Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Charlie Elphicke Excerpts

Wednesday 18th March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Charlie Elphicke (Dover) (Con)]

It is a great privilege to follow the right hon. Member for Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill (Mr Clarke). My experience is sharply different from his, as I represent Dover and Deal. Before I was elected to Parliament, under the last Labour Government the number of unemployed claimants in my area went up a shameful 50%. Under this Government and their clear plan, which has been implemented and is working through, the number has fallen dramatically by nearly 40%.

The right hon. Gentleman told us about his constituency experience, but I have looked at figures indicating that the difference was even sharper there. In the previous Parliament, the number of unemployed claimants in his constituency went up by 100%. Since this Government came to power, the number has fallen by 40%. This picture does not apply only to Dover and Deal or to Coatbridge; it applies across the country. We have seen a jobs revolution, which I put down to sticking to our long-term plan.

There are now 2.3 million more people in business jobs and nearly 750,000 vacancies available at any time. It is a dramatic change from how things were. As a country, we now have a record number of people in work, a record number of job vacancies and the lowest unemployment rate since 2008. My constituents tell me that we have come a very long way, and they wonder why anyone would want to return to how things were five short years ago. That provides the key issue for the next election: do we want to return to the economic chaos of the past and the risk of a Labour Government propped up by some kind of SNP deal, or do we want to stay the course and ensure stability by continuing to work through our plan? It matters to our constituents because their jobs matter.

More than 1,000 new jobs have been created every day that this Government have been in office, and 1.9 million more people now have the self-esteem and financial security of a pay packet. I think that matters to people—having that sense of stability and personal security. This is a jobs-led recovery that has done nothing short of transform people’s lives for the better on a daily basis. We are getting people into full-time work, and we are making work pay.

Let me spend a few minutes looking at the things people say when they rubbish the achievements of this Government. Let us start with zero-hours contracts and remember that the previous Government had 13 years to act on them. In fact, they brought forward some form of White Paper back in 1998, and then spent the rest of their time in office doing nothing whatever about them. That was shameful.

It is also shameful that Labour Members talk about how many people are on zero-hours contracts when they know that it is only 2.3% of those in employment—just one job in every 50. Over 80% of part-timers choose to be on these kinds of contracts because they suit them. Indeed, this Government have reformed zero-hours contracts to get rid of the exclusivity clause, so they should now be called flexible work contracts, which better describes them. They can no longer be used to exploit people in a way that the previous Government were unwilling to do anything about. In addition, we all know that the Office for National Statistics has directly rebuked the Labour party for making misleading claims about these flexible work contracts. I am proud that the Government have reformed zero-hours contract to make them fairer and to end the exploitation that the last Government allowed to take place.

Labour says, “These are all part-time jobs, and no one can get a full-time job.” In fact, more than three quarters of all the jobs that have been created since the election are full time. The number of full-time jobs has increased by 1.42 million since 2010, and the 481,000 on- year increase has accounted for 95% of the rise in employment over the past year. I think that that is dramatic. I think that it is a jobs revolution.

Labour says, “Oh, that is a London recovery”, ignoring the fact that nearly three quarters of the rise in employment since 2010 has taken place outside London. Every region has seen a fall in unemployment in the past year. Labour says, “Young people cannot get a job, and youth unemployment has gone through the roof.” In fact, youth unemployment has fallen by 181,000 in the past year. Excluding those in full-time education, there are now fewer than half a million unemployed young people, and the number of young people claiming jobseeker’s allowance is the lowest since the 1970s.

Labour says, “Wages are terrible, and all the new jobs are rubbish. They are all manual, unskilled jobs like shelf-stacking, and no one wants them.” That is not true either. Since 2010, two thirds of the rise in employment has been in higher-skilled occupations, and there has been a real-terms rise in pay in the past year. Regular pay for employees is up by 1.6% on year, and total pay is up by 1.8%. Over the same period, the annual inflation rate was 0.3%.

Then Labour say, “Women cannot get jobs.” In fact, a record number of women—14.48 million—are in work, and the female employment rate is at a record high of more than 68%. Moreover, the pay gap between men and women has been all but eliminated among those under 40. I think that that is a tremendous record of achievement.

The final lie that I want to nail is that long-term unemployment is increasing and the Government have been fiddling the figures. Actually, the Government have un-fiddled the figures. Labour used to fiddle them by sending people on courses when they had been jobless for two years, and then treating them as new claimants when they finished their courses and went back to claiming jobseeker’s allowance. This Government ended that abuse and un-fiddled the figures, but long-term unemployment has nevertheless fallen by 202,000—24%—in the last year, to 629,000, and the number of people claiming jobseeker’s allowance over the past 12 months has fallen by 11% since the last election.

