of London has increased the number of police officers available to the borough, as well as the number of police community support officers. However, there is a great fear of crime in the area, which has been exacerbated by recent events. It stems from what happened two or three years ago, when Wealdstone was essentially a no-go area after dark because of the gangs in the area. The situation culminated in the stabbing of a young man at a petrol station. I am delighted to say that the police apprehended those responsible and broke the gang, and that those responsible are now in prison, but, of course, gang membership starts at different ages.

The police cracked down in Wealdstone, and that was a tremendous success, but the gangs then moved north into Harrow Weald. A gang has terrorised the local neighbourhood there. There are recorded crimes. On Friday 24 June, nine of the gang’s members were arrested after a young man was stabbed in the street at night. Happily, the young man was not severely injured, but he was badly injured. On Sunday 3 July, there was another incident in which a young man was stabbed. The criminal involved has, we believe, been apprehended, and will be processed.

This is the tip of the iceberg, however. The gang is causing mayhem in the area. Young people on their way to and from school are frequently mugged—relieved of their money and their mobile phones—and are in fear of going about their normal business in daylight hours. We must combat that.

I ask the Minister for one simple action that we promised before the general election, and which I hope will happen. Those who are apprehended carrying knives should face a custodial sentence, regardless of their age. Even if they are under 18, we need to challenge young people and say, “Do not carry knives, because if you do so and you’re apprehended, you’ll face a custodial sentence.”

We must go further, too. We must encourage parents to make sure that young people do not join gangs in the first place, and we must offer alternatives for young people. Just yards away from where this gang is operating, there is a tremendous initiative in Harrow: a joint arrangement between Watford football club, the lottery and Harrow council to open a state-of-the-art youth centre, which will offer an excellent set of facilities for young people. My fear is that parents across Harrow may be discouraged from allowing their children to go to the youth centre because of the activities of this gang. We must take strong action to remove the gang from the streets, so that young people are given positive outcomes for their future development and positive things to do. Over the summer, I hope to see this youth centre, which I shall visit this week, start to come into operation so that we can see a more positive future.

Regulatory and Banking Reform

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Thursday 16th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hoban]

My hon. Friend makes an absolutely vital point. The failure of the financial regulatory system put in place by the Labour party when in government was hard-wired into the system. It was destined to fail because of the failure to identify a clear match between the people who had the power and those who had the responsibilities for managing financial stability. My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The previous system was destined to fail. We have learned the lessons from that crisis; I am not sure that the Labour party has.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

I welcome the statement and the announcements today. However, will my hon. Friend elucidate on the expected time frame for the setting up of the new regulatory bodies? There must be at least a risk that one or more bodies that are being abolished will take their eye off the ball while they are doing their work, and there will be a time frame before the new bodies are set up.

[Mr Hoban]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. We hope that the pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill will start shortly. It is programmed to take 12 sitting weeks. We want to make sure that the legislation progresses through this House and the other place as quickly as possible and that it is properly scrutinised. We need to make sure that we do not make mistakes in haste that we repent of at leisure. It is also important to recognise that the FSA is starting to adopt the new style of supervision that we would like to see it exercise, and that should give us some comfort that the lessons have been learned and are now being put into practice.