Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of targeted employer National Insurance contributions relief in supporting youth employment.
Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General
The Government recognises the important role that employers play in providing young people with their first step into work. Businesses can therefore claim employer National Insurance contributions reliefs for employees under 21 and apprentices under 25, meaning no employer NICs are paid on their earnings up to £50,270.
HMRC published an evaluation of these measures in October 2023. It found that they reduce employment costs for employers and identified some evidence of a positive impact on youth employment, while noting that recruitment decisions are influenced by wider factors.
The Government has also announced £2.5 billion of investment in the Youth Guarantee and the Growth and Skills Levy over the next three years, supporting almost one million young people and helping to deliver up to 500,000 opportunities to earn or learn.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the fiscal effectiveness of land value taxation mechanisms in disincentivising the holding of undeveloped commercial sites.
Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General
The Chancellor takes decisions on tax at fiscal events and does not routinely comment on proposals.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of extending official fiscal forecast horizons beyond five years on long-term capital investment planning.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The government updated the Charter for Budget Responsibility in 2024 to require that where capital investment, or other new policies, may have material impacts beyond the forecast horizon, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) should, where appropriate and subject to receiving sufficient information from the Treasury to do so, analyse and report on these at the relevant forecast. The OBR estimates that the combined supply-side effects of policy announced across the Parliament will raise the level of GDP by over 0.6% after 10 years.
The government has taken a long-term approach to capital investment in the 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy, published in 2025. The Strategy set out the UK government’s long-term plan to provide greater certainty for infrastructure investment to support growth, resilience and high-quality public services.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to protect public sector net investment allocations from short-term spending adjustments during fiscal consolidations.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Government’s new investment fiscal rule has supported a sustained increase in investment while maintaining sound public finances. This change has enabled over £120 billion of additional capital investment over the Parliament compared with previous plans. At Spending Review 2025, the Government also set departmental budgets for capital investment to 2029-30, giving departments greater certainty to plan effectively, secure value for money and deliver long-term projects and public services successfully.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the structural alignment between his Department's budgeting frameworks and the delivery goals of the Modern Industrial Strategy.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Modern Industrial Strategy is the Government’s long-term framework to increase business investment, unlock productivity growth, support high-quality jobs and drive economic growth across the UK.
The 2025 Spending Review allocated multiyear resource and capital budgets to align with the Government’s growth priorities. For instance, the Industrial Strategy is underpinned by billions of public investment in innovation and access to finance, including public R&D funding rising to £22.6bn by 2029-30, an increase in British Business Bank capacity to £25.6bn, targeted support for priority sectors including advanced manufacturing with £4bn and £2.3bn provided over ten years for Drive 35 and the Aerospace Technology Institute, respectively, and a £400m UK Defence Innovation programme.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of allowing the National Wealth Fund to issue independent debt instruments.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with HM Treasury)
The National Wealth Fund (NWF) currently has £27.8bn of financial capacity and is focused on deploying this existing capitalisation.
There are no current plans to allow the National Wealth Fund to issue independent debt instruments. Once the NWF exhausts its existing financial capacity, HM Treasury will assess the most value-for-money approach for further capitalising the NWF.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to increase HMRC compliance and enforcement capacity regarding ultra-high-net-worth individual tax liabilities.
Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General
HMRC’s compliance approach focuses on preventing non-compliance, promoting good compliance and responding to those who choose not to pay what they legally owe, including wealthy individuals. HMRC is increasing activity to tackle offshore tax evasion, including that carried out by the wealthy. This includes recruiting and redeploying 400 additional staff by 2030 to tackle wealthy offshore non-compliance.
As part of that commitment, in 2025-2026 HMRC recruited and redeployed over 200 staff across compliance teams to manage the risk. That includes 20 external experts with specific commercial or sectoral knowledge. The majority of these have been placed in the Complex Cross Tax and Offshore team (CCTO). The team takes a holistic view of wealthy individuals and their structures, targeting cross-tax risks among customers with the highest wealth, risk and complexity.
HMRC has also allocated a Customer Compliance Manager (CCM) to every billionaire with a UK tax footprint over the summer. CCMs are allocated to customers according to wealth, complexity and risk.
For more information, visit HMRC Transformation Roadmap: update 2026 - GOV.UK. HMRC will also publish its plan for tackling wealthy non-compliance by the end of 2026.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of expanding local business rates retention flexibilities for non-devolved local authorities.
Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General
The Government’s vision for devolution in England was set out in the joint cabinet statement, ‘Rewiring the state’ published in July. This committed to greater retention of business rates revenue for both strategic authorities and local councils. The long-term certainty of funding via taxation will provide more flexibility and enable greater investment to fund interventions that will deliver a return. The Government will consider how these growth incentives can be balanced with the need for fairness between places, recognising that there will be different starting points across the country.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of Capital Gains Tax annual exempt allowance tapers on private equity investment in early-stage businesses.
Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General
The government sets out the impacts of specific policies in the Tax Impact and Information Notes which are published alongside tax policy changes at each Budget.
The TIIN for the exempt amount changes is set out here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reducing-the-annual-exempt-amount-for-capital-gains-tax
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of Public Works Loan Board borrowing rates on the capital investment capacity of locally led development corporations.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Public Works Loan Board lending facility provides cost-effective lending to local authorities to support local investment and service delivery. Locally-led development corporations cannot directly access lending from the PWLB though local authorities may on-lend to them. Locally-led development corporations must ensure that borrowing is prudent, affordable and sustainable, including that interest costs can be managed, under the oversight of the local authority.