Much has been done, but there is much more to be done.

--- Later in debate ---

[Sir Peter Bottomley (Worthing West) (Con)]

We have a national health service we can be proud of; we have a national health service that we have protected; and we have a national health service that will get proper funding.

Last evening, having done a fair day’s work, I found I had about 100 e-mails from 38 Degrees, which had saved them up from my constituents then dumped them in my inbox because of a technical problem. They all asked the same question. On behalf of hon. Members on both sides of the House, I should be grateful if 38 Degrees wrote to MPs and got us to reply. It could then circulate our answers to all on its mailing list.

I invite 38 Degrees to ask its members whether they would like to provide their e-mail addresses to MPs so we can do that. It would make life much easier for our staff, who, from within that blizzard of e-mails, have to find the individual requests from constituents who have heart-rending problems and who need instant attention. Too often they will be overlooked because we are dealing with the blizzard of e-mails that 38 Degrees and others send.

Incidentally, I challenge 38 Degrees to put back on its Wikipedia entry the Labour activism of some of its founders. Accurate information was wiped off pretty quickly.

[Charlie Elphicke]

Oh! Falsifying Wikipedia. Shameful.

[Sir Peter Bottomley]

It was not falsifying. It was just taking things out that ought to remain. There is a record in the trail.

There are many things in the Budget on which hon. Members on both sides of the House can agree. Some measures could go further in future Budgets. I welcome the suggestion that farmers should be able to average their income over a number of years, but the same problem applies to a number of people in small businesses. A lot of people in small businesses work very hard for very long hours for very many years. They often do not make many profits. Sometimes they have good years and sometimes their business becomes worth a bit and they can sell it. The taxation arrangements are not easy for all of them—they are better for those receiving entrepreneurial relief. For other businesses, if people get a lump sum in one year, they should be able to spread it across a number of years, as under the provision for farmers.

I spend much time serving with hon. Members from both sides of the House on the High Speed Rail (London - West Midlands) Bill Select Committee. A number of farmers, business people and local residents come to see us. My admiration for people in business, whether on the land or in offices or factories, has gone up a great deal. I am very impressed by the quiet way in which people get on with their lives and come to Parliament to petition when their interests are affected.

Some cannot easily come to Parliament. I say this to those on the Treasury Bench: whatever the reasons of money, I do not intend to tolerate for much longer the fact that half the pensioners in this country who retire overseas get inflation increases and the other half do not. The Government say that there is no money, but we are getting out of austerity and into prosperity. The background is chance. We did not have agreements with some of the Commonwealth countries—the old dominions —but we did with other foreign countries, and the EU requires us to treat EU citizens the same.

It is frankly wrong that someone who has worked in this country and retires overseas should be treated differently on different islands in the Caribbean, in Canada, in the United States of America, in South Africa and other African countries and so on around the world. It is one of those things that is just wrong.

The Chancellor made a number of good jokes, some of which had tax prices attached to them. He said he wanted a review of the variation of wills. If that provision is taken away, a lot of ordinary people will find that they have to revise their wills several times over a decade. Most of us do not know when we are going to die. Being able to vary the beneficiaries of a will is important. People do it not just for tax reduction, but because it allows them to take account of changing circumstances. We have all heard examples of people who have made wills that were right 10 years ago, but that are not right 10 years later. If a variation can be agreed, it is a sensible way to do sensible things. It is not just about reducing tax.

Arguing that the lifetime pensions allowance should be reduced to £1 million is one thing. Someone who has a pension entitlement with a capital sum behind it of £1 million is lucky compared with many, but it begins to look a bit tight for those savers who are reasonably successful in their earnings. I remember once prison visiting with a retired newspaper editor. He said to me, “Tell me about MPs’ pensions.” I did, and said, “What about you?” He said: “When I retired as a newspaper editor, I had a pension pot of £10 million with a pension of £1 million a year.” I said: “Some people have all the luck. And you accuse us of having our noses in the trough.”

I say to the Government that there are some areas where money should not be restricted too much. On housing, we clearly have to improve leasehold, which requires civil servants in the Department for Communities and Local Government to watch what happens. We also need to bring in commonhold properly and make sure that resources are such that managing agents and freeholders do not get away with abusing leaseholders. I am not saying that they all do that, but it happens too often.

Finally, a number of people aged 19 are still doing A-level-type courses in further education and sixth-form colleges. The funding arrangements are becoming too tight for them, so I ask the relevant Departments—the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Treasury—to ask themselves whether that is really their intention. They need to remember that they should not treat young people like racehorses by using their birthday as a rigid time to calculate how much money to spend on them. They all matter to us and I know that Members on both sides of the House care about that.